Dream Dogs Training Co

28/11/2021

Lovely to see this little lady and her human enjoying their outings together. Winnie can have a tendency to disengage on a walk, scan her environment and chase things that move (or fly!). Today, she showed us how she's learning to check in and engage with mum as an alternative behaviour, use her nose and chill out!

Well done team Winnie, keep up the great job.

21/06/2021

Kayla and her dedicated caregivers have been working hard to help Kayla feel calmer around other dogs and build a more reliable recall. We played lots of fun recall games together with arousal lowering activities, and broke down the 'picture' of other dogs into manageable and achievable chunks for Kayla, so she could practice alternative, rewarding behaviours in the presence of them. Keep up the great work, team!

If you have a social butterfly who finds it hard to dial down the urge to say hi to every single dog they see, then reach out for help from a force free trainer.

22/05/2021

https://www.facebook.com/94262479940/posts/10159238276379941/

16/05/2021

Team Flint (and Alby) have put in so much effort with their loose lead walking skills over the past fortnight. Look at those happy check ins!

07/05/2021

Team Ziggy smashing it at the local park. Taking in all the new sights and sounds while having a good time. Engagement with mum in the presence of lots of distractions, practicing skills we learnt at home first.

02/05/2021

How to choose a dog trainer

https://www.animalsense.com.au/post/what-to-look-for-in-a-dog-trainer?fbclid=IwAR2H_eGIF76EH0fuqJ0uJMMRpVu4TjEvfWeEMSvEMCbPAHuwO8VhPdUr5D0

Every second week I have the pleasure of teaching final year veterinary students about canine behaviour and canine mental health disorders. They are eager and enthusiastic students, but just like the regular dog owning population they too have bought into dog training myths and need direction about....

21/04/2021

Little Ziggy is being set up for success in life with our 5 week Puppy Program:

• Socialisation - creating a confident, resilient adult dog in all things sights, sounds, surfaces, body awareness, experiences, people and dogs.

• Toileting - how to teach toileting where you want pup to go and how to handle mistakes inside.

• Home set up - how to encourage rest and sleep and to actively supervise or manage pup's environment to prevent them from practicing undesirable behaviours.

• Appropriate play and games - ways to interact with puppy that embody positive communication, engagement and fun!

• Mouthing/biting/jumping up - how to manage pup's arousal levels and teach alternative behaviours.

• Dog body language - how to speak dog and advocate for them.

• Handling - preparing pup for future vet and groomer visits.

• Mat training - capturing calm (and peace and quiet!)

• Alone time and enrichment - teaching puppy that being alone is a good thing and ways to enrich their urban lives.

• Foundation skills to help with manners, lead walking and happy recalls

• And more!

19/01/2021

When is the best time to practice a training skill? When we don't need it.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5131639396876625&id=812850412088900&sfnsn=mo

09/01/2021

Meet the rediculously handsome Marley.

Marley has been dealt a couple of unfortunate health issues that could be contributing towards him feeling a bit worried about his world and other dogs. His dedicated and experienced owners have had many rottweilers prior without issues, reminding us that every dog is different and has different emotional needs, just like us.

We worked on calmly acknowledging novel things through fun engage/disengage type games and Marley's ability to sniff to gain information and feel safe about his environment (and as a reinforcer for loose lead walking! Bonus!). Marley's proactive caregivers also want to work on cooperative husbandry skills so they can prevent ear infections and make Marley's vet visits less stressful for everyone. Marley is already working with the amazing team at Morley Vetcentre for Fear Free happy visits, so I'm excited to support this with training in the home.

We are working through the 'A Lot of Help' package and I look forward to seeing this amazing team progress towards their goals.

http://www.dreamdogstraining.com.au/services/

01/01/2021

"Rewards are things that your dog likes that reinforce behaviours, making those behaviours more likely to be repeated. A reward is anything that your dog receives reinforcement from.

"Reinforcement builds behaviour, even if that behaviour is not necessarily one we want.

"When you know what your dog finds reinforcing, it will take a lot of the frustration out of your training and life with your dog (for both you AND your dog … after all, your dog is not purposefully frustrating you, he is just providing you with information). Rather than lamenting over and over about things your dog does, or does not do, and asking “why does my dog to that”, or “how can I stop him doing that”, you can ask yourself “where’s the value for my dog” and “how can I build value for what it is I want my dog TO DO”.

https://www.facebook.com/148038161884479/posts/3864750596879865/

Reinforcement goes beyond the use of treats or toys, it encompasses everything in your dog's life. A reward is anything that your dog receives reinforcement from.

29/12/2020

Oh what character this little guy packs! Winston is an adolescent English staffy who is brushing up on some foundation behaviours. We introduced engagement and attention, loose lead walking skills and played some fun recall games. His amazing humans have even taught Winston lots of tricks which have helped build up a great bond with him! Ps. Happy first birthday for this week, Winston!

06/12/2020

Today was handsome Ben's second session as part of the Adolescent Package, helping Ben and his amazing caregivers over three consecutive fortnights. We worked on engaging with his people outside, helping that teenage Dobey brain to calmly take in all the sights and sounds of the neighbourhood by rewarding good choices and learning how and when it's time to chill, especially while his humans sit on the couch. Good boy, Ben.
Ps. This guy only just turned One!

15/11/2020

Welcome to Dream Dogs Training Co!

This is my right hand man, couch co-pilot and certified good boy, Jinks. Together, we work as a team to navigate this strange human world with strange human rules.

My mission is to make dog training enjoyable and achievable for all involved. After all, why would anyone want to work in a non-rewarding environment?

Click on the website link, take a look around and sign up for updates!

Alison Healey IMDT
Accredited trainer
Certified Fear Free Professional
APDT Member