Do you dream of being a (better) dog trainer?

Have you ever watched a trainer handling your dog for a demonstration, and been amazed at how quickly your genius pup mastered the new skill?

And then felt the crushing disappointment when it doesn’t work like that for you? (I am perhaps exaggerating just a little!)

A really good trainer would come over and talk you through each tiny step, adjusting your hand position, treat delivery, posture – suddenly it’s working just like magic for you too.

Are you that fantastic trainer? Do you have the skills to help a regular dog owner to train just like a professional?

Or do you long to be able to work that magic on both the humans and the dogs?

If you’d like to be better at training dogs AND coaching other humans, then I’d recommend you start doing that most terrifying of things – filming your own training sessions and watching them back.

Every single “behaviour” you train is made up of many tiny steps.

The art is in knowing how to break the big behaviour (e.g. settle) into manageable chunks – for the human as much as for the dog!

Last night we were working on settle in one of our Puppy Foundation classes. The instructions to get the puppy into position might seem simple enough:

• When your puppy is already sitting, take a tasty soft treat between thumb and forefinger
• Pop the treat right under your puppy’s nose, and slowly take it towards the ground
• Watch for puppy’s head bending forward AND bum staying on the ground = give the treat
• Repeat and let puppy nibble the treat on the way down so long as bum on ground
• Bum comes up = treat vanishes and start again

But there’s a million subtleties in where you place your hand, do you draw your treat straight down or slightly back into the puppy’s chest, not to mention do you let them nibble half way or hold out for the full belly on the ground moment…

It’s not actually that easy to do unless you have lots of practice. And it’s even harder to do with a new dog rather than one you’ve lived with or trained for a while.

So – get out and film your own training because it will help you see the details of every exercise and movement.

And if you want to be better at training dogs, and you’re interested in coaching owners more effectively come along to Dog Training Fundamentals in York (29^th & 30^th September).

We have just 4 spaces left on this two day course. We’re going back to the basics of great dog training to make sure your mechanical skills are spot on AND that you can coach complete strangers into being super effective dog trainers. http://www.wellconnectedcanine.co.uk/events/dog-training-fundamentals/
Happy Training!
Morag and the Beasts

What else is going on in WCC Land?

Canine First Aid – An Introduction with Antonia Parkin RVN
Tuesday 25^th September, 7pm, University of York (Heslington East Campus)
Free parking on campus, and there will be plenty of coffee and cake for you.

Weekly classes start in October
If you’re local to York, don’t forget to check out the Winter training schedule. We only have spaces in Helpful Hounds (Mondays), Canicross (Tuesdays) and Canine Sports Conditioning (Wednesdays), all other classes are now full!

Webinars for Canine Professionals
You’ve just got time to sign up for the next in the Love Your Business series of webinars for canine professionals. This Thursday we’ll be talking about setting boundaries, saving your sanity and the all important waiting list…