Hart'S Canine Coaching

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AUTUMN COURSES Rolling start dates to suit you . Minimum 6 week foundation coaching courses. Ring today to book a consultation ( *nb this is a seperate product and will be charged as such under the terms and conditions of Hart's Canine Coaching) . Enquire today to find out more :

Hi peeps. So todays challenge if you choose to accept it is to name your favourite song and I will try to pick some of the lyrics from it to make into something trainable with your dog. Go!

'UNCHAINED MELLOWDY' -returning to calm behaviour. This article is about undoing 'bad habits' owners have accidently set up as superstitious behaviour patterns with their dogs (or in trainer jargon setting up a behaviour chain through repetition).
Most owners at some point in their dogs training have unwittingly re-enforced a behaviour pattern that has later become a problem (I know I have)
... So to outline how this happen:
Firstly dogs do what works for them ( good or bad) . This mean we are often unaware straight away that we are helping to set up behaviour that at first we thought was cute or funny but later escalates to become an irritating or embarassing habit
Other mistakes we make (we are human) is to misread our dogs body language . A wagging tail, and pricked ears doesn't necessarily mean our/ or the other dog is friendly, suddenly we are tightening the lead and trying to go in the other direction , momentarily too late after the behaviour has escalated and feeding our dog a treat to try defuse the situation (actually re-enforcing the behaviour instead ) so the next encounter may generate the same response, see how the Chain of Behaviour is starting to form?
Does the behaviour happen on the same point on each walk ? Or toward a certain dog (even if the dog isn't actually present the scent of them in the environment can be enough to preempt the trigger the escalate behavioir). This is where the Superstitious Learning comes in because we have tried to use treats as a Lure in the presense of the dog or other trigger (cars, bikes etc). so we have started to add another 'Link to the Chain' by re-enforcing and intensifying and prolonging the behaviour.
The good news is we can undo this sequence of 'Superstitious ' learned behaviour with some carefully planned remedial coaching.
If you are encountering this with your dog please get in touch and I will be happy to give you some guidence. For safety sake I am not concluding this article with generic advice because timing is crucial for changing and stopping the escalation of chained behaviours.
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