Kia ora

One of the undesirable behaviours that owners want help with is around their dog's reactivity, typically towards either people or other dogs.

Whilst training at a local park is going to be beneficial, there are always those minefield moments that any dog owner knows so well:

• Training at a local park usually means having to be super aware of other adults, children and everyone else's dog

• You usually have no control over other people and their dogs. This sometimes results in you feeling like you have to cut short your intended walk and training because your dog is interested in everything but you.

• Being conscious of what time of day to take your dog out for walking and training. It makes sense, fewer people, fewer dogs around. However, this situation can also defeat the purpose of your intended training

• Your dog is way more interested in their surroundings due to all the sensory stimulus around them. They might hit their attention threshold way faster than you'd like and then trying to provide commands becomes a fruitless exercise. You might as well be talking to a brick wall! (unlike a reactive dog, at least the brick wall is standing still for that matter).

An exclusive offer for K9 FUNdamentals One-to-one training clients

What many of our clients are now opting for is a "Controlled" session with their dog in our private training area. By "Controlled", we specifically mean a managed, stress-free and positive learning session with 'controlled' distractions. We would also emphasise that the way a "Controlled" session has been described is not only beneficial for our client's dog but also removes some of the anxiety and stress for our client!

The key advantages of conducting One-to-one training in this manner are many when trying to teach (or modify) your dog a different behaviour:

• Intentional utilisation of distractions e.g. another dog/human is fully managed. Our 3 rescue dogs, Flynn, Bailee and Luka willingly help in this area (in return for plenty of treats!).

• Our clients have the opportunity to observe and understand their dog's body language and trigger points that lead up to the unwanted behaviour. Without having to worry about every other distraction that might be thrown your way at a park. How many times have you gone to conduct your training, only for it to be constantly interrupted?

• When training around reactivity, we can do this safely as the distraction is separated by a fenced barrier or we manage the behaviour through distance control

• Opportunity for your dog to take intermittent 'breaks' by being allowed to roam before resuming training throughout the entire session

Are we advocating only conducting training in a private paddock? No, far from it. Our aim is to provide an exclusive option for our One-to-one training clients in order to:

1. Learn, observe, understand & practice with their dog in a low-level distraction environment

2. Know how to set yourself and your dog up for success when there is a likely trigger that results in unwanted behaviour

3. Take these learnings and apply out at your local park/street now that you have management strategies in place

Take a look at our short video below and If you'd like to know more about this option for our One-to-one training clients, please contact us as we'd be more than happy to discuss further.

Ngā mihi

The K9 FUNdamentals team