Training Information

Client Library

• Avoiding Separation Anxiety in Puppies New puppy owners often unwittingly encourage an unhealthy dependency which leads to Separation Anxiety as the puppy ages. Puppies are naturally dependant and will likely protest at being left alone with loud vocalisations, disruptive behaviour, scratching and other attention seeking behaviours, this is normal. Puppies feel vulnerable and in danger when left alone. Our task is to teach them to adapt to separation in a constructive manner....
• Barking Barking generally falls into five categories. To cut down on any kind of barking, give your dog plenty of exercise and arrange for mental stimulation when he is left alone. Feed him using puzzle toys or stuffed Kongs....
• Chew Training Biologists tell us chewing is all about toning jaw muscles. Dogs no longer need to split bones and grind down marrow to survive, but the urge is hardwired into them. And into some more than others! Some dogs live to chew; others can take it or leave it. How often dogs chew and what they chew also fall under individual taste....
• Clicker Training Clicker training means using a sound (a click) to communicate with your dog. Clickers have been in use for more than forty years. The method is best known from the world of marine animal training where people need a way to communicate with animals like dolphins and orcas that can’t be controlled physically....
• Confinement Training A place for your dog to stay when you can’t provide 100% supervision. In other words, when you are out, or busy around the house, and can’t keep your eyes on him the entire time. It prevents chewing accidents, potty accidents, and teaches your dog to be alone. ...
• Coping With Visitors to the House Getting into a good routine right away pays dividends down the road. You and your dog will both know what to do, and your guests won’t get jumped on....
• Crate Training an Adult Dog Because a crate is a terrific training and management tool. It is useful for house-training, brief alone-time, settling, and any form of travel. Most importantly, a crate teaches your dog to hold it when he has to go to the toilet. A crate helps your dogs in many ways—and saves your carpets....
• Debunking Dominance The notion of dominance in dogs stems from a misunderstanding of wolf pack research that was then applied to pet dogs. Unfortunately, the notion stuck. It was always likely to stick, because we humans organise ourselves in hierarchies so the idea seems utterly plausible to us. But even if the dominance principle applied to wolves—research now definitively shows it doesn’t—pet dogs are no more wolves than we are chimpanzees....
• Desensitising Dogs To Things They Fear Desensitisation is the process of changing a dog’s association with an object, animal, or person from something scary to something safe. It works by exposing the dog to the scary thing a little at a time and always at a level with which she is comfortable....
• Desensitising Your Dog To A Head Collar A head halter is a humane anti-pull collar. It works by giving you leverage. The same principle is used for leading around large animals like horses.A head halter, however, is not a training device. You can use it permanently or just while you train your dog not to pull; wearing the halter doesn’t teach your dog not to pull, it simply prevents it....
• Diet and Dogs It is widely accepted that diet plays a major role in the mental health of any being, whether human or canine. Therefore, the value of a good quality diet cannot be underestimated in the behavioural health of dogs. Commercially prepared foods such as dry foods (kibble) often contain numerous preservatives, additives, flavourings and dyes that are used in the manufacturing process. These chemicals can have an adverse effect on behaviour, research seems to support this. Other ingredients...
• Digging Because it’s fun. Dogs love to bury or recover bones, dig out prey like mice and rats, or make a nice cooling pit when the weather is warm. Another reason dogs dig? Too much time spent alone in the yard....
• Does My Dog Have Separation Anxiety Dogs are social creatures and their ability to form close, affectionate bonds with humans has earned them the special place they currently occupy in human society. Many dogs are regarded as nothing less than family members, often receiving a level of care, affection and attention that is normally reserved for children...
• Drop Drop is a great command for dogs that need to learn to relax in one place for long periods of time. It is also excellent for jumpy dogs because jumping up from a drop is harder than from a sit. And lying down can be helpful for big dogs by making them less intimidating when meeting children or people nervous around dogs....
• Drop - Clicker Drop is a great command for dogs that need to learn to relax in one place for long periods of time. It is also excellent for jumpy dogs because jumping up from a drop is harder than from a sit. And lying down can be helpful for big dogs by making them less intimidating when meeting children or people nervous around dogs....
• Go To Your Mat Go to your mat in an essential exercise for controlling your dog indoors stopping them from door rushing, jumping on visitors or simply training a place to go and settle....
• Hand Target Because it is a useful foundation for many more advanced behaviors and gives you a way to capture your dog’s attention and direct his movements. For example, coming toward you to touch your hand is a great start on recall and touching someone’s hand is a nice alternative to jumping on them....
• Hand Target - Clicker Because it’s a useful foundation for many more advanced behaviours and gives you a way to capture your dog’s attention and direct his movements. For example, coming toward you to touch your hand is a great start on recall and touching someone’s hand is a nice alternative to jumping on them. ...
• Handling Because you want your puppy—and later your grown dog—to cheerfully accept being touched by many different people (children, friendly strangers, the groomer, the vet, etc.) in many different situations. ...
• Heel - Clicker To spare your arms—and your dog’s trachea. It is not fun or safe to have your dog take you for a walk, and pulling while wearing a collar can actually damage your dog’s throat.Heel is particularly good when you have to walk your dog through a crowded area or past distractions....
• Heel - Lure To spare your arms—and your dog’s trachea. It is not fun or safe to have your dog take you for a walk, and pulling while wearing a collar can actually damage your dog’s throat.Heel is particularly good when you have to walk your dog through a crowded area or past distractions....
• House Training an Adult Dog Ideally, yes. And dogs are naturally clean animals. Given a choice, they will go to the bathroom well away from where they sleep and eat. But it is not at all obvious to dogs that carpets and floors are inappropriate toilets—or that the toileting rules in one place apply everywhere else....
• Housetraining a Puppy The ideal confinement area is easy to clean and easy to close off with a door or baby gate. It should be mostly free of furniture and non-puppy related objects. The best places for a confinement area are the kitchen, laundry, bathroom, or an empty spare room....
• Housetraining Log Housetraining Accident Log...
• How Dogs Learn We humans learn by association, too. When you meet someone for the first time you come away with an association—positive, negative, or neutral. If you really enjoyed the interaction, you are likely to be happy to see that person again. If you found the person difficult or argumentative, you might get that little pit of dread in your belly when you see him or her again—you have formed a negative association with that person....
• How Dogs Learn - Clicker We humans learn by association, too. When you meet someone for the first time you come away with an association—positive, negative, or neutral. If you really enjoyed the interaction, you are likely to be happy to see that person again. If you found the person difficult or argumentative, you might get that little pit of dread in your belly when you see him or her again—you have formed a negative association with that person....
• Inrtoducing Dogs to New Dogs in the Home To successfully introduce a new dog into your household, plan ahead and be patient. Don’t assume the dogs will instantly like each other or, if they don’t, that they will work things out themselves. If your dogs get off on the wrong paw, the relationship might not recover. Taking a little extra time is well worth the effort....
• Introducing Dogs Babies From your dog’s point of view, a baby is the strangest creature that ever was. It screams and thrashes, coos and gurgles. It smells funny. It also consumes the energy of previously devoted pet owners. Weeks go by and suddenly your once-well-behaved dog is chewing the furniture. There you are, already overwhelmed by nappies, feeding, and sleep deprivation. Do you put the dog in the yard all day? Ask family to take him over, even if it breaks your heart?...
• Introducing Dogs Cats Cats who haven’t lived with dogs almost always behave defensively the first time they meet a new dog. If the dog doesn’t come on too strong, and if the cat is given dog-free zones to retreat to, many cats will gradually get used to the dog and sometimes even become bonded. (But this can take weeks or months, so be patient.)...
• Jumping Dogs jump up to say hello, quite simply. They don’t know how humans prefer to be greeted, and it never occurs to them that they might knock us over or ruin our clothes. Thankfully, consistent anti-jump training can quickly solve the problem for good....
• Kitchen Mealtime Training Because you want to teach your dog not to be underfoot while you are busy in the kitchen, and not to beg for food or steal food off the bench or table. But train when you have time for it. Christmas Dinner, for example, is probably not the ideal day for dog training. On such occasions, crate your dog or put him in his confinement area with a good bone or chewie....
• Leave It The leave-it command is great for calling your dog away from things not intended for him, like appetizers set out on your coffee table or a baby’s toys or nappy, or things that are downright dangerous, like chicken bones left on the street or in the rubbish...
• Lets Go Lets go is a great command that lets your dog know you are about to start walking. Think of let’s go as an on-leash recall....
• Loose-Leash Walking To spare your arms—and your dog’s trachea. It is not fun or safe for you to have a dog take you for a walk, and pulling while wearing a collar can actually damage your dog’s throat.Since our dogs spend most of their time outside on-leash, training them to walk without pulling is better for everyone...
• Loose-Leash Walking Clicker To spare your arms—and your dog’s trachea. It is not fun or safe for you to have a dog take you for a walk, and pulling while wearing a collar can actually damage your dog’s throat.Since our dogs spend most of their time outside on-leash, training them to walk without pulling is better for everyone...
• Muzzle Desensitisation Muzzles are for everyone’s safety, including your dog’s. In situations where you can’t control everything that happens around you, it is best to protect him. The good news is that your dog can learn to downright love his muzzle—and getting him out and about is much more important than what headgear he wears....
• Nothing For Free Training Strategy A training strategy that uses everyday situations to reward good manners and practice obedience without setting aside hours of special practice time.Applying the principle of Nothing For Free is simple. Whatever your dog wants, he has to work for. From now on, doors are not opened willy-nilly; balls are not simply thrown. For those, and countless other privileges, ask your dog to say please by sitting, doing a drop, spinning or performing whatever trick he knows.   ...
• Out About Training So you can confidently and safely take your dog with you anywhere, and make the experience an enjoyable one for you both....
• Physical Mental Exercise Dogs are a lot like children. If you don’t give them something fun to do, they will make their own fun—and often not in ways you approve of.Give your dog plenty of physical and mental exercise, and you get a happier, healthier, better-behaved dog. Well-exercised dogs bark less, chew less, sleep more, and rest easier if left home alone. They are also much less likely to rummage through the rubbish or attack the couch cushions....
• Physical Mental Exercise Plan To make sure your dog gets the exercise and stimulation he needs, the best thing to do is to create a plan. Think about your dog’s daily routine and choose what type of exercise (for the body and brain) your dog will receive, who will be in charge of making it happen and for how long....
• Recall - Come When Called So your dog will come when it is truly important and so that you can keep him safe from harm such as cars, snakes, cane toads etc!...
• Recommended Pet Sitting Services When going on holiday it is important that the family dog is cared for and their daily needs are met without much interruption to routine. It is stressful enough for your dog to be away from you without the added stress of being kenneled or left home alone. ...
• Resource Guarding Resource guarding is the technical term for a dog’s possessiveness about anything she likes. We humans learn early in life that sharing is the polite thing to do. We often expect dogs to understand this and think we should be able to handle a dog’s toys or food as a matter of course. But protecting favorite things is completely natural for a dog....
• Selecting A Dog More often than not, we choose which dog to get based on appearance—whichever breed or size or color appeals to us. I may have wanted a Jack Russell terrier ever since I fell in love with Eddie on the TV show Frasier. Or maybe I have found myself admiring a well-trained Border Collie at the dog park, thinking, “That’s the kind of dog I want.”...
• Shy Dogs Some dogs are afraid of new people—or categories of people, like men or children. Some dogs are afraid of meeting people for the first time, but warm up eventually. Other dogs are afraid of new situations like visiting a friend’s house for a barbecue or traveling in strange cars. Yet other dogs are afraid only of specific situations like going to the vet or being in crowds. Some dogs are sound sensitive; afraid of loud or sudden noises like a car backfiring, a vacuum cleaner, or...
• Sibling Rivalry in Dogs All dogs squabble occasionally. Mostly, dogs who live together get into scraps over stuff they both want: Food, bones, toys, human attention, and sleeping spots. Like us, they also have individual preferences and moods, and might be having a grumpy day or a headache. ...
• Sit Every dog should have one command she can do anywhere, anytime. Sit is a great contender for that job. It gives your dog a way to say, “Please,” and can become her default greeting, which stops her from jumping on people....
• Size Differences in Dogs Your Chihuahua may love Boxers and your Rottie mix may adore Dachshunds. But when little and big play together, keep close watch. Big dogs can unintentionally harm small dogs—and on the rare occasions when friendly play escalates into a scuffle, the smaller dog is at risk for serious injury or death....
• Socialising a Puppy Socialisation is the developmental process whereby puppies and adolescent dogs familiarse themselves with their constantly changing surroundings. It is how they work out what is safe and good as opposed to what is dangerous and not-so-good.  ...
• Stand Stand is a helpful command during vet examinations. Also, learning this command will compel your dog to distinguish between sit and down, as in, learn the words. Adding another command into the mix forces dogs to pay better attention and stop guessing. Most never do—they offer one or the other willy-nilly, to the eternal frustration of their owner....
• Stand Clicker Stand is a helpful command during vet examinations. Also, learning this command will compel your dog to distinguish between sit and down, as in, learn the words. Adding another command into the mix forces dogs to pay better attention and stop guessing. Most never do—they offer one or the other willy-nilly, to the eternal frustration of their owner....
• Stay - Advance Stand in front of your dog. Tell your dog, “Stay” in a cheerful tone of voice, pause for a second, then give the stay hand signal: Hand out in front of you, palm facing dog. Step back with both feet. Immediately return to your original position. Praise and treat. Repeat several times....
• Stay 1 - Duration Choose a quiet place to practice with few distractions so it is easy for your dog to focus on you. To train a successful stay, build it one step at a time: First duration, then distance, and finally distraction. Once your dog is good at all three, you will put them together....
• Stay 1 - Duration - Clicker Choose a quiet place to practice with few distractions so it is easy for your dog to focus on you. To train a successful stay, build it one step at a time: First duration, then distance, and finally distraction. Once your dog is good at all three, you will put them together. ...
• Stay 2 - Distance Stand in front of your dog. Tell your dog, “Stay” in a cheerful tone of voice, pause for a second, then give the stay hand signal: Hand out in front of you, palm facing dog. Praise and treat. Repeat this a couple of times to get your dog into the game....
• Stay 2 - Distance - Clicker Stand in front of your dog. Tell your dog, “Stay” in a cheerful tone of voice, pause for a second, then give the stay hand signal: Hand out in front of you, palm facing dog. Praise and treat. Repeat this a couple of times to get your dog into the game....
• Stay 3 - Distraction Before you take on real-life distractions that are more difficult to control, create your own for practice purposes. You can bounce a tennis ball, squeak a toy, or recruit a family member to walk by. The important thing is to keep the distraction small enough that your dog will be able to hold her stay....
• Stay 3 - Distraction - Clicker Before you take on real-life distractions that are more difficult to control, create your own for practice purposes. You can bounce a tennis ball, squeak a toy, or recruit a family member to walk by. The important thing is to keep the distraction small enough that your dog will be able to hold her stay....
• Teaching Bite Inhibition Puppies are little biting machines. They bite things that move, things that don’t move, each other, your hands, anything. Not only is this normal, it is an important part of their development. When puppies play, they learn from their playmates’ yelps and body language when a bite is too hard. Over time, a puppy figures out how to use her mouth more gently (inhibit her bite) to keep play going....
• Teaching Your Dog Something New 3 ways to teach to teach your dog to do something specific on command, you get your dog to perform the particular behaviour, then reward it. The tricky part is getting your dog to do the behavior. There are 3 ways to do this: ...
• Toilet Training Difficulties Puppies are incapable of seeking revenge, being spiteful and are not disobedient. They are simply just not toilet trained. This article outlines the reasons that people have difficulties with housetraining and some remedies. If you still have difficulties despite following the tips in this article then it may be time to have a behavioural trainer visit your home to assist you....
• Wait Door-dashing is a favorite sport of most dogs. It is just so exiting to get to the other side. But in addition to being irritating to us, it can also be dangerous. Sometimes what is on the other side is a busy street. The wait command teaches your dog to pause or stop at the doorway until you give the all clear....
• Watch Because getting your dog’s focus with a single word is very useful. You can distract him from enticing rubbish in the street, for example, or keep his eyes on you when walking past another dog. Plus, dogs that are rewarded for paying attention do it more. And attentive dogs are easier to train....
• Watch - Clicker Because getting your dog’s focus with a single word is very useful. You can distract him from enticing rubbish in the street, for example, or keep his eyes on you when walking past another dog. Plus, dogs that are rewarded for paying attention do it more. And attentive dogs are easier to train....