Mistakes

Common Mistakes People Make When Training Their Dog

Many people opt to train their dog themselves, pretty much the majority of people I meet. About 99% of them unfortunately run into problems and make training mistakes that can affect training dramatically. Those are:

• Freedom - People give their new dog WAY too much freedom too soon. When you give your dog all this off leash freedom outside without knowing a solid 100% recall, you are setting yourself and your dog up to FAIL. Your dog will learn that running around like a crazed maniac not listening to you is a great thing and will consistently do this. This makes off leash training incredibly harder then starting off on the right paw.
• Expectations - Many people expect their new pup or rescue to know not to go to the bathroom in the house, they should just know. Dogs have absolutely no idea where to go, it doesn't come pre-programmed in their brain, we must show them much like a child when they're potty training you have to highly reinforce and manage them by taking them to the potty every X amount of time.
• Stress - This is probably much too common. People keep putting their dog in stressful situations which in turn puts stress on a dog, what does stress do to a dog? Turns into aggressive behaviour. When your dog is failing in situations with other dogs (getting into little fights, growling, snarling) at anytime, even if it's a little growl, your dog is stressed out and you need to take the dog away from the situation and evaluate WHY he or she is stressed.
• Corrections - I've said this before and will continue to say it. Corrections do not work, we lack the precision and appropriate pressure to apply to make a correction effective. Many people correct to subtle (where the dog felt it, stopped for a moment and went back) this way you're desensitizing your dog to whatever correction and abusing your dog cause you will have to hit, pop, poke, jab your dog more often. Others correct too hard and the dog becomes terrified of you and the surroundings it was corrected in, if this happens you usually get an aggressive dog. It is very hard to implement the proper correction to the proper dog, some dogs cannot take corrections and will physically and mentally shut down from stress.
• Repeating- People repeat a command over and over "sit, sit,sit,sit,sit." If you start on this repetitive path, you are going to be stuck stay "sit" five times before your dog sits. The rule is: when learning a new behaviour such as sit, ask the dog ONCE, if the dog does not comply WAIT 3-5 seconds and ask again.
• Asking too much too soon - Don't expect your dog to be well behaved in a situation where he or she has never encountered before. Example: Bringing your dog to a 1.5 hour walk with friends when your dog can only walk 15 minutes on a loose leash before he starts pulling. What is going to happen here? The dog will end up pulling on the leash after 15 mins and you end up getting frustrated because you're too busy chatting and don't want to train the dog in this new environment. End result = FAILURE and steps back in loose leash walking.
• Follow through - When you ask your dog for a sit and they decide to go down, don't just go "whatever, good enough" make sure you go, "hey, hey, sit" and coax them up into a sit. Always make sure to follow through with the command given because if you allow the dog to decide sit means down, every time you need a sit the dog will down.This applies to all training commands and real life commands.
• Lost opportunities - Don't always make training sessions to show your dog what you like. If you're out on a walk and your dog meets a young child and doesn't jump up, highly reward! This is why I always like to carry some treats on walks and outings -you never know when a GREAT opportunity will strike! If you don't have treats, praise and get excited, maybe play a chase game.

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Games

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Dealing With Scared/Spooked Dogs

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Rebound Trick

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Separation Anxiety

Dogs are very social animals that naturally do not like to be left alone, this can be troublesome for us humans.

We have to work (well most of us) or we have a life (most of us) and sometimes our lives don't revolve around the dog, we need time away. But what happens when that time away becomes a pain in the butt? Sometimes we start to regret getting the dog in the first place if you knew this would happen, we get frustrated because you can't just waive a wand and have your dog be okay with you leaving and fights can start between a family.

When working with any rescue dog, this is one of the main problems I run into, reason being: dogs that have been abandoned by their owners, then switched to a new environment with new people, then again and again. Some rescues are passed around 7 or 8 times before finding a forever home. No wonder they have separation anxiety! Everytime they possibly became comfortable, they were thrown to the next person and so on. Unfortunately it is sometimes unavoidable and dogs are passed from person to person and the side effects on the dogs' emotional state can be catastrophic for him or her resulting in euthanasia.

Separation Anxiety can be caused by the following

• Traumatic events in a young dog's life may also increase the likelihood of the development of very strong attachments. These events include; early separation from the mother dog, deprivation of attachment early in life (puppies kept in pet shops or animal shelters), a sudden change of environment (new home, stay at a kennel), a change in owner's lifestyle which results in a sudden end to constant contact with the animal, a long-term or permanent absence of a family member.

Preventative Training

Puppies - Training should be started the day you get your puppy to ensure the dog is conditioned to being left alone and it's not all that bad, the owner always comes back.

TAKE TIME OFF WORK when you get your puppy or rescue. This I can't stress enough, so many people get a puppy then leave it alone at home for 8-10 hours the next day and then for the entire week.

Think about it from the pups perspective; was taken away from it's home with his or her littermates, driven in a weird car then put in a new environment, fell asleep, woke up and saw a couple people then everybody left and the pup is in a brand new place, scared and no one around, what happens.....he panics and the cycle begins.

Week 1

• Do not leave your puppy alone longer then 4 hours at a time -this should be until he's 4 months old, then you can slowly start increasing time 1 hour per month. (6 months = 6 hours) Maximum a dog should be left alone for is 7-8 hours without access to outside for bathroom break.
• Condition the dog to you leaving - place a KONG filled with goodies on the ground and walk out the door for a moment and come back in. If the pup is eating the KONG walk out again for a minute and come back in. Repeat increasing the time slowly. By the end of the week you should be able to leave the pup alone for 4 hours without a peep.

Week 2

• Tire your pup out before planning to leave. Go for a short walk or play a game until the pup is looking tired. Then give him a KONG filled with yummy stuff and leave for a couple minutes, come back in to check how he or she is doing, if they're fine, leave for good this time.

After week 2 your dog should be well adjusted into his or her new home and comfortable being left alone.

Adopted - If you have a rescue, you need to #1 determine if the dog has any separation issues. 

Testing for separation anxiety : This can be done by leaving the dog alone for 15 mins (after you've let the dog settle in for a day or two), leave as you normally would, grab your keys and coat and walk out the door, lock it and move out of sight and BE QUIET. (If you have a camera, place it filming the door or living space where you left the dog). If the dog barks, ignore him or her take note of how long the barking continues for, go back in after 15 minutes as long as the dog is NOT barking, howling, whining, scratching ect. If the dog doesn't stop, call the house (this should interrupt the behaviour) then walk in Next is to figure out a treatment plan with your local Dog Behaviourist or Dog Behaviour Consultant.
If the dog is fine, follow the same preventative treatment for puppies.

Training

This involves slow systematic desensitization, changing the emotional reponse of your dog when you leave, which takes time. Separation anxiety, realistically is very hard to treat because not everybody has the time or freedom from work needed to successfully treat it.

However there are options if you have a busy schedule.
1) Hire a dog walker or friend to come by during the day and follow the same training protocol when they leave. (this helps your dog have 2 or more chances to learn that when someone leaves, they don't leave for a long period of time).
2) Bring your dog to a reputable doggy daycare for the days you can't train with your dog

When you manage the problem (doggy daycare, dog walker) paired with training (systematic desensitization - leaving at short periods at a time) separation anxiety can be quite treatable.

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Vote For Luna

Click on the link below to vote for LUNA to be the next Fido dog! Thanks!

http://www.fidocastingcall.ca/dogs/6743

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Tricks & Behaviour Modification

When Tricks Can Be Helpful During Behavioural Therapy

When it comes to learning that your dog has a behavioural problem, most people get pretty upset at their dog, themselves or both. Usually people think one or more of the following:

A) their dog is out to get them (dominate them to take their 'alpha' role in the pack) - I love how people think dogs are these incredibly smart master minds that are power hungry, but really they're not that intelligent nor out to seek power from humans.
B) play the blame game - blame it on anything that is relevant in your dogs life (breed, spouse, friends, other dogs, environment ect)
C) think you are the reason for your dogs problems - you messed up somewhere along the way

Usually it's a mixture of all three. We over complicate our dogs, dogs are simple creatures that are in a alien world so sometimes the communication between human and dog gets lost in translation. Mainly because humans have a completely different communication system then our four legged furry friends.

How are tricks and behavioural modification alike?

When you think of teaching your dog a trick, what's involved, what do YOU need to do to get that final result?

1. Patience

2. Something to motivate your dog to initially perform the desired behaviour
3. For you -A basic understanding of how to teach the trick, you can't teach a dog something if you don't know what you're teaching.
4. Time

When you think of behavioural therapy, what's involved, what do YOU need to do to get that final result?

1. Patience

2. Something to motivate your dog to listen to the handler and perform a desired behaviour that we need.
3. For you -A basic understanding how your dog should react in the problem situation at hand, such as not reacting on leash to another dog while on a walk, you can't teach this to a dog unless you know how to.
4. Time
5. Management in some cases

If people had the same thoughts on behavioural therapy as they do with tricks, many complex problems could be avoided

Example:
PROBLEM AT HAND: Dog reacts to other dogs while out for a walk (on-leash reactivity)

Think of the trick (final goal) as having the dog walk by another dog without any reaction. You would first write out a program/plan of a behaviour chain (many different goal behaviours paired together to give us the final product) example of a bang "you're dead" trick : You need a 3 goal behaviour chain to produce the final result.

1. Have your dog sit pretty (Stick em up)
2. Have your dog lay down (Fall down to play dead)
3. Have your dog roll on his side (To play dead)
Final result - play them all together and you have "bang you're dead" trick, eventually you just need to start the trick and the dog will finish it by herself because it has become muscle memory.

So for the problem behaviour (on leash reactivity) you will need a 3 goal behaviour chain to produce the final result.
1. Teach the dog a leave it cue ( to be able to get your dogs attention in a high arousal state)
2. Teach the dog a "watch me" (look at the handler)
3. Teach your dog the "lets go" command (keep walking)
Final result - play them all together everytime you see a dog on your walk and eventually your dog will know the drill and offer it without commands given because it has become muscle memory.

Always remembering that your dog isn't out to get you, believe me, there have been absolutely no evidence that dogs are out to rule the world starting with their families. And that dog's will always do what is most reinforcing to THEM.

If your dog has a serious behavioural problem, don't try to fix it on your own if you don't know what you're doing, you could end up with a more complex problem on your hands that will take more time to fix.

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Lilly - Such A Sweet Girl Misses Her Foster Mum Quietly

This is Lilly, a dog at A Better Life Rescue. She was just moved to a new foster home and misses her temporary foster mum and is quietly vocalizing it.

This sweet sad girl was rescued from a California Kill Shelter, her scars and teeth indicate that she may have been a bait dog for fighting but this girls temperament is one of the most sweet I've ever met. She's incredibly smart, inquisitive yet still a little fearful of city sounds and sights.

You can visit her page to adopt her here http://www.abetterlifedogrescue.com/?p=1532

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C.L.A.S.S. Programs NOW HERE!

My Dog Has C.L.A.S.S (canine life and social skills) Programs

C.L.A.S.S is a 6 session program focused on the use of positive reinforcement and to strengthen the relationship between owner and dog. The three levels of the program are named after human degrees , B.A. for dogs (bachelors level), M.A. for dogs (Masters level) and Ph.D for dogs (Doctorate level). The skills in each level vary in difficulty and distractions and are taught by Kris Crestejo, certified dog trainer and certified evaluator of C.L.A.S.S.

B.A. Level - 6 sessions $189.00 (including evaluation)
Wait at door, come and leashing up manners, give and take, stay, settle,leave it, loose leash walking with 2 sec attention, calm meet and greet and wait for food bowl.

M.A. Level - 6 sessions $189.00 (including evaluation)
Wait in car, pass by other dogs, wait at door, come and leashing up manners, sit ,down and stand, loose leash walking with leave it and stay.

Ph.D. Level - 6 sessions $189.00 (including evaluation)
Loose leash walking 15 ft and entering a door, back up, stay, come and leashing up manners, meet and greet, attention, table manners, do you really know sit (student asking the dog to sit in different positions)

Evaluations can be taken without the program and a certificate issued by APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) with the cost of $5.00 for shipping and handling and to register your dog.

Cost for just a evaluation is $50 + tax But make sure your dog is prepared if you feel he or she can pass a level.

Take a look at the student handbook here http://www.mydoghasclass.com/docs/student/student_handbook.pdf

View Evaluations here, for B.A. Level : http://www.mydoghasclass.com/about/exams/ba/

For more information contact Kris @ ModernCanineTraining@Gmail.com or
(604) 866-8999

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Differentiate Toys

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Target Cue

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Touch Cue

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Leave It Command

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Impulse Control Game

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Stressors in Dogs

This topic is a very important one for dog owners because I find that owners, majority of the time, have NO idea when their dog is becoming stressed out.

What is a stressor?
A stressor is a moment where the dog is becoming uneasy about a situation. A stressor can also be known as a trigger.

For mild dog-aggression cases, stressors usually include the following:

• tags on collars (noise they make)


• certain environments if the dog has had neg. encounters with other dogs


• being in the vicinity of certain breeds if the dog has had neg. encounters with


• dog being overly tired


• dog being hungry


• dog being hot


• THESE YOU WILL MOST ALWAYS SEE WITH AGGRESSION CASES - aversive training tools -prong collars, shock collars, choke collars, leash corrections, yelling, screaming, alpha roles ect. if previously used for training.

This small list is just some of the stressors dogs can have, every dog has a different stressor for what ever the problem may be. The best thing you can do as a caring owner is, take the time to understand your dogs body language. On your walks, WATCH your dog sniff, walk, play and soon you will be able to read your dogs language and not put your dog into stressful situations where he or she is most likely to react and learn a new bad behaviour.

Here is a great video on communication with dogs

Watch the full episode. See more Through a Dogs Eyes.

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Differentiating Toys

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Shaping a Frisbee Trick!

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Look At Me While Walking

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Twirl & Through Trick - How-to Video

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Raw Food Diet

To Go Raw Or Not To

There is a lot of debate on whether feeding your dog raw food (BARF) is healthy or not, whether the dog can contract salmonella or other parasites. In my experience, as long as your dog is healthy (no underlying conditions) the raw diet is GREAT! I, however, do not feed raw every day because it is very costly so I feed her a raw meal once a week and raw bones (beef knuckles) once a week as well to keep her teeth nice and white because the last thing I want is to deal with dental bills at the age of 5.

Here is a list of vegetables you can put in your raw meal:

• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Kale
• Green/Red leaf lettuce
• Parsley
• Beets
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Pears
• Yams/Sweet/Russet/Yukon potato's
• Spinach

List of Meats you can put in:

• Chicken
• Beef
• Buffalo
• Deer
• Rabbit
• Moose
• Chicken Eggs (just the yolk)

STEP 1 - The Veggies
Chop/grind all your veggies together ( I find the smaller the better, otherwise they can pick through and get the better meaty pieces)

I've used, carrots, spinach, parsley, apples, pears, half cooked yam's & potato's and kale in this recipe but I have made many batches with beets too (it stains everything!) and blue berries if they're in season.

Step 2 - The Meat
I used a 2kg inside round beef cut, chicken backs and necks and chicken bone meal.

Usually I add an organ meat but my butcher didn't have any fresh this time so I've opted to continue without any. 

Cut as much of the fat off from the cut of beef, DON'T THROW IT OUT dog;'s LOVE the fatty parts, I just cut it up into 1 inch pieces and throw them in at the end (gives a little meaty chunk every now and again).

This should leave you with beef that has little fat in it so you can grind it up! Throw this into grinder or food processor if it can handle it and chop away!

(here is the beef meat all ground up and into the mixing bowl)

Add all the fat chunks back in the bowl

Step 3 - Bones

Add the chicken bone meal (you can find this at most butcher shops) this is chicken bones ground up with chicken meat and very inexpensive to purchase.

• Take your chicken backs and necks and cut them into 3 inch pieces (for easy packing).

So here is what everything should look like

                                       

Step 4 -MIX IT ALL TOGETHER

leaving out the cut up chicken backs and necks

       

Step 5 - Packaging

Grab the scale!

• You should be feeding your dog 1%-2% of his or her body weight per day
• 1 lb equals 450g

I pack everything in a sandwich bag adding in 1-2 pieces of chicken back in with every bag, weigh it out and zip it up, flatten it and freeze it. When you flatten it, this makes for quicker defrosting.

To defrost, just put in the fridge the night before

ENJOY! Your dog will LOVE it!

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Go Hide Trick

Remember to follow me!

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Dealing With Aggression In Dogs

HUGE topic and ALOT to cover, I hope I address everything I want to without getting side tracked or blabbing too much about stuff.

When you narrow it down, most aggression cases are fear based.

• Resource Guarding - afraid that their high value object will be taken away from them.
• Territorial - afraid they will lose their territory/space that is high value to them.
• Human Aggression - they perceive the person(s) as a threat to themselves, usually dog warnings go unnoticed by us humans and then get a secondary warning (bite).

How to avoid aggression problems? There are many ways #1 being don't correct/punish your dog! This sounds very bad from a owners perspective, as I'm sure you want to let the dog know that the kind of behaviour he or she just exhibited was unacceptable.BUT, did you think of WHY you dog even needed to show that behaviour?

Example :

Past client of mine has a dog that is extremely dog-dog aggressive, cannot even SEE a dog in a distance without lunging and pulling you down the road to attack the dog. After speaking with the client, the man continues to tell me that it started out of nowhere and has been progressively getting worse for the past year. I keep trying to get some sort of answer out of him, I was looking for the dog's trigger or the event that started the dog's thought process on this track. Finally, the man's son speaks up and tells me that the dog was attacked out of nowhere by a neighbors dog just over a year ago, BINGO! So now I knew WHY he reacts aggressively towards dogs. I also find out that when the dog was just growling they would smack it over the snout to tell him not to do that, so now this dog has lost his 1st warning to other dogs (growl) that he is scared, what is the secondary warning.....a bite. 

The owners also have yelled and screamed and leash corrected the dog numerous of times when the dog got in a dog fight (as they were told their dog is dominant and needed to be shown who's the boss), so now this poor dog has learned that when he's near dogs BAD BAD things happen, so OF COURSE he's aggressive, he doesn't know what else to do. His mind is telling him, Dogs = bad, well he see's a dog and he wants them to go away so he charges at them and fights.

So now we have a dog that has learned aggression with fear aggression, also this dog was under exercised (100 lb dog out for 10 min walks at 11pm at night, no other exercise throughout the day). 

So this dog as you can see was showing aggression due to a number of things: No exercise, corrections near/around dogs, lack of obedience and most importantly what started it, a traumatic event for the dog. Not to mention the stress that this dog was carrying, wow.

So HOW do you FIX an aggressive dog? 

(do not attempt this without professional help as you can endanger other dogs and/or people)

Change the dog's thought process, much like cognitive behavioural therapy in humans. You need to expose the dog to the stimulus/trigger in a gradual period of time, always making sure the dog is having a POSITIVE experience during therapy. If you push that dog over his or her threshold you are taking steps back with training. If the dog is constantly barking or growling, he or she is LEARNING from this.
By no means am I saying, "get out there and throw your dog by a bunch of strange dogs" this would be just utter chaos and stressful for both you and your dog.
Find a behavioiurist or trainer in your area. Make sure if you're working with a trainer that they have,

1. Experience working with aggression cases
2. Use ONLY positive reinforcement (no shock collars, choke chains, reprimand, intimidation ect) ASK!
3. Is comfortable working with your dog (some trainers won't work with certain breeds)  

Ask questions about what goes on during a rehabilitation  and keep asking them! A good trainer will ALWAYS answer your questions without a price.

With professional help you can overcome your dog's problems in less then 1/2 the time trying to do it yourself.

** Be careful about searching for information on forums and chats, a lot of those people are just dog owners looking for answers themselves and are not qualified to give you a solution over the internet. **

Aggression CANNOT be fixed over the internet or phone!

A great DVD to help understand Aggression is Behaviour Adjustment Training by Grisha Stewart
You can find this at Dog Wise Website : http://www.dogwise.com/

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Fun video of some tricks

Just Luna doing some of her favorite tricks on a nice Spring Day!

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Treibball Class Start Dates

Finally I am able to start my classes! Here is all the info, please contact me ModernCanineTraining@Gmail.com or (604) 866-8999 to register or if you have any questions.

GREEN - NOVICE LEVEL (5 Classes) $69.00 +hst

FULL:Monday @ 7-8pm starting June 6, 2011
AVAIL:Tuesday @ 6-7pm starting June 21, 2011
Here we go over the foundation training of Treibball

Pre-requisites: Basic Obedience, Dog must NOT be aggressive towards other dogs or people

Limited 3 dogs per class

PURPLE - ADVANCED LEVEL 

(4 Sessions) $97.00 + hst

FULL:Saturday  from 1-3pm every second week ( Sessions bought in groups of 4). 

In the advanced level we work on the dog's speed and drive, I will be helping any spot problems that each dog may be having trouble with as well.

Pre-requisites: Novice Level Treibball, Dog must NOT be aggressive towards other dogs or people

Limited 4 dogs per class

CLASSES ARE HELD OUTDOORS IN THE CLAYTON HEIGHTS AREA (184 + 72)

I can't wait to get started! So far Treibball is growing at a FAST speed here in the Fraser Valley

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Domination & Wolves

This I think is a real problem with a lot of dog's problems today. People are being mislead that their dogs are wolves and that if a dog does something you don't like the dog is automatically classified as dominant. This is very far from the truth, your dog is NOT a wolf and your dog most likely is NOT dominant.

Dominance In Dogs
So to start off, what does dominant mean? Dictionary term:

• Exercising the most influence or control
• Most prominent, as in position; ascendant

Dog's can most definitely have a more dominant (strong) personality, some will always push the boundaries and see what they can get away with, as dog's do what is most rewarding to them. But to label a dog dominant is very rare as you will find many animal behaviourists and good trainers will agree. Dominance has been a popular term amongst trainers and dog owners because it's easier to blame the dog for misbehaving then telling the owner that their training is failing. 

Wolves And Pack Mentality

Another misconception is that your dog is a wolf- FALSE, your dog is a dog (canid lupus familiaris).

Would you call your cat a lion?

Watch the full episode. See more Through a Dogs Eyes.

Yes - Dogs have similar behaviours as wolves such as greetings to one another, warnings ect. but cats have similar behaviours to lions (purring, nudging ect) you wouldn't call your cat a lion now would you?
The first "tail waggers" were likely derived from the asian grey wolf, though the evidence for this is speculative at best, for certain breeds in fact, trace their ancestry to Egypt and Mesopotamia (e.g. greyhound, Pharoah hound) or EurAsia (e.g. sherpherds). There has been thousands (roughly 15,000) years of domestication from humans to shape a wolf into useful help to people, which came the dog with a job.

Power of the pack 
Most dog's do not live with 5 + dogs and people over one roof and these dogs and people live their entire life happy and healthy. I know of many places where there are 7 members (dogs and people) in a household and it's chaos even though the humans are practicing "alpha roles" on a daily basis. What these so called "pack leaders" are advertising is power, most people are power hungry in some form or another and this type of training is appealing to them.

My experience 
It's not easy for me to say but when I started out I was taught by many people that you needed to correct the dog when he or she didn't comply with the command, this will teach them to listen to us! Did it work, yes eventually, but did I enjoy it, no I felt very upset with myself that this is the only way to train. Years passed, Cesar Milan came to t.v. with his pack leader philosophy, I thought that I should try this training methods to experiment on whether it works or not. All I have to say is my poor dog, I have never been so upset with myself and miserable then when I played "alpha" to my Border Collie. Not only was I unhappy with the training method, my dog was shutting down right infront of me, the happy go-lucky dog with light in her eyes was fading. I then stopped all training and put work on hold to research a different training method, I had heard of positive training "reward good behaviours, ignore bad ones" I thought, "well that sort of makes sense but WHY would you ignore a dog biting you?" I was desperate to find a new way of training that made sense, I bought books off the shelf left, right and center, I searched all over the internet, I contacted certified applied animal behaviourist and found what I was looking for, a AMAZING, wonderful training method that works with every single dog. Progressive reinforcement training, showing your dog the appropriate ways of humans through reinforcement.


Three weeks later I started re-training my dog with progressive reinforcement, starting with baby steps (sit, down, come, stay), it was sad to see the lingering problems from the horrible dominance training I had done weeks before was still there. If she was unsure of what I wanted, she would shut down right infront of me, tail low, sad eyes, frustration kicked in on my part and I then realized that I need to be trained, not my dog. Slowly she started coming back into her personality, she wouldn't shut down any longer she would throw me TONS of confusion signals (sniffing, scratching herself) I took these as, "okay, I'm moving a bit fast for her" so I cut training sessions into 2 min sessions and LOTS of fun. Now look where we are, you can SEE how happy Luna is to work with me, she throws me kisses every two seconds, her tail is wagging the entire time! She barks when she's happy (it's a wooof woof woooof sound, lol), she listens on the first cue, she's a better dog all together and I'm a better person after seeing and feeling the difference progressive reinforcement makes in our life. 


Conclusion: The dominance/alpha training method has proven to do more harm than good! People will NEVER master the art of trying to be a dog or wolf! We will never be able to perfectly replicate what a dog will do to another dog. This is why the dominance/alpha/pack leader method is useless and has hurt many dogs and people. People have gone WAY overboard on this method. People become total idiots and power happy and all they focus on is more ways to enforce their position as a “PACK LEADER” and “THE BOSS.”

Take this from someone who has been on both boats, if I could go back I would, dominance training almost ruined me and my dog.

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Teach Your Dog To Play Frisbee

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Conditioning Your Dog To Being Handled

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10 Things You Should Never Let a Puppy Do

1)Jump on or off furniture until minimum 11 months - constant jumping for a young pup can damage their undeveloped joints.
2)Chew a show that you don't care about - Dog's can't differentiate between a old shoe and a new shoe.
3)Pull on leash - If you let your puppy pull on a lead, you're teaching him that pulling gets what he wants.
4) Go ahead of you through doors - Letting your pup run out of any door ahead of you is dangerous, you never know who or what will be on the other side, it could be a aggressive dog that would attack your pup and now you have a dog that is fear aggressive at other dogs.
5)Chase other animals, such as a cat, squirrel, bird ect. - It's cute and funny when they're young because they can't catch it, but when they're older it becomes prey and sometimes obsessions.
6)Touch his or her teeth to human flesh - if a pup never touches his or her teeth to human flesh they will never learn from it. If you let your pup chew on your hand he or she learns that it's 'okay' to chew/bite other people and that may be a small child or baby.
7)Thrust against a person or object - This is usually just excitement especially as the pup is coming into sexual maturity, but you want to show your pup that they are not allowed to thrust against objects or people or dogs (use a positive interrupter).
8)Eat then exercise right away - After you feed your pup wait 45 mins before any strenuous exercising and after any exercising wait 30-45 mins before feeding. This will help the muscles calm down and work at their proper pace. If you feed too soon before or after the bowels move very quickly and can cause diarrhea and twisted stomachs for you pup.
9)Eat his or her feces or other dog's feces -(use a positive interrupter to redirect, such as a whistle or the dog's name in a happy tone). For puppies, this is quite normal, they explore with their mouths and feces happens to be on the ground everywhere. After 6 months old it should stop only if you have been consistent with not allowing it (using your + interrupter), if it continues into adult hood you should check with your vet for pica or an underlining medical problem.
10)Barking that lasts longer then 10 seconds.- Barking is NORMAL for a dog to do, quite like us speaking, but excessive barking is a whole other story. The main culprit for puppies excessive barking is attention getting, at some time they learnt that when they bark they got what they wanted, whether this be attention, food, potty break or whatever. The best way to stop the barking is not to make it reinforcing. If your puppy is barking at you to play or get attention, ignore him or her and wait until they STOP barking for a moment then give attention.

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Treibball

Welcome To The World Of Treibball!

What IS Treibball?
A very popular German dog sport that involves you sending your dog off to herd the large exercise balls back to you at the net! This sport has become very popular not only in Europe but the United States and soon to be Canada.
How to play Treibball?
Eight balls of approximately 45–75 cm are set in a triangle formation, similar to billiards, with the point ball farthest from the goal. The object of the game is to get all eight balls into a confined space the size of a soccer goal within a set time period, usually about 15 minutes. The handler may not move outside of an area that contains the left half of and several feet beyond the goal area. The dog works in close cooperation with the handler, who is only allowed to use whistles, verbal or hand signals to direct his dog. No verbal or physical corrections are used in Treibball. The dog and handler must communicate effectively to herd one ball at a time into the goal, in fifteen minutes time. The dog and handler team are scored on cooperation and direction, within that fifteen minute time limit,and can earn extra points or accrue demerits accordingly.
What dog can play Treibball?
Any dog over the age of 6 months can start training. Of course herding breeds will excel at the sport but any dog with a hunting (strong prey instinct or enthralled by movement) can play and compete.

Here is a great video on how the sport is played by a experienced handler and dog

Be the one of the first play Treibball in Canada

To play Treibball you don't need to set anything up! You just need one or more yoga exercise balls and you can practice on a field or in your home.

How To Get Involved
MCT will be holding classes this summer. Please contact ModernCanineTraining@Gmail.com for details. Start dates and prices for classes will be announced in May (once the weather is better).

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Me & Luna Practicing Agility

Just a short video on me and Luna practicing her agility on a field close to home.

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How To Roll A Ball

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The power of positive reinforcement

Understanding Reinforcement
Reinforcement Definition: An event, a circumstance, or a condition that increases the likelihood that a given response will recur in a situation like that in which the reinforcing condition originally occurred.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT IN YOUR DAILY LIFE
Think back to a time where you were given something that was rewarding; such as a bonus at work, a sticker in class for good behaviour, praise or money from your parents on good grades.

Now what did you do after?

Did you get the bonus from work then start slacking off? Or did you work harder to get a bigger bonus next year?

After you got a sticker in class did you go and smack the kid next to you? Or did you continue being good in order to get another sticker maybe the next day?

When you got money for every A on your report card did you stop studying so hard? Or did you continue studying in order to get all A's next year?

Rewarding a behaviour is the quickest way to have the behaviour repeat itself. I have alot of clients who tell me that they can't stop their dog from jumping on the counter and grabbing food off of it. The majority of the time the dog is counter surfing because it is REWARDING to find food up there, therefor accidentally reinforcing his counter surfing. Another reason is when the dog jumps up, you yell at the dog to get off, if dogs are lacking social interaction in their home this yelling is the closest interaction they get so therefor it is REWARDING to jump up. The accidental reinforcement being your interaction with the dog.

We as humans tend to think our dogs know exactly what we want and they're just being bratty or difficult on purpose, this is so far from the case. If you give a command and your dog doesn't do it, it's not because he is purposely trying to push your buttons, he's clearly not understanding what you want from him. Some dogs if you have used aversive methods, are actually afraid to make the wrong choice because if it's not what you want they are going to be yelled at or get a leash correction, so therefor they don't do anything and the owners complain,"my dog refuses to sit on command because he's dominant, or, he knows I want him to so he won't."
It's in human nature that when we get frustrated we end up repeating ourselves and raising our voices, so as we're repeating words (that our dogs don't understand) and yelling the poor dog is throwing us dozens of signals to calm us down, such as sniffing the ground, looking away, yawning and we take these as our dog is ignoring us and the cycle goes on and on.

Poor dogs right?

Throw away the scary voices and choke collars and try reinforcing your dog today just by a simple treat for a good behaviour, you'll start noticing a change for the better! And your dog will love you for it.


I highly recommend The Other End of the Leash by Patricia Mcconnell. Such a wonderful book on why we do what we do around our dogs.

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Bang you're dead! Trick

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Exercising Your Dog

This is an important topic that alot of people have no idea about, but is very crucial when it comes to exercising their dog. Most of us will take our dog out to the local dog park or school field and whip out the Chuck It, a frisbee or your dogs favorite toy and throw it over and over again until your dog is tired and you go back home with a pooped puppy.

Why is this the wrong way to exercise your dog? Think of it as if you were your dog. You woke up, ate, then just started running for 20 mins - 1 hour then stopped, had some water and went to sleep. Your muscles would cramp up and be more susceptible to strains. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with throwing a ball for your dog, but make sure you are taking care of your dogs body.

A great exercise regime that is nice and easy and guaranteed to get your 

dog sufficient amount of exercise is:

Lets say you have 1 hour to take your dog out and you've chose a ball for exercise.

• 10 minute walk to start on leash, start getting your dogs heart rate up slowly.
• Let your dog off leash and let him jog around the field or park for 5 minutes to allow his muscles to warm up
• Spend 30 mins throwing the ball on and off. Throw the ball for 5 minutes. Take a minute break. Throw for another 5-10 minutes and repeat. Make sure to have fresh water handy (see below for a the doggy bag musts).
• Once you're done, let your dog jog around on him own, leash him up after a few minutes and take him for a 10-15 min cool down around a couple blocks or just around the field/park until the dogs breathing is close to normal.

Just taking less than a quarter of the time to properly warm up and cool down your dog can save your hundreds to thousands of dollars in vet bills.

IMPORTANT : DO NOT run a dog less than 1 year old for more then 15 minutes every few hours. This can lead to severe joint problems such as arthritis as early as 3 years old.

 Doggy Bag Musts:

• Bottle of water, I use just an old coke bottle cleaned out (500ml for winter months and a 2L in  summer months)
• Some sort of container like an empty Tupperware or anything can hold a little bit of water like a collapsible dog dish. If you don't bring a container you're going to waste more then 50% of the water trying to let your dog drink from the bottle.
• More then one toy, I usually bring a ball, frisbee and cloth to play a game of tug.
• Treats in a ziploc bag - you never know when you want to reward your dog for a wonderful behaviour, such as calmly meeting a child.

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The Modern Day Canine

Over the 15,000 year span that dogs were domesticated their roles in human lives were shaped by environmental and functional factors. Through selective breeding dogs have developed into the different shapes and sizes you see today, from the tiny Chihuahua to as large as the Irish wolfhound.  

Dogs have played the role as pet to humans for a very long time but only after WWII as suburbanization increased so did the dogs role in a family. They were primarily used to work for their masters, whether it was companionship, protection or hunting but around 1980 the dogs’ role started to shift as humans started keeping dogs for emotional support. Slowly but surely dogs have made their way into our homes as part of the family.

Because we don’t live in the early 1900’s and don’t have the same needs for our dogs it’s fair to say we shouldn’t train our dogs the same way. Dogs are used for modern day working (keeping us humans happy and entertained) so we need new methods of training that help teach our four legged friends what we want out of them. Progressive Reinforcement otherwise known as Positive Reinforcement is one of the most commonly used training methods today. This shapes your dogs natural instincts into a desirable behaviour by reinforcing what we humans like and ignoring what we perceive as bad.

The modern canine you see today is slowly being shaped to conform to modern day human expectations of personality and behaviour; it’s truly amazing how humans and dogs can co-exist at all.


Poor doggy!

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How to Read Your Dogs Body Language

Let's Play
This is a classical look at two dogs who are just about to play. The Yorkie is ready at any second to run and hopefully have Oscar chase him.
Body - tails up but not over back, ears half mass, body tilted back indicating ready to run, focussed on one another.

Puppy Licking
Puppy licking is a submissive gesture and you may even see older dogs do this behaviour too as to appease a authority figure. In human words "Don't harm me, I'm no threat."

Body Posture -ears back, squinty eyes, head reaching up, tail tucked sometimes.




                                                                
Fearful 
Luna is meeting sheep for the first time in her life and she is telling me and the sheep that she's not liking this one bit! She's pretending that the sheep are not there, "I don't see you! So you don't see me!"

Body - whale eyes (you can see the whites), ears back, looking away, braced legs, tail low even tucked.

As you can see her leash is very loose, giving her the freedom to run if she chose to. The sheep are pointed away from her face (as face-to-face is threatening especially for a dog who is already scared of the situation).

Caution
After a few minutes, Luna has decided that the sheep may not be a threat and now curiosity has kicked in, she wants to see what they're about.

Body - ears forward, braced legs (incase she needs to run), tail low even tucked (little scared still), eyes and nose forward on sheep.

Concern about Possession
All play has stopped because there is now tension between Luna and Jet (black BC). As you can see all other dogs are looking away, "we're no threat."

Body- stillness, body stiff (tension), orientation of dogs nose, staring at the threat (Jet), tail low or down.

Jet is a bit oblivious at this time (as both BC's are only 6 months old, siblings), he just wants to play, although Luna being scared that her precious wood will be taken.

Guarding - Warning
 Jet (black BC) is coming a little too close for her comfort now, so Luna is guarding the piece of wood underneath and gives Jet what is called a "soft look''.

Body - ears back but not always they can be up and forward, object is usually underneath dog, head may be pointed forward but eyes follow the dog that is too close for comfort, stillness (calm before the storm).

If you look at Jet (black BC) he is communicating wonderfully! Sniffing to let Luna know, "it's okay, I'm no threat and not interested in what you have."

Our dogs are communication with us every second of the day, we just don't notice because alot of the time it's very subtle. Here are a couple other body language tips:


Sniffing - Can mean 'no harm here', calming them self down if stressed, or just a good smell!
Yawning - Can mean 'I'm no threat', 'calming them self down if stressed, calming other dogs or people around if the energy is too high, sleep.
Stressed - Panting, worried look (eye muscles aren't relaxed), sniffing, yawning, scratching, dandruff, sweaty paws, pacing.

If you're interested in learning more about Canine Body Language I highly recommend "Canine Body Language" by Brenda Aloff. This is a photographic guide to interpreting the native language of the domestic dog.  You'll find yourself understanding your dog as well as others much more.

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"Kiss" Trick

This is how you teach your dog to "kiss".

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Progressive Reinforcement Training using a Clicker

What is progressive reinforcement training?

A type of animal training exists that involves no forms of intimidation, confrontation, violence, reprimands, or domination.

This non-violent type of training has gone under many names: “Clicker Training,” “Positive Training,” “Positive Reinforcement Training,” and “Reward Training,” among others.   There is a need for a more specific, more accurate, more inspirational term.  The above terms have been used so loosely in recent years that they have lost their original meanings.  How has this happened?  Trainers who use compulsion methods may incorporate a clicker (a noise maker to mark desirable behavior) and refer to themselves as a “Clicker Trainers.”  Trainers who use painful or intimidating methods may include food or toy rewards in their training and refer to themselves as “Reward Trainers” or “Positive Reinforcement Trainers.”  It is already possible that a member of the public may seek the guidance of a trainer who claims to be “Positive,” only to find out that this trainer routinely uses physical violence towards animals.

What is a clicker?

This is a distinctive noise that marks a desirable behaviour that is accurate each and everytime it is heard. Using our voices can sometimes be confusing for a dog as we're not always accurate with the tones to keep it consistent. 


Using these powerful training techniques together teaches the dog to think for himself and make the right choices.


This is a wonderful training program that lasts a lifetime. 

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Help LAPS by Voting

Langley Animal Protection Society Needs Your Help

Pepsi is giving away 1 million dollars worth in grants to winning ideas. LAPS is going for $100,000 to build a education and training centre where they can:

• Provide basic obedience training classes to the public. This will benefit dogs in and promote humane education. LAPS strongly believes in positive methods training all classes will be taught using “clicker training” as a method.
• Create an educational program for school age children to promote proper care for pets, including spaying and neutering.
• Provide basic obedience training classes for families that are adopting dogs from our shelter. This will help make sure that our dogs are good citizens and will stay in their forever homes. The number one reason why dogs are returned to shelters is because people cannot manage them.
• Educate people about our spay/neuter program for cats and our Trap Neuter and Release program (TNR). The goal is to reduce the size of free living and feral cat population in Langley.

Currently they are in 4th place as of February 12th 2011. We have until February 28th to get them to 1st place!
Vote everyday guys! And send an email to ALL your friends telling them to vote!


This will take you directly to the Pepsi website where you will be able to vote
TO VOTE CLICK HERE

LAPS website

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