Guide for Dog Owners

Guide for Dog Owners

 
Welcome to the K9 Manhunt & Scentwork Scotland Guide for Dog Owners.
 
1. The Power of Value
How much have you spent on “high value !treats for your dog to turn their nose up at it a few days later? How many brands of dog food have you tried in order to get your dog to eat a full meal? High value foods are often a short-term fix for long term issues and what happens when Sirloin steak isn’t cutting it for your furry four-legged pal? So, what do we suggest? Using your dog’s daily allowance of food and nothing more through hand feeding.

Yes, even you raw feeders! One of our trainers feeds cold pressed food and raw food by hand to her 2 dogs. You can make it as difficult or as easy for yourself. When we say to hand feed, we don’t mean pouring the food into your hands and offering it to your dog like you would in a bowl. First step, get rid of your dog bowls and invest in a treat pouch. Weigh your dog’s daily allowance out in the morning and start using it to train your dog in short sessions.

Take the food when you are out walking your dog and kill two birds with one stone as they say! You’ll see a huge difference in your dog’s engagement towards you and motivation to be with you. We want the dog to see you as the highest value thing in their life. If the dog doesn’t finish their allowance by the end of the day, don’t put it down for them in a bowl. Pop it back in the bag/tub or fridge for tomorrow and weigh out the daily allowance again including yesterday’s leftovers. A little bit of hunger will increase the dog’s motivation the power of value.

2. Proofing
When you hear trainer say ‘we need to proof these behaviours’” what we mean in English is you are far much better practicing the skills your dog needs in many different environments rather than teaching them a whole skill set of tricks to perform but they can only do it in your back garden. One skill mastered in 50 different places far outweighs 50 different skills mastered in one place. Advanced skills are the mastery of basics. If you look at the Special Forces, they practice and drill the basics constantly so when its needed it is muscle memory. That is what we want our dogs recall to look like. We always say if you can have a solid recall, loose lead walk and a down or sit stay which you can use reliably everywhere, you will be a happy owner and have a happy dog! The tricks can wait

3. Make it Easy
When we are training our dogs, we can often dive in too deep too quick. By having a rule of starting off somewhere quiet and slowly building up the distractions you will see much better progress in your training when teaching your dog something new. Reward big when they get it right. Rewards come in all shapes (food, praise, or a toy)

4. Training Starts at Home
If you want to fix your dog listening to you outside but your dog does!t listen to you in the house, then you are creating a shit storm for yourself. Sorry, but its true. Your relationship in the home and how your dog behaves in the home has a massive impact on how your dog behaves outside of the home. If we allow our dogs to please themselves in the house, then please be assured that is what they are going to do outside the home. Don’t get us wrong, we love a cuddle on the sofa with our dogs. But these luxuries are earned through good behaviours. The exact same as off lead freedom. If they don’t listen to us on lead, they sure as heck aren’t getting off the lead.

5. Sleep
Training causes some stress in dogs, as it does with people. There is no need to adapt if we never come across some form of stress. Undisturbed sleep is vital to allow the dogs brain to grow and adapt. This state is called “Neuroplasticity !and occurs when our dogs are sound asleep away from the chaos of daily life. If your dog is missing out on proper sleep their learning capabilities are often lower than a dog who gets enough sleep.

Did you know that your dog needs much more sleep to function than what we do? The average adult dog needs anything between 12-18 hours of undisturbed sleep. Its not healthy if your dog is constantly pacing, barking, playing or generally in an aroused state of mind daily. Does your dog easily awaken at the slightest noise or stimuli? Perhaps crate training or teaching them to switch off on a place (bed) will aid in their ability to get that much needed sleep. This is why we recommend crates to all owners. Treat a crate as if it your dog’s bedroom. We are happy to put children down for naps for their development but as a society we have issues with giving our dogs structured sleep in a crate where kids and visitors cant disturb them. Crate training also prepares your dog for the day they may need to stay at the vets or need to be rested if they are sick or injured. Why add the stress of crate training in an already stressful situation?!

6. Make the Behaviour Stronger
Like in humans, if something is too easy, we become lazy and unmotivated. Whilst in the teaching phase we want to make things easy for the dog to learn but we need to slowly start making it harder for the dog, so they are constantly being challenged and fulfilled. You can do this by asking more and more behaviours before rewarding, extending the time the dog must stay in a position or going to busier environments which the dog must focus on you. There is no “fully trained dog!, training is something you need to work on for the dog’s whole life. However, with this in mind, you shouldn’t!t still be teaching a sit when the dog is 4 years old, and you’ve had him from 8 weeks old. Recapping the basics and teaching new things will keep your relationship strong and your dog’s much happier in the home.

7. Walking ain’t Everything
Now hear us out. You do not need to walk your dog in order to meet their exercise needs. You can achieve fulfilment with your dogs in multiple ways. The more you walk your dog, the more they will need walked to achieve any form of fulfilment or exhaustion. If you can mentally enrich your dog and add in a mix of physical exercise you will have a much happier dog than walking them for 40 minutes 3 times a day. You can practice your loose lead walking without going for a stroll, being pulled side to side. Scentwork, Mantrailing, tracking, trick training, life skills training, agility, swimming, play and going out to different environments can have the same (if not better) effect on your dog than going for the same walk daily.

8. Practice makes Perfect
This applies to wanted and unwanted behaviours. When we allow our dogs to practice unwanted behaviours, we make these behaviours stronger. Yes, even if we scold them for it. Passive management is our friend when dealing with unwanted behaviours. If we do not allow our dog to practice chasing cars, the behaviours will not become stronger. However, it won’t get better either. This is where we recommend getting in touch with a trainer to help you. Dogs jumping up at visitors is another common one, perhaps the crate is sounding more appealing? If we crate our dog when people are entering the home, they cannot practice
jumping up. Therefore, weakening the behaviour!

9. Be Consistent & Persistent
Consistency is key when training dogs. A behaviour that is sometimes reinforced is much stronger than a behaviour that is always reinforced. Read that again.
This is because your dog loves the gambling game. There is a high chance that the behaviour that you are trying to stop, there is some form of reinforcement happening. If you cant spot it, get in touch for help. If you are trying to stop a behaviour, you need to be consistent in not allowing it to happen. That crate is sounding handy again, isn!t it? You cannot let it slide one day and then correct it the next day. You will only make the behaviour stronger. On the flip side, behaviours you want to see again, you need to reinforce and reward also

10. Dogs are Predatory Animals
A dog’s main focus is survival. Yes, even your Labrador sitting on the sofa sound asleep is always looking to better their situation for survival. Humans are the same. Dogs have something called “prey drive !which means that they have natural skills for ensuring that their pack is efficient in hunting and bringing down their prey. Now our dogs don’t have to go our searching for their own food because we spend our wages ensuring they are better fed than us. But this drive still needs an outlet. If we don’t give them an outlet this is where we run head on into problems. You wouldn’t deprive your dog of food and water, so why do we deprive them of outlets for prey drive? How do we do this? Through play. Owners do not spend enough time playing with their dogs. Flirt poles, fetch, cat, and mouse, hiding a ball etc. are all ways to give them an outlet for their prey drive.

We specialize in nose work, we cover behaviours modification, puppy classes, bootcamps and so much more!

Now there is much more in owning a dog than what we have included here, but we cant give everything away for free! here at K9 Manhunt and Sentwork Scotland we run a wide range of courses from our 6 week Puppy Course to 1-2-1 courses at our Glenrothes base to home visits and so much more.

Please take a look around our website for further details on our course and should you wish to book on any please  click here to be taken to our booking page. Should you requere any further information please click here to get in touch, or you can call us on either 07803 925099 or 07359 158662