Don't tell my dog that I'm a mess

Many of my posts, including the most recent one, are riddled with anxiety and pessimism.  It kind of skews things when all I track/worry about are his problem behaviours (which are honestly quite minimal) as well as the things that I'm struggling with in dog training. A couple general positive updates about Pierre: I've found off-leash trails to be a great space for him to meet other dogs as he seems most at ease when we're walking on a path and not just standing around and staring at him. He seems to be most uncomfortable being trapped in areas (i.e., fenced in dog parks) with too many dogs. He's unbelievably friendly and most of his pulling on the leash is now out of genuine excitement about people and other dogs and very rarely due to frustration/anger.  His relationship with our cat is going great; he responds really well to "leave it" if we can see that she's stressed  He's going to be visiting the long-term care facility where I work at th...

"this is an exhausting read" I've had to adjust some unrealistic goals. Actively working on training has been put a bit on the back-burner because Pierre isn't much of a risk to other dogs anymore, my job takes up so much of my time and energy, therapy dog work isn't  realistic at this point for a variety of reasons, and my co-dog-parenting partner and I are not always going to be on the same page (nor can I expect him to have the same intensity or obsession with this that I tend to have). I always envisioned a dog that would have a high toy drive when I dreamed about adopting and Pierre does not have this kind of drive. His main motivators are his people and being outside, and then to a lesser degree food and toys. I've read about working to create a motivational toy which we could do, but we aren't planning on competing so this has been a fairly passive process. I use games of tug and other kinds of play as a motivator for little bursts of regular ...

I recently re-read the entry that I had written hastily about this concept of balance. I noticed that only a few months later, I already disagreed with most of the observations I had made. Just by nature of being fairly new to reading in depth about dog behaviour and training, I'm constantly re-visiting and honing my own skills. This means, I'm constantly addressing my own misconceptions, faux-confidence, and mistakes. The theme of that post was around the idea of figuring out what a balanced approach to dog training looked like in regards to Pierre. Balanced dog training, is a phrase that generally means that it is neither compulsion* or positive-only training, but an appropriate combination of the two, that ideally prioritizes reward-based training, but allows for the space for appropriately timed corrections. This is very individualized based on the dog, like all training truly should be. For example, Pierre bit his last adopter when overwhelmed on a walk. According to w...

The last month or so has been really challenging. I started really long work hours to add to the lack of dog-park time. Pierre's had a hard time adapting to this weird new routine that has been leaving me exhausted, without the time and energy to dedicate to adventures with him or training, and where he doesn't get much, if any, play time with other dogs. Some new rebellious behaviours came up but have since been resolved, and some things we are still working on. Can't blame him for acting out though. For one, he had a weird bout of fearfulness, during which he was fearful of me at certain times of the day. Seemingly because there was a stretch of days where my time at home with him was solely doing things like cutting his nails and cleaning salt out from between his toes in the bath. So, if I called him over, he would look nervous and run right past me to jump on the couch as if to say, "no, don't make me do the thing". He was scared of our bathroom for ...

My general idea for writing today was to explore how he reacts to corrective methods vs. treat/positive reinforcement and our attempts of finding a good combination of the two that work for us. It's hard to keep track, objectively, of the behaviours that I do and how he responds and vice versa. Specifically, with leashed walks. At the beginning I  working on his heeling during walks with more of a combination of treats for good behaviour and a, "Hey!" cue if he's starting to pull, and the collar correction that he gets on his own if he pulls. I generally try to give him verbal cues for him to be able to respond to, and avoid feeling the collar pressure, as well as ensuring that the collar pressure only comes when he's out of line. So, for example, "hey!" was his cue of "you're starting to pull", which gives him the opportunity to respond before feeling the full pressure of the collar. Or, if I tell him, "go see!" and he quickens...

Doing some more weird stuff in my spare time. I'm trying to teach Pierre fun things and to challenge both of our minds to figure out how to communicate better. This ding-a-ling is a smart guy and he's very food-motivated. Excuse the terrible video - I'm trying to take more videos of our training practice so I can see the awkward gestures I'm doing and figure out what's working and what isn't. Things he's working on (though not necessarily in this video): - Solidifying his "sit pretty"; we're practicing it regularly so he eventually can start balancing on his own. - knowing what it means when I ask for a "stand". He had it for a little bit but we let it slide by accident, so we're trying to get to the point where I can give him a random order of, "stand" "sit" and "down" without his brain exploding. - "Down" and "sit" from farther away. Right now, if he's in a sit ...

The most exciting parts of dog training are at the beginning when they just start bonding with you, looking genuinely proud when you’re happy, when they first learn their name and how to do those first few tricks. Everything is treat-based and you are just luring them around into positions you want and feeling positive and successful. You tell all your friends your going to quit your job and become a dog trainer... is that just me? Some of the defeating parts are tackling the annoying, ingrained behaviours, especially when adopting an adult dog, or, when, your dog has started to learn the mistakes you make and to recognize the things they can get away with. --  Pierre with his friend, Joey Bats Pierre’s most challenging behaviour has long been learning how to navigate his excitement levels and his dog reactivity.   When we first got Pierre, the vague impression I had heard about him was that he was, “dominant with other dogs and will not be good in dog pa...