Hi I'm Rye, this is a dog training blog managed by an animal behavior nerd. I mostly talk about dog training and care, ranging from dog gear to agility. But I mostly focus on R+ training and handling for my reactive dog Mercy.
Mercy
Reactive
Muzzle positivity
LIMA training
Welfare over obedience
Im pretty picky with who I reblog. Most reblogs will be dog related and have my very own long dog opinion underneath. i try to post my own content. Most of it is dog training rablings. Probably wont get any photos of my dogs cause I just yap on here mostly. I don't randomly re-blog everything I see so you can be sure it will be 95% dog behavior related stuff if I do re-blog. I understand looking for blogs and find they re-blog every single post related to any minor interest they have. Not hating, but I'm not a fan. I will keep on theme of dog no matter what. May occasinally ask a dog non related question but that will be very very rare to never. You wont get every minor update with Mercy my dog, cause I usually spend a long time typing out either an original post or a reblog. And most of those are very long.
here are some dog blogs that I think do a good job staying on theme
@bam-reactive Alm talks about her reactive rhodisian mix, Rossi. She is a LIMA handler who talks about her dog, training update, animal behavoir and welfare. she does a great job staying on topic of dogs and I genuinely love looking out for new posts from her blog.
@losech hunting dog blog. no focus on animal behavior but OMG its soo cool to see the squrills the dogs retrive. Sometimes there is nature photography that is not about dogs, overall mostly a good job staying on topic of doggos. eekekeke hunt dogs. I Wana hunt with my dog. I cant even handle a gun lol
@abirddogmoment A bird dog training account. Talks about training her own bird dog, Rory. Stays on topic of gun dog stuff and gives out enrichment fun games and tips for dogs. Really like this account. I believe this account is R+ but I may be wrong.
Non Tumblr blogs that I really like
eileenanddogs- I cannot even begin to describe to you how amazing this blog is. You learn something new in every single sentence and she usually posts every single month, and sometimes more than that. Eileen has many different certifications and degrees in animal behavior and psychology. She takes a LIMA approach to her training. Her blog goes back many years and there are many different subjects of knowledge from a R+ perspective. It can get very technical and hard to truly understand at times, but if you ever research dog behavior as a hobby then pls I beg you click the link and check this blog out. She is also a crossover trainer and understands how people fall into the trap of dominance and alpha pack mentality.
Stale Cherrios - Mary Hunter is a R+ horse trainer. You heard that right, horse trainer. She also has stories on her blog about working with dogs, cats, rats, and a fish even. Mary talks about many different topics, especially stuff that even some R+ trainers get wrong and giving her opinion on it and why it is wrong. I don't think the blog is active anymore, but even so there is still a lot of information on there for you to read.
This isn't to say that you have to spend huge amounts of money on your dogs to be a good caretaker, but also if your excuse for cheaping out on their care is "well I have too many dogs for that" whilst still acquiring more dogs, I really have to wonder as to what your priorities are
i'm getting angry thinking about people having pet chihuahuas or other small dogs that they purposefully piss off so they can laugh at their response. that's a living thing that you're supposed to love and protect and now it feels the need to snarl and lunge at you because you're treating it like it's a toy and you're pushing its buttons to hear it play a funny sound.
As someone who works with a lot of hunting dogs, I am extremely lenient with my methods and opinions compared to other trainers, but a hill I will fucking die on is if you are needing to use force fetch methods to get a retriever to retrieve, then you are either not a good trainer, or that dog has no place in your breeding program
Yes, it is a proven fact that R+ based training works for any animal.
Any dog you come across can be trained with R+ methods.
If it "doesn't work" then it's not being applied properly.
But that's the fucking thing. Not everyone, in every situation, can properly apply it.
And I can't find it anywhere in me to think that someone is undeserving of a pet simply because they aren't a professional trainer or behaviorist.
I can't find it in me to think that a dog is better off sitting in a shelter or being trapped in their house when the use of aversive tools can give them the chance to actually live.
If a tool can allow the average pet and their owner to have more freedom and safety then I can't find a way to judge them.
This is an unpopular opinion but I think if you go through the effort of getting an unusual breed of dog, you do have to be okay with being a breed ambassador when you're out in public.
ik people get so mad but honest to god the hill i'll die on is that if you are not willing to put in the effort to properly take care of and healthily maintain your pet you should not have one.
I KNOW i know they're comfort animals that bring you lots of benefits, no matter the creature, but some of you guys are literally causing so much fucking harm to your pets it's unreal.
cats are not meant to be fat and are rather athletic animals that need much more enrichment and exercise than most people are even remotely willing to provide them with.
birds require a lot of precise care and are not meant to be touched or pet in places people love to pet them.
reptiles and amphibians have really strict environmental needs and get stressed super easily.
fish need way more space than most people are willing to give them.
rodents need more space and better environments to safely thrive in than what most people are willing to give them.
different dog breeds require vastly different care methods and environments for peak health and functionality.
contrary to popular belief you CAN'T just adopt an animal and give them the bare minimum (food, water, litter box) and call it good. you NEED to know how to take care of them. you completely control the trajectory of their health and safety.
people are out here hurting and killing their pets and acting like they have a god-given right to do so.
My favorite thing is watching people call marine mammal training abusive - or equating positive reinforcement with food deprivation.
Meanwhile dolphin trainers are responsible for bringing positive reinforcement training to other fields, such as dog training. Dolphin trainers are why clicker training exists, and decades ago pushed for society to view animals as sentient and emotional beings.
Marine mammal trainers played a huge role in creating kind training methods for animals. I don’t think anyone would go through years of college, unpaid internships, a low salary - just to abuse an animal. For all the effort they go through, it requires a genuine passion and love for these animals.
I read Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor. Fun fact, she was originally a dolphin trainer. I think she is the trainer who mainly made clicker training dogs a thing.
I dont know who this is, I will not show their url because I'm not here to call anyone out and I get what they're trying to say
But saying that Gentle Leaders aren't aversive is exactly the same as saying that prongs and ecollars aren't aversive
It's not wrong
But it's also not entirely correct
They are all fundamentally designed to be aversive. But they can be conditioned to be just another piece of equipment
I'm not here to criticize anyone for their use of tools but if you are going to say that gentle leaders/haltis are not aversive, then I am going to make damn sure that viewpoint still stands for prongs, ecollars, and slip leads
Yelling at or arguing with someone who heavily uses corrections and aversives in training is not going to convince them to use gentler methods or start incorporating rewards
The best way to get someone to change their ways is to actually show your success in a judgment-free and polite way
Most people are not just going to stop doing things the way they always have, or have always been taught to, on a whim just because some stranger told them they were wrong
Yall underestimate the power of scatter feeding when you have a difficult dog
Dog barking at absolutely nothing? Throw food on floor
Low on energy and dog driving you crazy? Throw food all around the house or yard
Need to calm down after a big reaction? Scatter that food babe
New people coming over? Throw food on floor
Begging for your food? Throw their food on floor away from you (bonus points if you scatter it in a pen/different room so they start building the habit of going there instead)
Need to distract them from something? Food. On. Floor.
Its all about watch the trigger and making your own good decision, I'm not going to help you. While I personally almost never use scatter feeding, because we had a non-food inhaled during a session and a vet bill. If you use scatter feeding, please make sure in in an area where the dog can only eat the food and not a mystery object.
I used it once, when I wanted Mercy to not focus on the dog passing us, slowly getting closer and closer. Once she was done with searching, she chose to remain completely neutral even while the dog passed by, straining at the end of the leash.
Its ok to distract you dog and use "bribery" occasionally. Not everything has to be a training session.
Apparently one of the "cool" new trends among online dog communities is to hate on Ruffland kennels and say people who get them aren't REALLY protecting their dogs. "Oh they're so much worse than -insertoverpricedkennelbrandhere-"
Because you know. You must drop $800-$1500 on a """better""" car kennel or you want your dog to die in a car accident. If you can only afford $200-500 for a Ruffland you might as well just let your dog be loose in the car apparently 🙄
Can we. Can we consider arguing about real issues. And also maybe stop trying to steer people away from properly containing their dogs in the car just because they can't afford whatever hip new brand is deemed ""the best""
Anyway. This is not really a dogblr thing but boy howdy do I keep seeing it elsewhere. Ughhh.
