Blog
(Mostly Archived)
Cars for focus?
One thing that I was extremely remiss to talk about so far is car work (Ali Brown writes extensively about this). I like to use car work as foundational steps to generalizing behaviors and teaching pups that regardless of where we are, it pays to focus on me. I use...
Seeing Spots
Yesterday we met up with our friend from Got Spots blog and her younger dog, Doc for some training and fun. Doc has shown some limited reactivity so we worked on some BAT and LAT with Shayne and Rio as bait. Doc did lovely and seemed perfectly fine under the...
Foundational skills and maneuvers
I suppose this should have been earlier in my reactive dog series. Mea Culpa--my fault. I wanted to mention some foundational behaviors, important moves, and management techniques that I suggest people put in their tool box for working with reactive dogs. Some of...
Considerations for Reactive Dog Handlers
When you have a reactive dog (particularly, though not exclusively, with a dog who may become physical [bite/scuffle] to get the scarey thing to go away or to express frustration/arousal) it is of the utmost importance to advocate for your dog. Dogs that live in a...
Bumping The Threshold pt.2
In the first Bumping the Threshold post I talked about cued behaviors--Look at that, look at me, and touch/hand target. Keeping a dog "operant" or able to think in a stressful situation is important and these type of cued behaviors keep a dog thinking and working. ...
Taking a quick break
It's the week before my students graduate so it was a busy day at class and I'm struggling to concentrate and get my post written in a cohesive manner... So please accept this silly video as a substitute. It is more fun pond footage along with the multi-toy game I...
Do the threshold bump!
There is a distance for a reactive dog where they can see another dog and not go into total meltdown mode--this may be 15ft or this may be 150ft. They may stare or focus on the other dog but they don't respond with a reaction as an immediate response. This is the...
Conditioned Emotional Response
So, here's the deal, I'd love to be able to feature specific stories and give examples of how I would approach a specific situation (based on the details made available). I'd like to post the information of the specific situation and respond to how I would approach...
Rethinking Reactivity
Last week's poll yielded some not so surprising results. There were (last I checked) a few more votes for reactivity than It's Yer Choice which works out since I can't find my video camera to get footage for an IYC video. I will probably end up writing a bit about...
Keep it cool
Like I mentioned yesterday, it is crazy hot and humid right now in my area. Yesterday was 96°F with a heat index of 107°F (so what it feels like outside) and today looks to be about the same. At the time of writing this (which I admit is after midnight), it is still...