#dog training

[elvenferretots]

"Would you leave your toddler in the car?"

"How could you make that poor dog do roadwork/run on a treadmill?"

"Just leave your dog home. He'll be happier there."

*bonks you over the head with a Monks of New Skete book*

Don't. Throw. The. Baby. With. The. Bath. Water.

[refugeed-kim]

YES YES I NEED THIS SIGN IN EVERY SINGLE PARK PLEASE

This is my daily struggle, I had so many arguments with people with off-leash dogs (in a mandatory leash area!!!). Thanks to this behavior I'm struggling with Kim being anxious/aggressive with other females as she often gets involved in unpleased interactions with free females while on leash. And every single time that I ask for the dog to be at least recalled, I'm being called names and insulted of course.

Also 9 out of 10 their dog isn't really that friendly at all.

[coffee-mage-sans-caffeine]

My wife's service dog in training, Matilda, is trained to be super annoying at specific times of day. This is because my wife's executive dysfunction does not allow her to 'unfreeze' and therefore she gets 'stuck' in places/doing things long after she needs to move on to another task, room, etc. This isn't some arbitrary 'you should only play video games so long' type of thing. It's 'If unattended, my wife will not eat or sleep because moving from one thing to another is very hard'. Eating and sleeping are necessary things for survival, so moving to these tasks is necessary for survival. Matilda has therefore been taught things like 'ten pm is bedtime'. In order to help Matilda with this, her feeding schedule is on a pretty tight timeline as well--this way her internal body cues are lined up with the schedule of the day. For example, Matilda is fed between 8 and 830 pm (usually at about 810 pm, as it works out). She poops at 830 pm after dinner and she will throw a WHOLE FIT if she is not let out at this time. Daylight Savings has Happened to Matilda. She's only just a year old, so she does not remember Daylight Savings last year (she was two weeks old, roughly) and she does not remember the spring time change, either, as she was a fairly young puppy at that time and therefore not trained to a schedule like this. She is BEREFT. We're making her wait an hour for dinner. We're making her wait an hour for bedtime. She knows she needs to go out at 830, but it is not time for her to poop yet, which is BAFFLING. This poor dog. I'm sure she'll adjust in a week or two, but poor Matilda. We need to outlaw Daylight Savings. For Matilda.

[stinkybrowndogs]

Dog training

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Jfc so many TikTok dog trainers push this idea that giving your dog attention when they ask for it, getting excited when you come home and letting your dog sleep in you bed causes separation anxiety.

It doesn’t. Research has shown that separation anxiety are caused by factors like genetics, trauma, sudden environmental changes, moving house and other usually completely out of control factors.

Your dog is a goddamn social animal. Social sleeping is natural behaviour, big excited greetings is natural behaviour and seeking social support and interaction is NATURAL BEHAVIOUR. Because you have brought a social living breathing animal into your house and you are their social group.

Withholding attention and being unpredictable or conditional about interacting with a social animal makes you kind of an asshole. Sure, you should set boundaries and your dog doesn’t have to live in your skin either, but don’t let unqualified so-called “professionals” shame you for loving your dog how you choose to love them.

Let them sleep in your bed if you want them to, revel in the joy of an excited dog greeting you when you come home, give your dog pats and cuddles when they seek you for them.

And don’t let anyone tell you that giving social support to a social animal is going to cause them anxiety. Because that is not how anxiety works at all.

(I have a Bachelor degree in Canine Science and am a Certified Professional Dog Trainer)

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Learning anything about marine mammal training will make you re-evaluate so much of your relationship with your own pets. There is so much force involved in the way we handle domestic animals. Most of it isn’t even intentional, it just stems from impatience. I’m guilty of it myself!

But with the exception of certain veterinary settings where the animal’s health is the immediate priority, why is it so important to us that animals do exactly what we want exactly when we want it? Why do we have to invent all these tools and contraptions to force them to behave?

When a whale swam away from a session, that was that. The trainer just waited for them to decide to come back. If they flat out refused to participate in behaviors, they still got their allotment of fish. Nothing bad happened. Not even when 20-30 people were assembled for a procedure, and the whale chose not to enter the medical pool. No big deal. Their choice and comfort were prioritized over human convenience.

It’s almost shocking to return to domestic animal medicine afterwards and watch owners use shock collars and chokers and whips to control their animals. It’s no wonder that positive reinforcement was pioneered by marine mammal trainers. When you literally can’t force an animal to do what you want, it changes your entire perspective.

I want to see that mindset extended to our domestic animals.

[btvd8000]

[fayeandknight]

As a dog trainer I don't think there's a greater moment than when I help show someone how awesome their dog can be.

This mostly comes from agility training as that's one of my specialties. But I just adore those moments when the person asks their dog to do a thing and the dog goes all in. Especially in the beginning - the person is stunned and proud and giddy. I sing their praises and remind them that this is made possible by all the work they've done to create a good relationship between them and their dog.

I love watching people fall in love/be impressed with their dog.

[abirddogmoment]

It drives me crazy how people will label independent thinking dogs as slow or stubborn. It's a different flavour of intelligence, not less.

[sheepdogsandsidesaddle]

Now, I'm not saying that McCaig is THE BE-ALL END-ALL EXPERT on this topic nor am I looking to start a bunch of discussion regarding breed splits...

Please share for better sample size. This is for a personal project.

[strawberryjayne]

dogtraining.fam: ig

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Genuinely would love to meet the "purely positive" dog trainers that aversive/balanced trainers keep talking about. You know, the ones that are so against using force that they just let their dogs walk into traffic.

Boy, they sure must lose a lot of dogs every year and honestly I'm amazed they're still alive themselves if they're getting dragged in front of a semi trailer every time they go out for a walk...

[connorskeepers]

Please if anyone could donate or even reblog if you can’t , Morgan is my Seizure and cluster headache alert dog and she tore her CCL and I could use all the help I can get as I’m limited income (though I’m trying to make full time working happen through social security programs)

[thepetcares]

Car’s engine is running

Source: instagram.com