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Cailín wags her tail so hard that she smacks it off doors and walls, and has split open the tip on more than one occasion. The last time it happened, we didn't notice and it got infected. This time we saw it straight away so I was able to treat it immediately. I've created this video to demonstrate how I use permissive handling or co-operative care in order to examine and clean her tail injury. She's learned that by testing her chin on the stool, I'll go ahead and touch her, and she'll get reinforced for cooperating. If she lifts her head or moves away, I'll stop and give her a break. This video isn't perfect, and I was working with real-life distractions (a curious cat, a three-year child and an injured dog). At one point I miss her subtle cue, so she communicates more clearly that she needs to take a break, so I respect that, and then continue when she's ready. If you'd like to learn more about permissive handling or if you'd like some help with your dog, please get in touch through my website. I'd love to hear from you! www.doctorloulittle.com

Using stop-start signals for grooming. Cailín hates having her hair cut. It's something that has to be done every 5/6 months, so I've had to work on teaching her to tolerate it, even if she doesn't like it. In the past I've taken her to groomers, but found that working with her at home ends up being a lot less stressful for her (even if the haircut doesn't turn out as well!) I've worked on giving her a way to say when she's ready and when she wants to stop. It means that she's a lot more cooperative and the whole process is much easier than just trying to restrain her to get it done. In this case, I'm using a chin rest on the stool. When her chin is resting, I can go ahead, but when she moves away from the stool, I stop. She does take breaks, and I reinforce the breaks as well as reinforcing her for allowing me to keep working. I managed to get her completely clipped last night in a couple of hours. I clipped her body and scissored her face and legs. It's not the best job, but she's happy- and if she's happy, then I'm happy! When I was working on her legs, I used a Lickimat. It's not my preferred method, as I prefer her to opt in, rather than just distracting her, but it was a long time to ask her to stand still without moving much, and by the end of the evening we were both tired and I wanted to get it finished. I remember the first time Jack tried to dry her with a towel, when she was around 8 months old. She went for the towel, and he got a horrible fright. We used to have to muzzle her every time she needed any kind of formal handling done, so this is massive progress for her. Proud of you, girly ❤️

Sophie is a little dog with big reactions. She tends to bark and lunge at other dogs, so we're teaching her that other dogs are a good thing, and that if she does need space, she just has to ask for it, rather than shouting. Before this session, we had started to work on focus when out on walks, as well as encouraging her to sniff rather than constantly scanning the environment for threats. We taught her a U-turn as well as a recall, and have been reinforcing her for checking in more on walks. We also traded her shorter leash for a long one, as leash reactivity can be worse with shorter leashes. This was our second session working together, and the first time we had worked on the street or with other dogs. I used Mango as a "stooge dog" and throughout the session she saw 16 other dogs, as well as walking past a lot of dogs barking at fences. She did really well and I can't wait to see how she progresses! Her family have been really consistent in their training, and it really shows. Well done, guys!

When socialising our puppies, there isn’t a definitive list of things that they have to experience before they hit a certain age. Our goal is to teach them to overcome a fear of novelty. The socialisation window for puppies is so short that it just wouldn’t be possible to expose them to absolutely everything that they’re going to see in life, but we can expose them to new sights, sounds, smells and textures on a daily basis so that they learn that novelty isn’t something to fear. Novelty is fun, novelty is exciting, and novelty can be completely mundane. When showing puppies new items for the first time, give them plenty of space and time, and allow them to explore when they’re ready. Flooding them or forcing them when they’re hesitant can send you back a few steps, so let them see the world in their own time. By building a feeling of safety, we can build confidence.

¿Qué es el entrenamiento con el Prey Dummy? Es la caza cooperativa con un animal que desciende de cazadores apasionados, sin hacer daño a ningún animal de presa. Es satisfacer las necesidades básicas de tu perro (cazar, comer), a la vez que enseñarle obediencia básica jugando, utilizando el refuerzo positivo a través del principio de Premack. Es pasar tiempo de valor cada día con tu perro, siendo TÚ la persona más importante en su vida. El entrenamiento con el Prey Dummy se puede hacer tanto dentro, cómo fuera de casa. Te ayuda a crear un vínculo muy fuerte con tu perro. Los ejercicios se pueden adaptar a perros tímidos, miedosos, reactivos o adictos al trabajo, tanto cómo a los perros vagos. El entrenamiento con el Prey Dummy es muy divertido para los humanos, tanto cómo para los cánidos. Gracias a Chrissi Steck de Meet Fido Dog Training! www.chrissisteck.com

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝗗𝘂𝗺𝗺𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴? It’s cooperative hunting with an animal that descends from passionate hunters, without harming any prey animals. It’s satisfying your dog’s basic needs (hunting, eating) all in one go, and at the same time achieving basic obedience in a playful manner, using positive reinforcement via the Premack principle. It’s spending daily quality time with your dog, making YOU the most important person in her life. Prey Dummy Training can be done indoors and outdoors. It creates a strong human-canine bond. The exercises can be adapted for shy, fearful, reactive, or workaholic dogs, as well as to convinced couch potatoes. Prey Dummy Training is simply a lot of fun for both humans and canines. All you need is a Prey Dummy pouch, yummy food, and your pooch, and you’re ready to go! Thank you so much to Chrissi Steck from Meet Fido for providing the content for this video. You can find her website at www.chrissisteck.com

What is Clicker Training? Clicker training is a form of animal training using a clicker and positive reinforcers. A clicker is a small device that makes a “click” sound when you press it. There are a few different types- button clickers, box clickers, even ones that are shaped like rings, but they all work the same way. Some of them have a wrist strap too, so you don’t drop them. Clicker training is a really clear way of communicating to our animals what it is exactly what we want them to do. When we’re training, and they do something that we like, we click, and then give them a piece of food. The click is like a Polaroid camera taking a photo of exactly what they were doing in that second. Then, the food comes as their reward. Clicker training allows us to capture minute movements. One way that it can be used is in free-shaping. This is where we reward the dog for taking baby steps towards a final, complete behaviour. For example, if I want a dog to stand in a cardboard box, I’ll first click and reward for looking at the box, then for moving towards it, then for sniffing it, putting their nose in, putting a foot in, two feet… Until eventually the dog is standing in the box. By using the clicker, we can capture the exact second that the dog looks at the box, and we can reward them for that. It’s super clear and can help to speed up learning. It’s also a wonderful way to build confidence and to encourage our learners to think. We use clickers in The Real Dog Yoga training to reinforce the dog for very small movements. When teaching a neck stretch, we first start by clicking for looking in the direction, and then we start to ask for more and more from the dog and we wait for them to offer a larger stretch and more duration. When using a clicker, it gives us a few seconds between marking the behaviour with the click, and putting our hand into the treat pouch to deliver the treat to the dog’s mouth. A primary reinforcer is something that is intrinsically reinforcing to the dog- something that they absolutely LOVE. Like food, for example. When they eat, it releases feel-good hormones in the brain, like us eating a bar of chocolate. With enough repetition, they start to predict the food once they hear the click, so the clicker becomes what we call a Secondary Reinforcer. Ok, so what does this mean? Basically, when we first introduce the clicker, it’s a neutral stimulus. This means that it means absolutely nothing to the dog. They’re like, “Oh hey, a click, whatever.” By pairing it with the food, they learn that click = food, and their brain starts to have the same reaction to the noise of the clicker as it does to the food. Clicker training is used in different species across the world, not just with dogs. They’ve used it for permissive handling for wild animals like tigers and crocodiles, and I’ve used it with cats, rabbits and even donkeys. So, why don’t we just say, “Good boy!” The reason why we tend to use a clicker is in precision training. A click lasts a split second, whereas by the time we’ve finished saying, “Oh who’s the best boy in the whole world!?” the dog has already stopped what they’re doing and they’re now spinning in circles, in excitement. The clicker allows us to take a snapshot of the exact behaviour in a fraction of a second. It’s also consistent. It sounds the same every time that you click it, whereas when using our voice, there are always going to be inconsistencies. It’s also emotionless, which can be great when working with nervous dogs, noise-sensitive animals, dogs who perhaps don’t like a man’s voice. For a dog who gets really excited with praise or our voices, it’s also a nice way to bring down that excitement level. So, I hope this has given you a basic understanding of the clicker and why we use it. If you have any questions about it, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Happy training :)

Stress free handling- for both you and your dog! Start-Stop Buttons allow you to open a two-way conversation with your dog. If you struggle to give your dog ear drops, or to clip their nails or groom them, a sustained hand touch is a wonderful skill to add to your husbandry toolbox.