“That’s the calmest collie I’ve ever seen!” commented the man in the shop. Finally, I thought, we’ve fooled someone. This dog was an out and out loon who spent her first two years attracting tutting and judgmental comments with her reactive behaviour. But then I thought about how much had shifted for Lani. Actually she’s mostly happy, […]
One of the games I used to play with my ‘special’ – read emotionally unstable – dog, Lani, was the ‘switch up, switch down’ game. I’d play something fun and exciting – tug or a racing about game – then I’d stop. I’d invite her over to sit with me, and wait for her to
A lot of what I teach in lessons is essentially: How to change muscle tension that’s hard to shift; reliably for yourself. How to get a joint or area moving that doesn’t like to move, that’s guarded from pain, past or present. What you are doing in these cases is teaching your nervous system. That
Telling yourself to relax is useless. Just as dogs don’t understand English automatically, your body doesn’t know what your instructions to yourself mean, unless you teach them properly. Dogs learn what words mean well, despite us often being fuzzy, imprecise trainers. But it’s amazing how many people will repeat ‘Come here Bella!’ in the park
I was reading a post from a reward based horse trainer the other day (I don’t have a horse, but I love watching happy horses enjoying their training) This trainer wanted to improve her jumping position, but was struggling. It’s all over in a moment, so it’s tricky to make changes! So, she applied her
