Perth Canine Craft

08/08/2026

🎲 Genetics is a dice roll — but you can only roll what is on the dice.
🐾 When people talk about genetics, it can sound as though anything is possible. It isn’t.

A puppy doesn’t arrive as a completely blank genetic lottery ticket. Mum and Dad — and the genetics carried through their lines — determine the options available.
Then the dice are rolled.

That is why puppies from the same litter can be noticeably different from each other. They share a genetic pool, but they don’t necessarily receive the same combination.

🐾 I simplify temperament into three principles:
👉 Threshold — how easily?
How easily does something produce a response? One puppy may notice something and barely change. Another may respond to a much smaller amount of the same thing.

👉 Drives — how strongly?
Once something matters to the dog, how strongly does the dog want to pursue it, obtain it, interact with it or act on it?
Food. Chase. Possession. Social interaction. Hunting. Avoidance. Different dogs can have very different amounts of motivation behind what they do.

👉 Nerves — how quickly?
How does the dog handle the pressure of what is happening around them, and how readily can they continue functioning through it?

⚗️ These three ingredients are part of the temperament foundation I describe when I speak with clients who need help with training and rescues who need help with assessments.

Now imagine that each parent contributes different possible versions of those ingredients. The genetic dice roll might produce one puppy with:
🐾 higher drive + lower threshold + stronger nerves
while a littermate might inherit:
🐾 lower drive + higher threshold + different nerves.
Neither puppy has stepped outside the genetics available to that breeding.
They have simply rolled a different combination. And this is where development matters.

👉 “Genetics is a dice roll, but you can only roll the options written on the dice. The parents give you the ingredients. The roll gives you the puppy. Development gives those ingredients form.” — Ariza

Explaining genetics through a family tree of gummy bears.

06/08/2026

Every puppy must go through an adjustment stage where they learn to become comfortable with equipment, understand how it applies to them, and cooperate with us while using it.

06/08/2026

If a grown-ass man in his 70s can bend down to greet a puppy without teaching him to jump up, then so can you. 😉

05/08/2026

We have been very productive in Mellow’s journey so far.

🐾 Crate training

Mellow has been doing wonderfully with his crate training. He is happily settling in his crate at night and is also comfortable, calm and safely contained during travel.

🐾 Toilet training

Mellow has had only five accidents so far. Despite dealing with a urinary tract infection, he has done exceptionally well, and I have now been able to assess his natural bladder capacity and establish more realistic toilet-training intervals.

🧻We have also been conditioning Mellow’s “toilet” cue by using his age-appropriate toilet-training formula to predict when he is likely to need to go. This allows us to reliably pair the word “toilet” with the action as it happens.

Mellow is now beginning to associate the cue with toileting and is showing a predictable response when he already has a biological need to go. It is not a command that makes him toilet on demand when his bladder or bowels are empty.

🐾Building Mellow’s “doggy dictionary”

We have started teaching Mellow the shared language he will use with his owner throughout his life.

His doggy dictionary consists of chosen sounds that help him predict the relevant consequences of his decisions. As each sound becomes clear and consistent, Mellow can better understand what he has done, what happens next and which choices are worth repeating.

👉Chapter 1 — Windows of opportunity

Windows of opportunity are the short periods when Mellow is naturally ready and motivated to engage, learn or play.

We are using his meals to create structured opportunities for both play and training. This allows us to build engagement, communication and useful skills while working with his natural motivation. Each window is clearly signalled with a “ready” cue that tells Mellow the opportunity is beginning, and a “finish” cue that marks the end of the opportunity, helping him understand when to engage and when to disengage.

👉Chapter 2 — Marker training

A. Clicker conditioning

Clicker conditioning teaches Mellow that the sound of the clicker marks the exact behaviour that earned his reward. This allows him to predictably understand which choice was correct and worth repeating.

His clicker conditioning has been successful, and he is developing a clear understanding of what the click means.

B. Yellow and red card system

We are currently working on Mellow’s yellow and red card system specifically for nipping and biting.

🟡 The yellow card warns him that his current choice may cause play or interaction to stop if he continues. We use the verbal sound "uh huh".
🔴 The red card clearly communicates that he has crossed the boundary and that the interaction will end. We use the verbal sound "nine".

This gives Mellow clear and consistent consequences without expecting him to understand human rules that have not first been taught to him.

🐾 Phase 1 socialisation — exposure

The greatest effort is currently going into Phase 1 of Mellow’s socialisation: exposure with minimal interaction.

At this stage, the purpose is to assess Mellow’s natural inclination towards people, environments and new experiences rather than encouraging him to interact with everyone and everything.

Our focus is to nurture a neutral attitude towards humans and human environments (Phase 2). We want these experiences to feel neither frightening nor overly exciting.

Mellow is being appropriately exposed to the many unnatural sights, sounds, smells, surfaces and textures found in the human world.

By keeping these experiences resonable for him, we are teaching Mellow that he can notice what is happening around him without needing to fear it, chase it, rush towards it or interact with it.

Mellow has made a strong start. The work we are doing now is just starting to help build clear communication, sensible decision-making, confidence and a secure relationship with his owner.

01/08/2026

🧐When Comfort Becomes a Ceiling

In the Hierarchy of Needs for dogs (animals), safety comes first, comfort comes second, and acquisition comes third.

That order matters.

1️⃣ Safety - Before your dog can learn well, they need a reasonable level of physical and emotional safety. They need protection from genuine threats, appropriate management, clear guidance and a relationship they can rely on.

A dog who believes they are in danger is usually focused on survival, not learning.

2️⃣ Comfort - Once safety has been established, your dog needs enough comfort to settle, regulate and recover.

Comfort gives your dog a stable place from which to explore. It includes appropriate rest, predictability, familiarity, support and opportunities to decompress.

But comfort is meant to be a foundation, not the final destination. This is where we can unintentionally fail our dogs.

We may become so focused on keeping them comfortable that we prevent them from learning how to deal with discomfort like frustration, uncertainty, boundaries, novelty and manageable pressure.

👉We avoid an exercise because our dog protests.
👉We remove a boundary because our dog becomes frustrated.
👉We rush in to rescue them from a problem they were capable of solving.
👉We stop exposing them to unfamiliar situations because they initially appear uncertain.

It can feel compassionate in the moment, but constantly removing discomfort can leave your dog dependent on everything remaining familiar and easy.

3️⃣ Acquisition - Acquisition is where your dog develops the skills needed to function in real life. This includes learning to:

👉wait rather than immediately receive;
👉recover after being startled;
👉remain calm around frustration;
👉investigate unfamiliar surfaces, places and objects;
👉accept reasonable boundaries;
👉continue thinking when excited or uncertain;
👉cope when the answer is no; and
👉trust your guidance when a situation feels difficult.

These skills cannot be acquired through comfort alone.

🤓Learning naturally involves some degree of discomfort like effort, uncertainty, frustration and failure. Your dog must experience manageable discomfort to discover that they can work through it, recover and succeed.

There is a clear difference between productive discomfort and placing your dog into a situation they cannot safely cope with.

👉The goal is not to push your dog over the edge.
👉The goal is to create challenges that stretch their capacity without exceeding it.

“Safety gives your dog somewhere to stand. Comfort gives them somewhere to recover. Acquisition teaches them how to move forward.”

Comfort is not the enemy. It becomes a problem when we mistake temporary relief for long-term welfare.

Our responsibility is not to create a life in which our dogs never feel uncomfortable. It is to teach them what to do when discomfort inevitably arrives.

A capable dog is not one who has been protected from every difficulty. It is one who has been progressively prepared to face difficulty while remaining connected to the person guiding them.

26/07/2026

This is so true

Most dog owners come to me wanting fireworks.

They want instant solutions to their dog’s reactivity…

Or if they are training for sports…

They want that flashy focused heel or a speedy retrieve.

They are used to the fireworks videos they see on social media…

And that’s what they set their sights on.

But I’m no fireworks trainer.

What I do isn’t as social media sexy as that.

My focus is on foundations instead.

Because the truth is…

Many of our training roadblocks are built…

Because we bypassed the fundamentals…

Or at least rushed through them.

And many of our training struggles can be solved…

If we simply spend time revisiting them.

Listen…

If you’ve been working on your dog’s behavior…

And you don’t have a solid communication system…

Good engagement and motivation…

And your dog can’t “listen” in novel environments…

You’re going to struggle to move the needle…

And you might jump to punishing your dog, for behaviors you’ve inadvertently created or reinforced…

Or things you’ve failed to prepare them for.

And if you’re training for dog sports or advanced obedience…

And your dog heels crooked…

Or checks out in your sessions…

Or travels on position changes…

Your fundamentals are to blame.

So you can chase the next quick fix…

You can punish your dog…

Or grab onto the next game or strategy to instantly solve your training problems.

Problems that were created because you rushed through the fundamentals.

But those quick fixes will only put a patch on a cracked foundation…

And that crack will grow…

It will spread…

And it will show up in other areas of your training…

Leaving you chasing patches and quick fixes indefinitely.

I get it…

Fundamentals feel boring.

But the fancy stuff is SO MUCH EASIER…

Once you have them.

26/07/2026

Back in South Africa - I didn't realise I was doing this intuitively; now I can share it with you; but Jay Jack articulates it so well:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbarkabout.libsyn.com%2Fepisode-36-window-theory-with-jay-jack&h=AUCIQ6_KmUxc_TITUYXXqtWj1txdMXTqcZxAxDBjKcOj9curwyNsfQaPQ7_TkJ-yUxai5SjS_gR7thjLZ6wf3tTwwdFGcvUdjXckPdM3HKNQ7GhYUHnh8p-p4Ib-A8LkqA&s=1

Jay's concept of "windows" is a great way to look at things, especially when you have a dog who keeps doing the wrong things at the wrong moment! Give it a listen ... If you know Jay, you might notice this is a pretty plain vanilla outting for him! There's an uncensored version coming to the Patreon...

26/07/2026

23/07/2026

What a wonderful opportunity for a catch up with WAPOL Kai!