Many dogs struggle to cope with all kinds of stressors in life. Often, I see strategies that focus on reducing stress in day-to-day living. Good quality sleep, exercise, mental stimulation and nourishment are a vital part of that. However, sometimes we run the risk of thinking that we can turn a highly sensitive dog into…
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Our dogs are never a blank slate. One of the hardest parts of being a canine behaviour consultant is explaining to guardians that life hasn’t given their dogs the qualities to be a Café Society Dog. Their dogs may always struggle with guests. They may always struggle with strangers trying to pet them. They may…
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Many of the dogs I work with lack resilience. They also face difficulties in managing their emotions, sensing threat everywhere. Anxious and fearful dogs are often very sensitive to situations where they’ve experienced danger before, even if they’re not dangerous now. Often, they fail to downgrade situations from CRITICAL to NON-THREATENING. Not only that, anxious…
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In the last few posts, we have looked at the stages of emotional resilience for reactive dogs. There are twelve core stages that will help our dogs who bark and lunge. As they move from reactive behaviour to adaptive behaviour, there is a lot we can do. I have rooted these posts in both theory…
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Our dogs who bark and lunge have a long journey to resilience. It need not take much time, but it involves a lot of learning. Although many of us are seeking an overnight cure, the reality is that we need to put in the teaching. If our dog is not learning anything, then we can’t…
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Many dog trainers who work with reactive dogs work with pairing up good stuff with the bad stuff. The aim is to help dogs overcome their feelings about stuff that they’re worried about. You’ll hear this called counterconditioning. When I first started training, I also used to use this method. Working in a large shelter…
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If you’ve been following the roadmap to resilience with your dog, you should find you’re both well on your way to success. The components within the programme are designed to effortlessly reduce your dog’s barking and lunging on walks. In the past, many dog trainers like me took a loose approach to reactivity. We’d cherry-pick…
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Dogs who bark and lunge at other dogs are never going to stop overnight. What we need for them is a roadmap to success. Our roadmap should be dynamic and flexible, rooted in best practice. Today’s post focuses on why so many people who take up an activity with their reactive dog are astounded by…
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Although our reactive dogs may seem to be triggered by everything on walks, when we work through the Resilience Roadmap, we can reduce the stress they feel. Triggers are simply the things in the world that set our dogs off barking and lunging. There are twelve foundational principles of the roadmap. Train the skills you…
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If you’ve got a dog who barks and lunges at the end of the lead, I’m willing to bet you’d love for them to just take a look and move on. So many of our dogs just get stuck. They rear up on the lead, barking and shouting, and nothing we can say or do…
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