Behavioural Topics - Consistency and Calm

In her latest behavioural topic article, Lisa Hird discusses how consistency and calm are essential traits when dealing with dogs.

Discover more about her work and experience on her website: https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/

Consistency and calm

Consistency and calm are key lie skills, especially for young dogs. One of the first things we teach puppies is how to be calm. We don’t use cues or “tell” them to be calm, we just reinforce calm behaviour while managing our own body language.

Many dogs I work with are stressed and over stimulated. This is often mistaken for hyperactivity and over-excitement. We see this a lot in young dogs that have not had any life skills training and have instead, been bombarded with cues to “behave”. Very often we tell dogs to “get down” when they jump up – this can be rewarding for the behaviour and add to the excitement as we become more frantic (or frustrated) about it.

Traditional obedience training used to say the first thing you should teach your puppy is Sit!  Thankfully things have moved on since then and we now teach life skills such as how good it feels to be calm. Sit can be a useful cue for dogs to know for things like vet visits when needing blood to be taken but, using cues like Sit will drain the small amount of self control a dog has. Asking a dog to Sit when he is worried or fearful will just make the situation worse.

Mental stimulation, enrichment and quality sleep are also key in helping dogs be calm. Dogs need around 14 hours of sleep per day (puppies need more) and quality sleep is essential. 

Physical exercise will not mentally tire a dog and too much exercise can often lead to dogs feeling physically stressed and overstimulated. We can provide mental stimulation very easily at mealtimes, using interactive feeding toys instead of a bowl.

Health Topics - What is Canine Degenerative Myelopathy?

In the first of the new Health Topics series, Kathryn Everson explains what Canine Degenerative Myelopathy is. A terrible condition which sadly affects all too many GSDs (and other breeds), discover more below:

  

Tasty Socks

Here's the latest sneak peek at Lexi's pups.

Ada and Friends

Ada and friends practising recall with some distractions going on. Interesting training and enrichment are important aspects to improving the lives of the dogs we rescue. Ada is definitely a firm favourite of the team and supporters here!

Resident Care Dogs - Hugo

Sadly not all the dogs we rescue can be rehomed. This can be for various reasons, including health and behavioural, but even (no, especially) with these dogs we are committed to providing the life they deserve. Here we meet Hugo, whose unfortunate start to life has impacted him ever since.

You can help our care for these dogs by sponsoring one or more of them for only £20 per dog, per year. Learn more and submit a sponsorship request here - https://gsdwelfare.blogspot.com/p/sponsor-our-dogs.html 

German Shepherd Birthday Cards

 

These wonderful new German Shepherd birthday cards are now available from the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund. They are A5 sized and printed in colour. Priced at only £6 for a pack of 4, or £1.75 for a single card - they are perfect for friends and family (or even the dogs themselves!). Postage is £1 for mainland UK.

To order your cards contact me directly via email here: gsdwfonline@gmail.com Payment will be expected via PayPal before shipping.

All proceeds go to the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund to help rescue vulnerable GSDs and provide them with the life they deserve.

Behavioural Topics - Preparing for Veterinary Checks

 

In this second behavioural topic article from Lisa Hird she looks at how you can prepare a nervous dog for a vets visit. 

Discover more about her work and experience on her website: https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/

Preparing for Veterinary Checks

Many dogs are nervous at the vets, especially dogs who have not been used to being handled with care. To get dogs used to touch and handling, we use a game of consent. We teach dogs to place their chins down on our knees if they are happy for us to touch them. When they feel uncomfortable, they learn to lift their heads and all touching stops. When they are ready, they can place their chins down again and we can proceed. It’s all about consent.

We start off teaching the game by simply rewarding every time the dog’s chin touches a towel that we have placed on an item at the right height for her.

We then use the same towel or blanket and place this on our knees, repeating the game.

We begin with just hand movement towards her.

After a few sessions of learning the game, we begin to introduce touch. Very slow and very brief. It is important that all touching ceases the moment the dog lifts her head.

One of the lovely kennel ladies is standing nearby and we are chatting - mimicking what might happen at a Vets. Sienna is a little distracted at times (she does like to know what is going on)!

Next we get one of the kennel workers to do the chin targeting while I carry out a pretend vet check. She soon gets into the game, and I can check her ears, eyes and teeth!