#dog behaviourists

[dogtraininglifestyle]

Training is not only a way to better your dog but to better yourself.

[dogtraininglifestyle]

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[dogtraininglifestyle]

DogTrainingLifestyle- Team of Certified Professional Dog Behaviourists

Every dog needs basic training. Learn about dog psychology and the best methods to help your dog overcome any behavior. It's important to start training your dog as soon as possible at www.dogtraininglifestyle.com

[cbehaviourist-blog]

Who do you call? Simple advice for choosing a dog behaviourist

So, you have a dog with problems. Who do you call? Certainly not ghostbusters!

During my studies over the past year, I have met quite a few dog owners with worrying tales to tell of their experiences with dog trainers and behaviourists.

Some of the advice they are given is staggeringly bad, from keeping dogs indoors for weeks at a time or physically punishing them in one way or another or, just being told that they, the ‘professionals’ cannot help their dog.

One, unfortunate, soul has had the experience of three ‘professional’ behaviourists:

One visited and sat in a room, apart from the dog, and gave her opinions to the owner at the cost of over £100, without, ever, evaluating the dog.

Another told the owner to keep her dog ‘quiet’ for a year!

The other took one look, from a car, and told the owner to return the dog to the rescue centre.

Frankly, all of these examples are staggering.

It is not surprising, that with the shoddy advice, that the poor dog has not been helped over the past three years. The poor owner has struggled over this time and continues to do so.

Unfortunately, there are many courses out there all purporting to give people the skills required to be a behaviourist or trainer. Many of these courses are of very low quality. The problem is then made worse by the number of ‘professional bodies’ that impart the veneer of professionalism to people with limited knowledge and skills, making them an extremely poor choice to help dogs and their owners.

Research is vitally important when choosing someone to help you with your dog. Ask your vet for recommendations and then research these people to find out their level of training and experience. Don’t be wowed with fancy certificates and membership of impressive-sounding professional bodies. People who have studied a few courses at level three — providing basic training — are unlikely to possess the depth of knowledge required to deal with the complex behavioural issues that dogs may present.

Any behaviourist worth their salt will refer you to your vet, initially — the vet should be aware of the behaviourist and be prepared to refer you to them. All behaviourists should take a full history of your pet and discuss with you how to progress. They should also be prepared to visit for followup and to observe the dog in the situations were behavioural issues present.

Ultimately, be very careful who you engage to help you with your dog.

[in-love-with-an-artist]

Dam that cooking oil, You will always need it!

Good morning readers. Ahh the sun is shining.. the birds are singing, you climb out of bed smiling at the alarm that has not yet gone off. You look over to your empty dog bed not registering that your dog is not there. Rubbing your eyes,  you slump down the stairs and flick the kettle on. “Whats that racket” you say! Stood by the door you see your dog barking at what looks to be like the door frame. You open the door and head back to your whistling kettle to continue that peaceful cup of morning tea. If thats not the way your morning plans out.. your not alone.

The door was not what the dog was barking at and in fact now he is fixated on birds, cars, people, oh and yep… there goes the next door neighbours dog too.

So here we are today with one of the most common problems a dog owner can encounter, and I do not blame you when you don’t know what to do next. There are plenty of options but what shall I do?. Walk right into a pet shop and I bet you the first thing they pass you is a pet corrector. “just blast this loud noise when they bark and they will stop” they say with confidence which fills you with relief. What reasons do you have not to try this?

A pet corrector is a training device, but there is one big fall out for devices. No, I’m not going to tell you that this device is harming your dog as that would be a lie, but the major fall out is… you will always need to use it.

 Say I told you that when your cooking bacon, there is a particular oil you can use that would stop it from spitting at you. This oil will only work if you line the pan with it before you cook. This would mean that you would always need it. What if I was to then tell you; that you could change the way you cook, which would then stop the oil from spitting at you anyway. Once you had got the hang of the new way of cooking, you will never get burnt again. This is the best way to describe a training device. If you haven’t already clicked.. you will always need it and you can never train without it.

A loud noise from a pet corrector will startle the dog for a second, and maybe make the dog think twice about doing what he was about to do, but then what happens next time.. out comes the pet corrector again. If you are needing to continue to use it… then its not really working is it? If you were to work with your dog to find out A) what they were barking at and B) if they want to get at that specific thing or just want your attention, you can then work to change the dogs behaviour and way of thinking.

A dog can create a habit out of behaviours even if there is no point to them anymore. So to break that cycle we must work closely with them to understand the reason.  There are no quick fixes, and a quick fix is not necessarily a good thing, unless you want to go back over and try to fix it again in a few months time!

So put that pet corrector down, grab a few cut up bits of chicken or hot dog, and start to reintroduce the world to your dog but without the barking. Start slowly by taking him away from the situation and then reintroducing the moment your dog has become calm. If you find that they bark again straight away, you do not need to say a word, just walk them out of the room, wait until they are calm and then reintroduce them again. Praise the moment they are calm when facing with the thing that set them off when you started. Praise is the key! Well that, and patience….

I could go on and on about many methods to help the barking, but that will have to be a separate post.

I hope you have enjoyed my rants about training devices… and maybe i brought light to the topic.

Enjoy and Happy Training fluffy owners!