Training with Lynsey

🐾Weekly Training Tip!!🐾

This weeks tip kind of goes with last week! It prepares you for what comes after your super sweet and cuddly puppy, the Teenage Phase.

The most challenging time of raising a puppy is the adolescent period. Dogs become “teenagers” and seem to forget everything they have ever been taught. This period is individual to each dog, but it may begin when he’s about eight months old and continue until he’s two years old. Alot of us like to call it the “Teenage Phase”
Adolescence does not begin and end overnight. However, some noticeable changes include becoming larger and stronger, as well as exhibiting “stubborn” behavior and a desire to begin exploring outside a previous comfort zone.
One common mistake is giving your puppy too much freedom too soon. Young puppies have an innate desire to be near you, and this gives owners a false sense of security. As your puppy gets older and more confident, he will likely no longer stay close by, and it may feel like any prior training has disappeared!
There are numerous strategies for dealing with dog adolescence, both before it starts and during this phase.

🐾Train Your Puppy🐾
While your puppy is still young, start training! Puppies are never too young to learn the basics of sit, down, stay, come, etc. You need to be consistent with this training throughout your dog’s life, but especially while he is very young, so he gains a good understanding of what you are asking.

🐾Self-Control🐾
Start teaching your puppy to exercise self-control. Teaching “leave it” and “drop it” are great ways for dogs to learn self-control, and this transfers into other areas of your dog’s life.

🐾Introduce Puppy to a Crate🐾
Another important thing to remember is crate training. Using a crate gives your puppy a safe place to relax, and even as he gets older and the crate isn’t needed to maintain house-training, it’s still a great idea to keep it around to use when you need to prevent your growing puppy from getting into trouble.

🐾Practice Obedience🐾
As your puppy gets older, keep in mind that you should continue to practice the basic obedience skills so that your puppy doesn’t forget them! You should practice these behaviors several times a week and reward your dog for his or her efforts. Some dogs find food rewarding, while other dogs find toys and playing to be more motivating. Use whatever your dog likes best to reward him or her for making good choices, especially if he makes a good choice without being prompted. Maybe your puppy sits to ask for attention — don’t take that for granted! Reward your puppy for making good decisions like this, and he will continue to make those good decisions.

🐾Puppy Chewing and Teething🐾
Keep those puppy-safe chew toys handy during adolescence. You may think that teething ended when the adult teeth came in at around 6 months. But there is a secondary chewing phase between 8-to-10 months that occurs as the adult teeth settle in the jaw. Continue to puppy-proof your house, keep an eye on your adolescent, and keep enticing chew toys in easy reach of him. Avoid super hard toys while your puppy is teething! These types of toys risk breaking the teeth that are growing in under the baby teeth and can cause issues while teething. Instead opt for rubber toys or toys designed for puppies (Size depending to avoid choking hazards)

🐾Mental and Physical Exercise🐾
Mental stimulation is important for dogs and puppies of any age, but it’s particularly important for adolescent dogs with a lot of energy. Help keep your teen dog from getting into trouble by providing plenty of mental stimulation. Activities like fetch, walks, games, obedience and trick training, puzzle toys, food-dispensing toys, are great ways to keep your dog’s mind active. A tired dog is a good dog, but a mentally tired dog is a great dog!

Although this is the most challenging time when raising a puppy, it is also the most rewarding. By training early and continuing to train, you’ll find the adolescent period is easier to navigate, and you’ll help the puppy become a well-adjusted, polite adult dog.

Pictured in the post is my teenager Halina, her favorite hobby is kicking all of the cushions off the couch and back talking every time I correct her when she does something I do not approve of (Typical Teen am I right???) Mental stimulation games and Tug are her FAVORITE ways to tire out (Mine too for my mental sanity) They keep her happy and healthy 🥰
If you have a Teenage dog needing some help with Basic Obedience, schedule an Evaluation Today!!

My lovely assistant Halina has been supervising the organization efforts over here and she approves! (I think)

Message today to schedule your evaluation for Basic Obedience/ Puppy Training! More information on the Behavior courses will be coming in September once I finish finalizing the changes 🥰

🐾Weekly Training Tip!🐾

Puppy Fear Periods, what they are and how to work through them!
Have you noticed your puppy suddenly becoming afraid of things? Fear periods are a natural part of canine development during puppyhood, but they can be stressful for dogs and people.
While your puppy is experiencing a fear period it’s important to have a thoughtful training plan to support them. Here are tips for keeping your puppy safe and happy during these times!

🐾What Are Fear Periods?🐾

Fear periods are a naturally occurring part of development for puppies when they’re more sensitive to the world around them. Puppies typically go through two fear periods. The first fear period is between 8–11 weeks, and the second generally when dogs are between 6 and 14 months of age.
Fear periods are especially important to be aware of when it comes to training your puppy, because not only are puppies more cautious during this period of their life, but they are also more impressionable. Puppies and adolescent dogs who have negative experiences during a fear period may not bounce back as quickly. A negative experience during a fear period, can have life-long consequences for a dog’s temperament and behavior. For this reason, it’s important to approach training during these fear periods intentionally and carefully, it is very important to limit exposure during these times, an event that seems small an insignificant to us can change the way a puppy views everything around them.

🐾Readjusting Training Expectations🐾

When puppies go through fear periods, they’re not likely to respond to stimuli, the environment, and training situations in the same way as they have before. Specifically, they are likely to be more cautious and sensitive. Something that didn’t bother your puppy last week, might be frightening when they enter a fear period.

Just as you want to be particularly thoughtful about your training plans during a puppy’s critical socialization period, the same is true for puppies going through fear periods. It’s ok for your puppy to be afraid, it doesn’t mean they will always be fearful or that you have done anything wrong as an owner. The best thing you can do to help your fearful puppy is to keep your training sessions short and fun. You’re going to want to lower your training criteria so that they can be successful. Also, try not to panic yourself. It can be destabilizing to see your puppy acting differently than you’re used to, but by staying calm you can help your puppy work through their fear.

🐾Lower the Criteria for Success🐾

We want to always keep our training sessions fun, fluid, and dynamic, adjusting to how our dog is feeling on any given day. One week your puppy might have been confidently getting on a wobble board, but by the next, they could be terrified to put even a foot on it. Instead of trying to force your puppy on the wobble board, shift your criteria for success. Reward your puppy for stepping toward the wobble board but not getting on, or reward your puppy for doing a simple cued skill like a sit or down near but not on the wobble board, praise, treat, and end your training session there on a positive note.

Lowering the training criteria and ending the session with your dog being successful is more beneficial than attempting to push your puppy through their fear to achieve the higher level of success you might be used to.

🐾Help Your Puppy Gain Confidence🐾

While it can be tempting for some dog owners to keep pushing their puppy to work through the fear, this generally doesn’t lead to success. If you are afraid of spiders, someone telling you that they can’t hurt you likely won’t make you feel better about letting a bunch of spiders crawl onto you. In the same way, we might know that something isn’t dangerous. But if our puppy is suddenly afraid of it, we need to honor their fear and not try to force them to engage.
Watching your confident and outgoing puppy go through a fear period can be stressful and overwhelming. Some owners worry that not pushing them to work past the fear can feel like coddling or giving into fear. In reality, we are being developmentally appropriate for our puppies. Lowering the criteria helps puppies build confidence when they are having an emotional regression. Letting your puppy have an “easier” success and ending a training session during a fear period will go further than continuing to train and trying to push or force your puppy to work through fear.

🐾Selecting Appropriate Training Locations🐾

We always want to be thoughtful about where we take our puppies to train. This is especially true if your puppy is going through a fear period.
The training experiences and what we expose our puppies to at this age can have life-long impacts. When your puppy or adolescent dog is going through a fear period, avoid over-stimulating and busy training outings. A crowded pet supply store can be a great location to practice training around distractions and proof obedience skills. However, that busy store might be too much for a puppy, especially a puppy in a fear period.
Even if your puppy has been calm, focused, and confident in a variety of settings in the past, they are going to be more environmentally sensitive when going through a fear period. Sometimes the locations where we want to take our dogs aren’t the best match for their emotional state. If you get somewhere, and it is busier than you anticipated, or if your puppy seems nervous or stressed, there is nothing wrong with heading home or taking your training session elsewhere.

🐾Finding the Right Balance With Rewards🐾

Utilizing positive reinforcement training techniques is the most effective way to teach new skills to our puppies. This is going to look like using lots of treats and praise to reward our puppies as they learn new skills. However, we want to be careful not to use treats to accidentally push our fearful puppies into situations they cannot handle.
It’s a careful balance of pairing treats with things our puppies are worried about to help desensitize and create positive associations without pushing them into situations they aren’t emotionally prepared for. Using treats to lure puppies into getting closer to something they are afraid of can lead to them to feeling overwhelmed and trigger stacked being so close to the source of their fear. The result will likely be a bigger fear response. Instead, we want to use rewards when puppies are being curious about a stressor or being calm at a distance from something they’re worried about.

Puppies are one of my FAVORITES to work with 🥰🥰 I am scheduling for September! If you have a puppy about to enter a fear period, or you have a puppy struggling with Basic Obedience issues, shoot me a message to set up an evaluation! 🐾

🐾Weekly Training Tip🐾
Using Mealtimes for Training!!!
A very common question I get is, "What if my dog doesn't like treats" or "My dogs on a diet" Easy! Use his/her kibble instead 🥰 Here's some ways how to incorporate mealtimes into training time:

🐾Make Your Dog Work for Dinner🐾
Many dogs act up because they’re bored. Without enough physical exercise and mental stimulation, dogs will make their own fun, often by chewing shoes and furniture or other unwanted behaviors. When they scarf down their meals in a minute or two, no enrichment occurs.
Instead, try placing your dog’s kibble in a slow feeder bowl or a puzzle toy. That will keep your pet busy for far longer, force them to use their brain as well as their teeth, and teach them positive ways to pass the time.
Slow feeders are bowls with obstacles inside, so your dog can’t scoop up more than a few pieces of kibble at a time. They make your dog eat slower, so they’re an ideal option for those who gulp down their food.
Eating too quickly puts dogs at risk for choking, vomiting, and bloat. Plus, the longer it takes your dog to eat their own meal, the less time they will have to bother you as you eat yours. Giving your dog something to do while you eat is also a great way to reduce problem begging. If you feed your dog wet food, such as canned or raw, insert it into a chew toy like a KONG. Freeze the toy for an even greater challenge.
Food-dispensing puzzle toys require your dog to manipulate them in some way to get at the food inside. Your dog might have to roll the toy over, move a lever, or lift a flap. You can even make your own puzzle toys to challenge your dog’s brain and keep them entertained. Or try a game of kibble hide-and-seek. Toss your dog’s dinner on the grass or a snuffle mat and let them search for it. Alternatively, hide food around your home. Start by placing small piles in obvious locations and pointing them out to your dog. Then slowly increase the difficulty so your pet can use their nose to sniff out their meal.

🐾Hand Feed Your Dog🐾
(Use caution with this exercise if your dog is food aggressive)

Another way to make dinnertime work for you is to hand feed your dog. This is easiest with kibble, but if you give your dog wet food, you can use a spoon. Hand feeding builds your bond with your dog, which is especially useful when you have a new pet. If food comes directly from you rather than a dish, your pet learns that you are the source of good things. They will form a positive association between you and the food they already love. Plus, hand feeding encourages your dog to focus, which is a valuable skill.
Hand feeding can also become a training session where your dog must earn every morsel. Practice with behaviors your dog already knows or try teaching new ones. For example, every sit can earn a piece of kibble. You can also save some of the meal to use throughout the day. If your dog performs a behavior you want to reinforce, like lying quietly while you watch TV, give them some kibble.
You can even feed meals on the run. Fill a treat pouch with your dog’s rations and reward loose leash walking skills on your daily walks. Just be aware of your dog’s hierarchy of rewards. If there are distractions competing with you for your dog’s attention, then it’s time to bring out the special treats like cheese or liver.

🐾Kibble as Training Rewards🐾
Last but definitely not least, throw half a portion of your dogs meal in a training pouch and have a training session or two! Easy Peasy!! This one might not work for some dogs, they might look at you like you're nuts but some dogs wont even know the difference. 🐾

Whichever way you decide to use for your next mealtime, I would LOVE to hear about it!! Snap some pictures of your furry friend using their mealtimes for training and share below 🥰

⚠️Attention⚠️
After a much longer then anticipated break, I will be scheduling clients for Basic Obedience, Advanced Basic Obedience and Puppy Socialization starting September 1st 🥰🥰

Behavioral work will return at a later date as I am reworking some things.

At this time I am only doing local clients (Waterloo/Cedar Falls area up to 30mins away)

Evaluations are $40- if you haven’t had an evaluation or a session within the last year, another evaluation will need to be scheduled.

Sessions are $100/hr with each session being roughly an hour! Rescue partners get a discounted price.

Thank you so much for your patience over the last few months and I’m so excited to see all of you again 🥰🐾

🐾Training Update🐾
We have been working hard behind the scenes getting ready for Pride Fest with Cedar Valley Pit Bull Rescue in August! Halina struggles with jumping up on people and leash manners but she is progressing fantastically!! She will be coming along with us to be a mascot for the rescue, if you see us come say hi!!

I will have an update in a couple weeks on when I will be taking new clients/scheduling sessions 🥳 I miss seeing everyone and I cannot wait to be back 🐾

Please Read!!

Between car issues, to health issues (getting referred to neurology 🤞), to rescue work stuff life has a way of keeping me on my toes lately. I have not let training go, I still work in the back ground, not as much as I’d like due to current health issues but fingers crossed that I can be consistent again soon!!! I miss seeing all of my dog friends!! Thank you guys for continuing the support while I’ve been absent 🐾❤️

Halina is here to tell you that she’s keeping my skills sharp and she’s also keeping me on my toes and at times questioning my sanity 😂❤️

Any sessions will be on hold until further notice.
The engine in the van I was driving blew today

I will be taking a break this week. One of my cats is very sick and I’m trying to be home as much as possible to monitor and give fluids as needed. She has a vet appointment in the morning in Cedar Rapids to get testing done and hopefully figure out what’s going on. As of now she’s stable and hydrated, we had a scare over the last few days but she’s improving as of now.

I’ll update you guys once I start scheduling again and I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may cause 🫶

Olaf!!
This handsome young guy is doing AMAZING learning his hand signals! His foster parents are doing fantastic with him! He’s practically mastered Sit, and he’s progressing very well with Lay Down!
He’s kennel trained, potty trained and also up for adoption through Cedar Valley Pit Bull Rescue !!

If you’re looking for a special needs boy that has soooo much love to give, he’s your man!!
Olaf is great with cats, dogs AND kids! He’s 5 months old and is sooooooo sweet, his adoption comes with his training binder to help his family continue to set him up for success!