Von Sentinel Rottweilers

Athena getting some box time in.

The object of the exercise is for her to learn about pressure release.

For me it’s a very important skill that bleeds into so many behaviours in the future!

Mutually incompatible behaviours.

Let’s play opposites!

Let’s say your puppy is jumping up and you want them to stop. Ask yourself what do you want them to do instead?

In this instance because I haven’t named any behaviours yet, I want Ivy to do the opposite of jumping which is sitting and waiting.

I don’t make a song and dance when she jumps, I just gently guide her and then mark and reward when she does what I want.

For puppies the sit is usually the go to because they’re always looking up and the easiest thing for them to do bio-mechanically is sit to be able to look up.

Markers are one of the pillars of how I train dogs.

They serve as a bridge between behaviour and reward or non reward.

It is a clear signal to the dog that they’ve either done the right thing or the wrong thing.

Clear communication stops ambiguity and enables training sessions to progress at a faster rate than without.

Confusion creates uncertainty and will slow your progress immeasurably.

Nash and Athena enjoying the sun.

It’s vaccination day and Nash is back for an overnight visit.

It’s always great to see pups as they grow and it gives me great joy to watch them go from little babies to fully grown dogs.

The conscious decision on the pups behalf is the driver of future behaviour.

If the pup makes the decision to ignore the food on offer and go into the crate then I will reward that decision.

If the pup decides to try and get the food then they will be unsuccessful 100% of the time. I don’t move it or withdraw it, I simply deny access.

This is similar to luring where I show the pup the behaviour that I want and then I make it feel like it was their idea in the first place.

New day, new location!

Socialisation is sometimes misunderstood, whereby some people think their dog has to meet everyone and everything.

I never ever want my dog running up to strangers or other dogs expecting attention and attempting to illicit pats.

I want my dog to think that everything just exists and we will continue on our merry way without needing to interact. Otherwise known as neutrality.

Aurora (aka Taxi) is back for the night while her people do people things!

She’s an absolute little firecracker 🧨

Luring through existential feeding is on the menu this afternoon as we cycle through positions and movement patterns.

Athena catching the last rays of sunshine on what has been a beautiful day!

Coming out of Canberra winters into spring is always full of new growth and opportunities!

Driving around today and the magpies are already swooping, the screams of shear terror echo down the streets!

Not here though, they get fed very well and we’ve never had a problem! It’s the Wedge-tailed eagles you have to worry about, they’re bloody enormous!

Anyway, more luring and shaping without Athena realising I’m luring and shaping.

We’ve now moved into the luring phase which won’t last long as I try to keep it as short as possible.

This will allow the pup to discover and invent behaviours on her own in the coming weeks.

I love this style of training which for smart dogs really enhances their trainability.

More box work for our second session today.

This time we added a lead to the equation.

It’s very important to not stagnate and keep doing the same thing over and over again. That’s how patterns form and dogs get used to doing that really well but when you add novelty they fall apart.

In the coming days we will add some pressure release work in the box to teach Athena how to deal with pressure and how to turn it into a strength rather than a weakness.