To Greet or Not to Greet!

Do‘s and Don’ts in Greeting Unfamiliar Dogs

🟢 Do ask permission! Asking the pet parent if its ok to meet their dog is first. Also, ask the pet parent what to do. This will allow the pet parent to make sure the greeting is smooth and comfortable for the dog as well as an opportunity to refuse. The pet parent knows their dog the best, respecting their decision and guidance is first and foremost.

🔴 Don’t straight up approach with arms stretched out and squealing or using a high pitched voice. This can cause a dog to feel distressed and overwhelmed with the situation. A dog that is uncomfortable doesn’t make good choices.

🟢 Do remain calm and keep your hands by your side. This will give the dog an opportunity to come say hello if he/she feels inclined to do so. By allowing the dog to make the choice to greet will help the dog stay safe and relaxed.

🔴 Don’t bend over, hover over or bend down and stick your face or hands into the dog’s face and ask for kisses. I witnessed a grown adult do this to an unfamiliar dog and I was shocked. Luckily for the lady, the dog is pretty easy going, but the dog didn’t approach and was not interested in saying “hi”

🟢 Do keep the greetings short. I would say 3 seconds, if and when the dog approaches and seeks out attention from you. By limiting the time the dog is being touched and petted by you, will allow you to do consent tests to see if the dog wants more from you. If the dog doesn’t continue to move into you, but rather is stationary or even moves away from you, the dog had enough and this is ok.

🔴 Don’t wrap your arm around the dog’s neck as though you are hugging the dog. This can cause the dog to panic and feel trapped. Also, don’t pat the dog’s head or come up over the top of the dog. This can make the dog uncomfortable.

🟢 Do follow the guidance of the pet parent on where the safe places to pet their dog. Commonly, dogs are most comfortable with petting on the chest or under the chin.

💥 Be safe and consider the dog’s point of view.

Not every dog wants to say hello, just like each of you wouldn’t enjoy a random stranger running up to you and giving you a hug and a kiss.

https://fourpawsandyoudogtraining.as.me/

Yes, Please!

My clients always ask me why rewards are so important in training.

They, like you, want their dogs to pay attention to them, “listen” to them and more importantly have fun with them.

Here are the most common questions I receive from clients.

What are rewards?

A: anything your dog finds enjoyable. What your dog would do backflips for, figuratively speaking of course 😂

Why are rewards important in dog training?

A: They are the bridge to you! Dogs, just like us need motivation and encouragement.

Food, most often is a huge reward (not all rewards are created the same) since is a life source for a dog. Using a reward encourages your dog to seek you out since you have the good stuff and encourages your dog to stay engaged with you.

Using a reward will encourage your dog to look at you which increases bonding with you. This then becomes self reinforcing due to the feel good hormone, oxytocin being released. These type of feel good hormones are found to maintain social bonds across species. These are the same hormones released between a mom and her baby!

When a dog is feeling good, fear, frustration, panic and rage are all inhibited.

The stress hormone, cortisol is reduced. Therefore, heart rate, breathing and blood pressure all lower.

Your dog then is relaxed which then is self reinforcing too!

Your dog will learn to enjoy feeling calmer, don’t you want that for your dog too?

Will I need to use rewards all the time?

A: Once you can observe your dog offering the behaviors you’re encouraging and teaching in all places, situations, changes in the environment, basically, when the behavior is automatic and a habit, then you can switch to giving a reward every so often to continue keeping motivation.

My question, why be stingy!

Dogs deserve to be paid for a job well done!

Meet Tex! She was nervous during our first meeting. Pairing me with food, first with some Treat/Retreat which raised her confidence. A little while later, she closed the distance and came up to me all on her own 🙂

Stop by my FB profile to check out my LIVE on Why Rewards are So Important: https://www.facebook.com/katherine.porter.902/videos/529775281694332/

One 😂 Two 😂 Three 😂 Counting Game Fun!

Counting games are so much fun for your dog!

They provide a predictable patterns and can easily help your dog make her way back to you.

Counting establishes a clear path back to you and encourages engagement with you while you are in a more distracting environment.

Counting also takes the pressure off of you and your dog.

It eliminates the expectation that your dog should “listen” to your cue.

Instead, it provides encouragement and motivation for your dog to return, especially when there are increasing levels of distraction in the environment.

This is especially important if you haven’t proofed your recall cue and you are wanting your dog to return to you.

This is the first introduction of Chirag Patel’s counting game when Zelda moved away and became distracted in the environment.

This opportunity was naturally occurring and my client’s daughter was a fast learner in implementing the steps as I was coaching her in real time for the first time.

Making coming back to you so worthwhile will for sure set you and your dog up for success in a stress less learning environment while also being fun and enjoyable for you and your dog.

Dogs do what they do, help them find you more interesting than what the environment offers!

Set up your free Discovery Call with me by clicking this link! https://fourpawsandyoudogtraining.as.me/