You have had your final week, and your course has come to an end! However, this is not the end of your training journey, it is just the start. Continue to build each exercise at your and your dog’s pace. When you are successful, take it to the next level, try it in a new location, add in new distractions.

Watch your dog, learn their subtle body language signals to understand how they may be feeling, use your reward toolbox, continue to mix up your values to in training.

Time management, patience and consistency is absolute key to dog training. Make sure everyone in your dog’s life follows the same methods and rule you have put in place.

Continue to train little and often. Try to incorporate a little training in everyday life, for example you may not be on a training walk, but if you come across a distraction, prevent a reaction or pull, manage the situation. Use your sits before crossing the road or leaving the house to keep on top of the impulse control. Most importantly play with your dog and have fun with your training. We teach positive reinforcement methods because it is the best way our dogs learn, it not only helps them to fully understand what you are trying to teach them, but it helps them to enjoy training and being with you without being forced or ‘controlled’.

Our dogs are with us for such little time, so enjoy them, enjoy their little quirks and what makes them unique and continue to build your bond.

We are always here if you need us and offer our progression classes if you wish to develop everything you have learnt with guidance in the outside world. Now that you have completed the course, you will have full access to any progression class you like.

We wish you the best of luck in your training journey and hope to see you soon!

Jumping up can occur due to multiple different reasons such as attention seeking, overexcitement, frustration, boredom or confusion to name a few. Most of the time our dogs haven’t been taught how to be in certain situations, or don’t know how to calm themselves back down when exciting things happen. We need to think about our body language and how we react and respond to our dogs. If we are talking or greeting them excitedly, stroking them all over or being playful with them, this will lead to jumping or barking behaviours. Remember prevention is key, if we are calmer, they will be calmer. However, sometimes they may not be able to help themselves and may respond with behaviours they know will get them attention, so it is up to us to teach them that jumping up is unacceptable and will get them no attention.

You prevent this measure by predicting when your dog is most likely to exhibit these behaviours, so you use your prevention tools such as the settle, attention to name, sit if needed or to move them away before it occurs. Teach them what you would like them to do when being greeted, always start easy when teaching something new, then build on it. This could like nicely with your sit or doorways progression with impulse control around a door when visitors are entering. Remember to reward your dog for when they are doing good, so if they are calm and not jumping up, reward this with appropriate attention or treats. This will increase the likelihood of them repeating the calming behaviours they exhibit as good stuff happens when they do this, but maybe aren’t always rewarded for. It is very common that we accidentally ignore the good behaviours our dogs do for us, but reward the bad by giving it attention in attempts for it to stop.

These next steps are what to do if your dog is already jumping if you cannot prevent it.

Jumping up management step by step:

Step 1: As soon as your dog jumps or starts to bark stand up and turn your back to them. Cross your arms (this will make sure they have nothing to grab hold of for a reaction).

Step 2: If your dog persists to jump up or starts to bark then leave the room and close the door behind you.

Step 3: Wait for your dog to calm down, then re-enter the room/ give them appropriate calming attention when all four paws are on the floor and calm. Make sure they are calm before you approach and keep your interactions relaxed. Set them up for success.

Step 4: If your dog is too overwhelmed and is not calming down/continuing to jump up/ mouthing when you have re-entered the room or you have re-engaged with them, then leave for longer. After a calming period has occurred, give them something to do to eliminate the opportunity to start again. Give them a puzzle, enrichment item or practice the settle on their bed/blanket.

Tip: Remember to set your dog up for success. Prevention is always key. Any communication, included ‘No’, ‘Down’, or pushing them away, moving them into another room, is attention and will be rewarding and encouraging for your dog to repeat it again. Teach your dog that those unwanted behaviours = no attention at all. Make sure everyone around your dog reacts the same. It will take consistency and patience.

Side note: Things will sometimes get worse before it gets better, however this typically means it’s working. This is called an extinction burst. This burst is a last attempt to get your attention, they know it’s worked before and now can’t understand why it is not working, so they will try with all their might to get you to crack (making it seem worse) but hold your ground and persist and you will see a massive improvement. For example, if the TV remote stops working, we do not automatically change the batteries, we will press those buttons continuously and harder until it works again before we realise, we must change the batteries. This is the same with our dogs, they are pressing our buttons hard hoping it works to get them attention, but soon enough they will change the batteries and understand the easier, calmer ways to get our attention.

Meeting People:

Be prepared to tell people your house rules, or rules for greeting your dog. If you are early in your training, limit who can say hello to them if you know they will jump up. Simply apologise and say that your dog is in training, maybe next time! You may feel like your dog can say hello, so make sure your dog is relaxed before they say hello, then you may wish to tell the person your ‘rules’. For example, yes you can say hello, but they may jump up, so could you please remain calm and if they jump, please could you stop and ignore them etc. Be an advocate for your dog, will it really make your dog’s life any better if every person says hello to them. Set them up for success!

You will continue to build your loose lead walking and recall at your own pace, adding in distractions when appropriate. Refer back to previous weeks for tips and advice on how to continue to build your training.

It is key to remember your steps, when adding in more difficulty such as distractions, distance etc, how can you make the exercise easier for your dog to succeed and understand. Each new distraction or location may be a big challenge for your dog, so if it’s hard, think about how you can prevent failure and manage the situation to best support your dog so that they continue to learn and understand what you are asking them.

Our dogs do not have the capability to be stubborn, therefore it is typically because they simply do not understand, or they are finding it difficult. It is a very overwhelming world for our dogs and training is work, so they may not always be in the mood, and we all have good days and bad days.

Walks

Think about the different walks you can take your dog on to increase engagement and to make the walk enjoyable for you both.

• Casual sniffing walks

• Obedience training walks

• Recall training walks (with lots of play!!)

• Using your environment walks (you can make an agility course using a nearby park, weave in and out of rocks, climb across logs etc).

Always start your walks with a few check ins, or sits, etc to build the focus and to set the tone for the walk. Then when you come across any distractions you’ve already got a calmer dog able to focus and build on your training.

As you build your training, you will be able to phase certain aspects out, for example, the regular check ins or getting their focus when walking past dogs or recalling when you see dogs entering a field. These behaviours that you are repeating with your dog, will become learnt behaviours through repetition and positive reward. The positive rewards increase the likelihood that your dog will want to repeat that behaviour and learn what it is you’d like them to do in each situation. Therefore, it will start to occur naturally, for example seeing a dog will become a signal to look at you and check in as it has become a repeated behaviour that gets them positive attention and rewards.

Body language is always key and will help you to make the right choices for you and your dog.

Our dogs are continuously socialising. They have been socialising through the whole course. They do not need to say hello to every single dog or person they meet to become ‘socialised’. This can actually have the opposite effect and cause more issues. If your dog is able to say hello to every dog they meet, that then becomes the expectation. So, what happens when they can’t? Do they get frustrated, pull on the lead, stop still, get low to the floor, not move? Do they bark or lunge? These are all signs of confusion and frustration from no longer being able to say hello. It can start with excitement and quickly turn into aggression.

Our dogs are contextual. They may be great with dogs, then they start to experience this lead ‘reactivity’ (your dog reacting in any certain way towards something) through frustration. If you pull back on the lead or tug the lead and perhaps tell them ‘no’. They will associate the uncomfortable feeling of the lead tug with the other dog. They see a dog, they feel the lead get tense and uncomfortable on their collar or harness, so they will think the other dog is causing this feeling as it now happens every time, they see a dog (because we become more anxious and grip the lead tighter). This is why the loose lead methods are in place to teach our dogs the right way without using the equipment to avoid any tension or negative associations with their environment. We can also prevent this through appropriate socialisation, which we have done throughout the course. Teaching our dogs how to behave in a step-by-step manner from easy to difficult increasing the distractions. We have been neutralizing them around people and dogs, without the expectations to say hello.

Meeting other dogs:

Our dogs only need 3 seconds to know everything they need to know about another dog. This can be the decider to whether your dogs will pounce into a play, decide they don’t like each other or to remain indifferent. When meeting new dogs, its best to read your dog’s body language to whether this dog will benefit their lives or their training. Can your dog remain calm around the other dog without meeting it? If it’s too overwhelmed or excited, are we setting our dogs up to fail and to practice behaviours we do not want?

If your dog is calm, allow them to greet the other dog for 3 seconds. Then using your loose lead management call them away or pop a treat on their nose and get their focus back on you. That is a perfect meet and greet. You can then build to walks or play dates if you wish.

You can also build your training to walk with other well-manner dogs’ side by side (you can start at a distance and reduce the distance as both dogs feel more comfortable to do so). Walking calmly with other dogs without a play session is perfect socialisation and encourages the calmness when walking around other dogs.

Some dogs prefer their own company, or your company or just company of people. So always make sure your dog is comfortable, and it will benefit them, not just because we think they should.

Last week we focused on helping our dogs feel comfortable when being touched and handled, whilst remaining relaxed and still. This week we are progressing to the process of introducing new items or equipment that we may use in our dog’s every day lives.

These new items could be a towel, nail clippers, toothbrush, brush, clippers, harness, collar and lead, muzzle etc. It could be for anything! The process is the exact same as last week, however instead of using our hand, we will use a new piece of equipment. Starting at a distance and slowly progressing to being able to touch our dogs with these items whilst they are comfortable, relaxed and still. This will make your life a lot easier and they will also thank you for the slow introduction, so that they learn there is nothing to fear.

Again, this exercise will help you to understand how your dog may feel through body language and building their trust in you so that being handled in a certain way is consensual from the dog and preventing those future problems. Remember, if your dog isn’t sure, is too excited or uncomfortable, stop the exercise and next time take it back a stage and slow down.

 Exercise Step By Step:

-Step 1: Stand on lead, hands behind back, treat in one hand, your piece of equipment in the other hand, also out of sight. Make sure the treat is out of sight as we don’t want our dogs to feel conflicted by doing something they are uncomfortable with, just because there’s a treat on show. You could also put the treat on the side and out of your hand to avoid that conflict.

-Step 2: Do not ask your dog to do anything, we want them to be comfortable, we are only looking for them to be still. Use your chosen word, for example ‘still’, then move your hand with the item in out to side at shoulder height, mark dog for being still, take away item & reward with other hand (take away scary object before rewarding) x5.

-Step 4: If your dog is remaining still and relaxed, you can start to move the hand with the item slightly lower and repeat the process. Each time your dog is still and remains relaxed, move the item closer. Come from the side of the body, not head on (a lot of dogs are uncomfortable with things going over their heads, especially if they haven’t been introduced properly).

-Step 5: Once you are able to touch your dog with the item, whilst they are being still and relaxed, you can start to touch it on different parts of the body or work on the area the item is used for. For example, nail clippers around the paw areas (still turned off). Then you would slowly progress to using the item if they are comfortable to do so, start with short periods of time, then build the time as they remain comfortable.