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What to Do When Your Dog Won’t Listen
Let’s face it, we’ve all been there. That dog that was so well trained has now stopped listening, doesn’t come when called and basically does what he wants. It can happen for a lot of reasons: Not practicing Not enough positive reinforcement Changes to your daily routine Not asking enough of your dog I have a multi-dog household, so sometimes if practice or training time is limited on my part, they start to slip and the pack can take over in no time. Sometimes you need to just hit the reset button and re-start your training (and your mindset!). Our … Continue reading →
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The 4 Quadrants of Dog Training: Are You Doing All Four?
There are four ‘quadrants’ when it comes to dog training; positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. To summarise quickly… Positive reinforcement is when you add something to the dogs environment that he likes for example if he sits he gets a piece of cheese. This increases the chances of the behaviour happening again. Negative reinforcement is when you remove something the dog doesn’t like from the environment; for example stopping an electric shock when the dog eventually sits down. The dog learns that by sitting he avoids the shock thus increasing the chances of the behaviour happening … Continue reading →
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The Risks of Using Choke Chain or Prong Collars on Your Dog
“Do you…WANT TO GO FOR A WALKIES?” Those can be a dogs favorite words along with, “Do you… WANT TO EAT?” Sadly, for some dogs the walk experience is fraught with frustration, confusion and outright pain. For some dog owners the walk experience may be fraught with similar feelings of frustration and anxiety as they struggle to have a pleasant walk with their dog that has not been educated about how to walk in a relaxed manner with their person. For other dog owners they may think they have pulling behavior under control by using outdated dominance/punishment training methods. People using … Continue reading →
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