CONSISTENCY IS KEY WHEN TRAINING YOUR BEST FRIEND
CONSISTENCY IS KEY WHEN TRAINING YOUR BEST FRIEND
When it comes to our canine Best Friend’s, it’s important to understand how they learn and respond to different situations. Here’s an explanation:
🐾 Positive Reinforcement
If you give your Best Friend something they enjoy (a treat, praise, or attention) immediately after they do a behaviour you like, they are more likely to repeat that behaviour in the future.
If you give anything your Best Friend perceives as a reward anything there is a very very high chance your Best Friend will repeat the behaviour that happened immediately before their reward!
This is because they associate the behaviour with the reward, and they want to keep getting rewarded.
🐾 Unintentional Reinforcement
Giving conflicting information to your Best Friend is one of the most unintentional reinforcements for unwanted behaviours.
Even if you say “No” or “Shhh” to your Best Friend when they do something you don’t want them to do, they may still see it as a reward if you give them any attention or reaction.
What you as a human perceives as a *negative eg. saying SHHHH or NO, if your Best Friend ‘feels’ rewarded the behaviour you have said NO to in their eyes is being rewarded and will be repeated.
Dogs often perceive any interaction, even negative ones, as a form of attention, which can reinforce the unwanted behaviour.
🐾 The Essence
Be mindful of how you respond to your Best Friend’s behaviours, both good and bad.
If you want to encourage a behaviour, reward it with something your canine Best Friend loves (treats, praise, playtime, eye contact, touch or voice).
If you want to discourage a behaviour, ignore it completely and don’t give any attention or reaction.
With patience, knowledge, the right timing and approach you can reinforce behaviours you want and discourage the ones you don’t.
Consistency is key when training your Best Friend.
'I love sharing my knowledge in the song and dance of dog behaviour and training, bringing humans and canines closer together' ~Tamara Di Santo
https://youtu.be/6AG4NA1pr5w?si=mGnuArZwhr4tb2jv
TALKING DOG WITH TAMARA
Ever wondered what your dog is thinking and if it could talk human what it is saying?
Building a strong bond between you and your best friend is what your dog needs. Knowing how to communicate and keeping the communications clear with your best friend is the key. Do you know how and what motivates your pup? In this consultation we can assist you in what to look out for and how to use this to assist your best friend to make great choices in their world.
Dogs maybe your fur kid and that’s OK, but they do not think like humans or talk like humans and that’s where ‘Talking Dog With Tamara’ will help you to understand how your best friend’s brain is programmed.
When you think in DOG you realise they don’t “need” to go to the local park to play with neighbourhood ‘fur-kids’. That is how your dog learns to totally ignore you!
We are certified Dog Bite Prevention teachers and come to you to assist all family members in ways to keep every body safe including your best friend.
Learn how to keep your best friend focused on YOU, it’s true – dog is man’s BEST FRIEND!
BUILD ON YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND in DOG LANGUAGE
BOOK ‘TALKING DOG WITH TAMARA’ 😃
HOW AND WHEN TO TAKE PUPPY FOR THEIR FIRST WALK
Before you even put the harness and leash on your new puppy there are steps to take ;-)
We use food to keep our best friend engaged with us and slowly lessen the food amount. Come up with words you would like to use for behaviours, pair these words with your body movements. (Dogs talk with body language and are listening to yours every moment you are together).
When the time comes to actually use the leash your best friend will already have a great idea of the relationship with you without the leash.
Bringing in the leash be sure it is always in a smile (not tightly pulled).
When leaving the home if you leave with a smile in the leash you are able to continue with a smile in the leash. (Sounds easy, but if you have not started off this way contact us to come and assist you)
Our newest best friend Reggie had all his vaccinations and was ready for his first walk in the big wide world, we can not wait for our next training session. Every time he is connected to the leash he is learning how he gets rewarded on the leash, be sure it is when the leash has a smile :-)
'I love sharing my knowledge in the song and dance of dog behaviour and training, bringing humans and canines closer together' ~Tamara Di Santo
https://youtu.be/PC7CPGO4ecU
UNDER STIMULATED or OVERTIRED PUPPY
Review from Leah Itsines and Mitch Caon
“>Best Friend Dog Care establishes trust for pets and families alike
RESILIENCE DOG TRAINING - for the anxious, timid, scared dogs
Living with an anxious, timid dog can be crippling to them and you. It doesn't have to be, by reaching out to dog behavioural trainers such as Best Friend Dog Care you can find ways that the both of you can live your best life together.
Please reach out if you are unsure, all questions are worth asking.
Our resilience training sessions have opened up many relationships between humans and their best friends, assisting them to go outside the home and enjoy a 'normal' life together.
If you would like to give it a go on your own follow these steps
*Have box (deep enough for the eyes not to be able to see out), washer (available from hardware store), food ready (usual daily food, if needed you can use a high value food like chicken or cheese to start off).
*Box flat on floor, start off the very first few sessions saying OPEN and putting in about 4 pieces of kibble (dry dog food) and before the last piece is eaten drop another working up to a longer break before the next gets dropped in.
You might find the head comes out fast at the beginning, that’s OK as your best friend is learning.
*Once the head is out say CLOSED, remove all food and washer, do not offer this exercise again until next feeding time. (The box then becomes 'just a box' to the dog).
Being sure you are moving forward and not staying at the same level of this exercise for too long is important for this training exercise. Our on line dog training is a great way to save $ and have us in your lounge room assisting you to reach your end goals when the time suits you.
We suggest only using the daily in take of food for training, dividing up depending on the training you are currently working on. As a dog guardian we are responsible for our best friends weight and it is up to us to take on the responsibility with pride knowing we are their guiding light in life and it is up to us to train and look after them having them succeed in the life we have chosen for them.
Training your best friend with their daily food intake you are assisting their dog brain to be used as intended working for their food. What better way to enrich their minds and tire them out 😉
Do not be discouraged if your best friend is too scared at first to put their head into the box in the first instance, go slowly in your best friend's time. Moving as slowly as needed to increase their confidence, you can tilt the box on the side slowly, calmly encouraging them to eat the food inside. Leave out the washer until their confidence is up in eating out of the box if required.
Check out one of our friends who has mastered this in many different locations in the home and outside the home
https://youtu.be/Id33_gdd9es
Know you are not alone in living with your best friend, reach out to a qualified behavioral trainer such as BEST FRIEND DOG CARE. We are here to assist you every step of the way.
To find out more please contact us
TEACHING TRICKS
Trick training is a fantastic way to clear communications with your best friend. Remember their native tongue is body language not words like we humans. Being clear and precise with your body language cues is imperative for your best friend in picking up what you are saying to them.
We have to pair each human word to mean a behaviour to a dog, singing our human song then doing the doggy dance is the way we teach and train a dog human words. These human words mean nothing to our besties unless we do this, and its not a once off thing to teach! Dogs are contextual, meaning everything is taken on in the environment it is taught in. If for example we only taught Wally in the video below to do this trick in one part of the warehouse, when we took him into other parts of the warehouse or even took him home he would be like ‘What? I don’t understand what you are asking of me.’
To a dog it can be as simple as the wind changing direction for them to not understand a cue word you have been using regularly and they have complied to many times. They are not being stubborn as some may say, it is simply the way their dog brain is programed. This is why you are required to teach a dog a behaivour in many different locations, starting with low to no distractions and building up to more and more distractions. From here you then start again in as many different environments as possible. It may be like starting from scratch especially when there are more distractions but you have created the groove in your best friends brain of what is being asked so becoming easier and easier for you both to preform. Training is then the on going of the trick or behaviour, keep in mind you might need to go back to using more treats when starting again or if you have not done the trick for a while, but the groove is there.
The type of rewards used are a part of training but not the only reason a dog will preform, the main part of the reward is the timing you give the marker cue word (or clicker) to your dog so they understand when they have preformed the exact behaviour you are asking of them. Releasing the reward is second to the timing of the marker word. You must pair a marker word (or clicker) to a reward before you even start.
Book in for your trick training here.
Happy communications with your best friend 😉
HAVING FUN WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND
If you have a small dog, PLEASE be super careful if you have them up on a table. We do not endorse this if you have a bouncy uncontrollable puppy.
Communications between you and your best friend are required to be taught, trained and then proofed in many different places and situations. Remember your best friend is a canine and you are a human so using human words is actually the best way to confuse a dog if you have not spent the time to pair the human word to a dog behaivour. There is no such thing as a stubborn dog, it is only the communications that are unclear. Want us to teach you to speak dog?
https://youtu.be/oj_25MAZjL8
Here is Sparkle's working for her dinner ;-) Dog's brains are wired differently to our human brain and they love to work for their dinner. I on the other hand love to have my dinner prepared for me! Assisting your best friend to use their dog brain to work for their food brings up the value of you as their human having all food coming from you. Communications are also clearer as you and your bestie work closely on watching each others body language. Why not have some fun with your best friend and teach them some new tricks to improve your communication.
Contact us to assist communications with your canine best friend.
DOG TRAINING, BACK TO BASICS
How is your best friend coping with all the noises from the neighbours now most are home throughout the day and not at work?
If you are noticing your dog barking more than before it could be that he is not used to the extra sounds that are coming from the surrounding homes. Remember dogs are creatures of habit and every situation, behaviour is all contextual. Why wouldn’t they be a bit stirred up right now when their week days that were usually filled with the noise of the birds only are now filled with kids playing ball, people blower vacuuming and spending time gardening. Where has this peaceful environment gone?
It’s not a time to get mad at your best friend, it’s a time to remember that dogs brains do not understand all that a humans does in the same way. They do not rationalise situations and do not know why we are all staying at home.
If your best friend is not behaving in a way you like, take a step back and say to yourself ‘How can I assist my best friend to understand the behaviour that is more appropriate’.
It’s your responsibility as the guiding light of a canine to have the communications clear to your best friend. You are the one keeping them safe in our human dominated world, do not presume a completely different species to human ‘should’ ‘just’ know how to behave.
Thinking back to humans and when one is born, what is the process for that human? Playgroup, kindergarten, junior primary school, high school, university. Even at 50 years old people are leaning every day how to cope in our world environment.
No dog is ‘Stubborn’, and No dog ‘Knows Better’. You are the Guardian and that is a big responsibility, for you must learn to communicate with your best friend to teach and train them behaviours that are appropriate for the human world.
Knowing context is so important to a canine, you as the guardian are required to assist your best friend in as many different environment contexts to behave appropriately. Asking a dog for a cued position maybe 100% given in the home with low to no distractions, now there are neighbours home making noises and lots of distractions is your best friend able to still preform the cued position for you 100%?
Perhaps its time to go back to basics with the training of the cues with your best friend to assist them to come out of this as a better version of themselves. Hey a better version of you and your best friend together!
DIGITAL DOG TRAINING via VIDEO CALL
Our successful digital dog training consultations have been going for over a year. While the world continues adding homes and countries into lock down with corona-virus you and your best friend do not have to suffer YOU CAN continue with Best Friend Dog Care's services.
Everything you love about Best Friend Dog Care including our high quality of service, programs, scientifically proven methods and love for dog and human relationships will shine through in our digital sessions. You can relax knowing our professional recognition as certified, five star dog Behavioural Trainer's we are dedicated to providing you with up to date knowledge, coaching and training your best friend to be the best version of them they can possibly be. You let us know your goal and we assist you to reach it using rewards based training. Read more about Tamara our Behavioural Trainer.
Digital sessions have great advantages not only in keeping you safe from virus's also cost saving whilst getting the best support and education to develop your best friends skills. You will find similarly to our more traditional in home dog training sessions, we customize the session to you and the dog in your life. All you need is a device to use as a video and off we go, Best Friend Dog Care is in your home and can assist you on your dog training journey.
You can choose to be added to our friendly private community meeting others who have been through our workshops either via video or in person. All members having the same education from Best Friend Dog Care you are able to reach out at any time and have questions answered. It's a fun, safe and educational place to share your new dog skills and dog training. A place to share when you are feeling on top of the world or on days when you are having a hard time getting motivated to train you will be with others who also go through the human emotions involved with living with another species. We are all here to assist each other having our Best Friend's best interest at heart it's a great place where we all have a common goal. Contact us.
In our Best Friend Dog Care online family you will meet other guardians who contacted us for the following reasons but not limited to;
| dogs barking at anything and everything | reactive, fearful and or aggressive to other dogs or cars, bikes, humans | dogs jumping up on humans or bench tops |
| pulling on leash / walk with manners | toileting inside | adopting a dog |
| scared of noises or being home alone | humans not understanding dog behaviour | living with multiple dogs in a home |
| dogs digging up gardens | puppies learning from the very start | new parents to be getting ready for babies arrival |
| children to be safe around dog | dog needed a reliable recall | next step from puppy school |
| training tricks | dog gets over excited | well behaved happy dog |
| other dog has died and the remaining dog is in depression obedience training | preparing pooch to walk down the isle with manners when guardians getting married | walking for general exercise, enrichment and health |
"Had such a fantastic and informative Skype session with Tamara! Adopting a rescue dog is sure to come with its challenges, but with the right guidance we have already seen incredible improvements in our furry friend in a matter of weeks. Thank you so much, looking forward to the next session! Mikki, Mick and Kath (And Bruce)"
KEEPING PUPPY FOCUSED
What a wonderful training session Freddie had at the beach, showing us how much he had learnt in our total of 5 hours together! Sessions are generally 60 minutes and done in consecutive weeks for you and your best friend starting in your home and working towards going out into the wide world. We give you the tools to follow on with training in between our sessions for a successful outcome.
Bringing home a puppy can sometimes feel overwhelming, chewing, toileting, jumping,sleeping, walking on a leash to name but a few behaviours. Your whole world can seem like it has been thrown up in the air, your patience tested. Giving the responses to a canines behaviour that you would give to a human young will not create the appropriate behaviours from your newest best friend. Knowing how to communicate with a dog in ways the dog understands is what is required and our focus in our training sessions.
Freddie's guardians found walking difficult, other humans wanting to come over and say hello to one of the cutest guys in town was an event that happened on every walk. This turned Freddie's dog mind to believe that this is what he was to do, when ever he saw a human approaching he was to get to them as fast as possible for attention pulling on the leash.
With Best Friend Dog Care's behavioural training consultant Tamara Freddie’s guardians both have come so far in their dog knowledge and abundance of tools to bring out when required with their growing best friend. Learning how to keep Freddie motivated and engaged with them when out on family excursions is now so much easier.
'I love sharing my knowledge in the song and dance of dog behaviour and training, bringing humans and canines closer together' ~Tamara Di Santo
https://youtu.be/7gh88IkkKg0