One of the reasons many people come to Woof Like To Meet is to read about my disasterous experience with an adoption that inadvertently brought me, three years later, to a point where I not only – finally – understand it, but can work with dogs to help them overcome their emotions and deal with … Continue reading How to work with your dog to overcome triggers
When we adopt a dog, what we expect is for them to be happy. We like to think that they get what’s happening and that it’s all blooming marvellous. We tell ourselves that they know what’s going on and that they’re going to love it. Many of us are guilty of thinking that love will be … Continue reading Trigger stacking: how we set our dogs up to fail
* At least until they’re really well and truly ready for it… One comment that strikes the fear of God into me when I hear people talking about their new rescue dog is “I’ve been taking him to the market to socialise him.” This is closely followed by my fear of comments saying, “I’ve been … Continue reading Two Places Not To take A Dog Who is Afraid of People
In the last few posts, I’ve been taking you through some of the training methods I use most with clients: desensitisation and counterconditioning in particular. Where there are emotional undercurrents behind the behaviour, if you don’t address them, your very best training programme in the world will fail. This is why these two skills underpin … Continue reading Improving your desensitisation and counterconditioning
I’ve got a confession to make. I talk about threshold all the time. I can’t think of a training session I’ve done where I’ve not talked about threshold in the last four years. And yet, I know I talk about it as if it’s just self-evident, when I know it’s not. When we’re working to … Continue reading Threshold
Fearful behaviour is another really thorny, long-term issue that many adoptants struggle with, particularly if your new rescue is completely shut down. In many ways, like separation anxiety, it is one of the most distressing behaviours that your dog can suffer from. Often, it can be tied up with aggression or reactivity around humans or … Continue reading Fearful behaviour
Always be kind to animals, Morning, noon and night. For animals have feelings too, And furthermore, they bite. — John Gardner Newsflash, oh people with internet… Dogs bite! They mouth, they chew, they snap, they show their teeth, they play bite, they open their mouths wide to show us their lovely pearly whites…. it’s what … Continue reading Problem Behaviours: Biting
Today, the shelter accepted the fifth dog in as many weeks that had been surrendered for biting a child. It seems more and more that we are having to write “NO CHILDREN” on dogs’ files as they come into our facility rambunctious around adults, boisterous around children or unpredictably over-excited. Whilst some dogs bite out … Continue reading Changes in environment and its effects on dog bite behaviour
