SKILLS FOR RESILIENCE
The daily walk can fill us with dread when our dog has all the BIG feelings. When our dog is on high alert, scanning the world for trouble or fun, we often end up as vigilant as they are. Perhaps you’re already avoiding high risk situations or you’re spending big bucks on secure fields just so that you can have a little peace and quiet without overwhelming your dog. It can be really stressful, especially if this isn’t how you imagined your life with a dog would be. All we want is for our dog’s world not to become smaller and smaller.
Vet visits, grooming and handling can also be a challenge if our dog is less than resilient. What often seems like a minor deal to many dogs is a HUGE deal to ours.
It can be a real challenge too if our dogs struggle to cope with life's minor frustrations or if they struggle with impulsive behaviour. Maybe their attention is all over the place. Maybe they just don't find toys or food that valuable.
And some of our less than resilient dogs will also struggle with strangers - including vets. Helping them learn how to feel comfortable around people can be a real challenge. Sure, they like us and accept us into their world but visitors can make them miserable.
ABOUT THE COURSE
This 4-hour course will equip you with the know-how and practical foundation skills you need to transform your walks.
We start with two absolute fundamentals and branch out to include a wide repertoire of 40 skills that will help your dog.
It doesn’t matter if your dog is fearful or frustrated, anxious or excited… if they’re struggling with triggers, then you’ll learn how to help them manage. You’ll get the whole toolkit: socket set, wrenches and all.
The course isn’t simply about management. It’s also about teaching our dogs behaviours that will become strong habits through repetition.
Instead of worrying if they’ll start barking and lunging, we’ll be confident that they’ll have skills to lean into and rely on.
It’s designed for owners but it’s also open to trainers too. You’re all welcome! If you have zero experience at all, you’ll see videos and get practical strategies to help.
If you’re an expert and you’re just looking for a refresher, it will help with that too.
HUMPHREY
Humphrey was a little dog lost.
Despite how much his guardian loved him, his world had shrunk. Not only did he struggle to cope beyond the house, he also struggled to cope when left alone.
His guardian struggled to even leave him to cope for longer than a minute.
And Humphrey struggled with resource guarding too.
By adding some tools to his toolkit, he learned to cope alone and to cope on walks. Better! He learned to enjoy walks. Best of all, he learned how to be a dog for the first time.
BABETTE
Babette was often completely overwhelmed by life, and didn't she like to let people know!
Birds sent Babette into a pure frenzy, no matter how far away they were. Squirrels, same. Rabbits, same. Walks were a nightmare.
Her guardians had tried loose leash exercices with her, but nothing seemed to work. Not only did she lose patience, but she'd also start baying in frustration, as she did at anything that irritated her.
By selecting an individualised toolkit for Babette, she finally learned to cope when she couldn't get what she wanted immediately.
STITCH
Stitch struggled with lots of things in life. Like Babette, he was easily overwhelmed. Like Humphrey, he struggled with confidence.
He was anxious, frustrated, impulsive and prone to panic. Add in a bunch of conflict with his caregivers, and you can imagine how small his world had become.
We needed to work with Stitch from the bottom up. Almost everything he'd been taught had come to predict conflict, so we needed to rename a lot of those skills and teach them in novel ways.
Building up strong habits made a lot of difference. It also gave Stitch control over what happened too.
WHAT'S ON THE AGENDA
ABOUT THE COURSE
The course covers:
- Loose-leash walking skills
- Identifying frustration intolerance and impulsivity
- Teaching your dog to accept reward anywhere
- Establishing a strong bond: basic skills to build focus and attention
- Navigating the environment: u-turns, l-turns, stationing
- Disengaging from triggers
- Settling and relaxing for fizzy dogs
- Teaching valued marker words
- Reinforcer delivery methods that will rocket-charge your training
- Building frustration tolerance
- Teaching irresistible recall cues
- Targeting and orienting skills
- Crisis management skills
- Basic cooperative care skills
It’s purely a HOW TO course for those of you who want to know HOW to equip your dog with the skills they need to survive and thrive. It’s real life stuff for real life people. So if you want to know HOW to… it’s definitely for you!
AND IF YOU WANT MORE
These other courses are great for our dogs who struggle sometimes too.
