Engage Veterinary Behaviour and Training

Engage Veterinary Behaviour and Training Hi-I am Dr Cate Webb-an experienced Veterinarian, Behaviour Vet and Dog Trainer with 15 years experience.

I have a Membership of the ANZCVS (Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists) in Veterinary Behaviour.

27/02/2025

Louis and I using Engage-Disengage to help him learn to habituate to/tolerate scary triggers.

Louis is a sensitive soul. He is sensitive to strange noises and is quick to bark, but he quickly runs to me for treats now and recovers. Louis has always been a little wary of strangers. He's OK if they ignore him. He is resilient enough to explore and investigate things that worry him.

I make sure I am free for training whenever any tradies are scheduled, to make it a more positive learning experience. When tradies first arrive Louis has a loud worried bark from the house.
He is much more comfortable when I put him on leash and bring him out to investigate and play engage/disengage.

Louis is a little worried in the first clip with the big noisy Stump Muncher in the backyard. He moves around more quickly than normal and needs to check it out a bit. He was able to disengage from the stimulus and eat, but he was anxious and not improving so we went inside after this minute.
In the second clip he is more comfortable with the IKEA assembler and he could then go on to use his thinking brain well and do some of his daily games.

18/02/2025

Louis - 6months - Dremeling nails

Louis is a star for nail care.

He didn't mind his paws being handled as a puppy, so that was a good start!!!

He needed his hairy underpaws clipped early on and consistently to prevent him from sliding on the cork floor and banging into corner walls. He didn't mind the small quiet clippers when he was sleepy.

I started nail care from 8 weeks - handle his paws and give him treats when I was cuddling him when a sleepy pup/ clip the tips of his nails with clippers/let him sniff and explore the dremel/turn the dremel on and off and give treats/rub the dremel handle against his nails and give treats/hold his paw in the position I would need and give treats/do this for longer periods/teach him to love the carpet top table and stay while I prepared his activities for the morning/stay restrained on the table with a harness and leash/stay on the table of his own accord when handled/examine his paws/ears/teeth/coat consistently every other morning on the table

Lots of baby steps to prepare for stress free nail trimming

11/01/2025

Molly - labradoodle - about 18 months in Feb 2024

More shaping games to build confidence in learning - Part 2

Targeting, feet in a box, go around a cone
I could more easily and quickly lure Molly onto a platform or around a cone, but the target behaviour is not my main aim (see Part 1)

11/01/2025

Molly - labradoodle - about 18 months in Feb 2024
Shaping games to build confidence in learning
Targeting an object on the ground with her paw

Molly was a very anxious dog when I first met her, and anything that looked like training was stressful to her.

Molly gradually learned to trust me, and we found a food reward she loved (peanut butter). This took months to want to eat food.

I introduced shaping games when Molly was keen to interact, eat food, and had learned a marker word "yes" - meaning "come to me and get food. And if you repeat what you think led me to say "yes", then I will say "yes" again and you can get food again"

I wanted to do shaping games with Molly to build her confidence that she was allowed and actually rewarded for "trying things out" and she was not going to get into trouble if she was wrong. I wanted Molly to learn that her behaviours matter - and give her a fun and appropriate way to "make me" give her rewards.
I wanted Molly to learn to interact with the environment and objects around her and not be scared of them.

Here I am marking ("yes" ) and rewarding Molly for small approximations of a behaviour I have in mind. I could more easily and quickly lure Molly onto a platform or around a cone, but the target behaviour is not my main aim. If Molly was to try something creative that I didn't have in mind, then I definitely would have marked and rewarded that. The aim is attitude and not perfection.

I started Molly targeting an item on the ground with her paw. This behaviour can then blend into "going away" from me towards a target.

I then progressed to other objects to target and other objects with other behaviours - see video 2.

01/01/2025

Early "chin" training with Louis my groodle pup

Very useful for body handling at the groomers or vets, an easy fun trick to build your relationship, a calming focussed behaviour and also a useful behaviour for a mouthy juvenile/adolescence as an alternative behaviour to mouthing

01/01/2025

Louis - Beginning Scent work

My 5month groodle is learning to search the pipes for food.

I am doing this for fun and hunting/foraging enrichment.

It is also a great rainy day activity, or a mentally stimulating way to provide breakfast in the morning before leaving for work... (though I LOVE training and playing with my dogs, and so have quite a few activities I can do with them).

I have the pipes already from my previous dog. Cardboard boxes or something else would work as well.

I started with hiding one of these bases with food in the house for Louis to find - just like a dinner bowl.

It also shows the 101 uses of teaching a stay on a platform. (I don't use the word stay though). Louis has this down pat.

I will probably teach Louis to search for an odour later on - but it is not a priority. I want him to really enjoy hunting and searching for food, and getting directly rewarded when he finds it.

01/01/2025

Body handling for grooming and husbandry
Louis has just turned 5 months old, and is 18kg now!

Louis has a lifetime of grooming and eyes/ears/nail care ahead of him. I want to prepare him to tolerate kind patient handling and stand on a grooming table with minimal need for restraint.

Louis has not liked hands reaching towards his head from when I first brought him home. I have gradually taught him to tolerate this, by breaking this down into small steps and building his trust. Great food does help Louis see some benefit in his head being handled!
In this video Louis is getting Prime100 roll cubed and mixed with kangaroo mince - yum!

In this video I am using "chin" as a predictor cue that I will reach for his chin and tilt his head up, and then he waits still for a click or a "yes". This means he is released from the behaviour and a treat will come. In other scenarios we are practicing "chin" as a cue for Louis to put his chin in my hand. See other videos.

"Good' means to keep doing what you are doing, as does my "wiggly fingers"

This is not the only grooming practice I have been doing...
- nightime treat time involves a reaching hand and then a touch or scratch to the head
- tabletting treats
- scratching his ears and face when he is cuddling with me - he loves this
- teaching him to love jumping on and standing on a table and waiting there
- teaching him to get into the Booster Bath of his own accord
- teaching him that when he is tethered he remains in that place
- and other little pieces along the way....

https://www.facebook.com/100048135651184/posts/1194980478783129/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6vA Safe Place for your dog(s) i...
14/12/2024

https://www.facebook.com/100048135651184/posts/1194980478783129/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

A Safe Place for your dog(s) is always a major recommendation for all my behaviour and training clients. Whether fearful/anxious/aggressive behaviours or unruly unwanted behaviours or a puppy consult.

For puppies
For adolescents
For adults
For old dogs
For multi dog households

For families with babies/toddlers/children

For families with visitors

For families with tradies

For parties and Christmas gatherings

For dogs with unruly behaviours or aggressive behaviours towards visitors

For dogs with resource guarding, hyper attachment, separation related behaviours, frustration related behaviours

For every dog!

Thank you to the great post below!

27/11/2024

Louis 14 weeks
Shaping Paws up on a big box

Using different learning pathways

My aim is for Louis to be thinking and trying out things (...and maybe put 2 front paws on the box) with shaping games

I wanted to experiment - and I quickly brought my dog Ava in to show him >>>and Louis imitated her

And then later I stood on the box
>>>and Louis imitated me!

27/11/2024

Louis 14 weeks – learning patience and house rules at breakfast.

“Wait calmly behind the baby gate without jumping up or barking, while I prepare breakfast, and wait for the predictable cue of the clicker, that means food is now coming”

Every day my puppy is learning – and I need him to learn to behave in the house the way I need him to behave when he is a big groodle adult boy.

I want to achieve this with clear, consistent guidance and support him through his learning while we strengthen our bond. I adore this little man!!!

I want to teach Louis what TO DO and not become frustrated – while also gradually helping him tolerate some frustration.

I have a multi-dog household and it is especially important for me to have some physical boundaries in place quickly , so that my older dog is not hassled by Louis, and so that I can interact with each dog individually and give them the one-on-one attention they deserve.

To wait patiently behind a barrier when something you want is on the other side is an important life skill.

Louis practiced lots of jumping up on barriers as a puppy with his siblings as would be expected, and... he is mostly poodle – so he does have a good bark!

I know that patience is difficult for little emotional brains, so I have done various steps preparing Louis for this.

*Initially I didn’t expect patience, but I didn’t want Louis to rehearse jumping up and barking – so I gave him food quickly, so he didn’t need to wait.
*I taught him that he needed to sit before the playpen gate was opened to release him.
*I taught him to stay on a platform as I moved away from him, and I would come back and reward him
*Louis received lots of rewards for sitting
*I bent over when patting him with hands low, and so didn’t encourage jumping up
*I played lots with Louis with toys – tug and fetch, always keeping the toys low, and he gets lots of attention from when his 4 feet are on the floor – he doesn’t need to jump up
*We have special pat and cuddle times, and he has a clear cue of me patting my chest for him to jump up
*If Louis was too hungry I would give him more of his breakfast quickly before asking him to wait

In the video
I am preparing breakfast in the kitchen. I have a mirror so that I can see Louis.
I reward calm behaviour with a few pieces of kibble for each dog.
When Louis jumps up or barks to hurry me up, then I sit on the stool with my back to him until he gets down or is quiet.
I then continue to prepare breakfast and frequently (at this stage) reward calm behaviour with a few pieces of kibble.

At the end I click the clicker. This is a predictable cue that means now breakfast is coming.
The dogs learn to wait for this sound. Nothing else that I do means that breakfast is coming, so they can settle and ignore all my random movements – nothing means food is coming other than the click.

24/11/2024

***Louis habituation and desensitisation at home***

Vacuum, thunderstorms, aluminium cans, plastic bottles, ramps, metal walkways, metal surfaces, tarpaulins, Booster Bath, big boxes, shell pools, kids on tv, dogs on tv....

I have been busy "socialising" Louis at home, and also in the big wide world.

I am taking Louis to two different puppy classes a week in different locations, with the same great trainer who will keep the puppies protected from negative experiences while they learn to be around strange people and puppies.

Louis also goes out to concreted shopping plazas and lots of car rides.

But there is SO MUCH that I can do at home.

Louis was a little over sensitive to new things for his first 4 weeks or so. Especially sounds and adult people, but also new places and new objects (or the same object turned over - such as a chair on its side). Except thunderstorms - we have had about two thunderstorms a week and he always gets a food party and he seems to enjoy this.

I had to take exposure very gradually and carefully in these weeks. But now Louis is seeing novelty as an opportunity for food, social interaction, play and the joy of exploration.

Louis is growing in confidence at a rapid rate - just like his legs!

03/11/2024

Louis - 11.5 weeks - socialisation

Socialisation - "introducing the puppy to the things he will encounter during his life, at the puppy's pace, so he grows in confidence and is not afraid of people, dogs, and other things he will encounter....different environments, strange/sudden/or loud noises, moving vehicles/bikes, different surfaces - slippery modern floors, stairs, different animals, people in different clothing...and the list goes on.

I want my puppy to have positive experiences and gain in confidence quickly.

Although positive associations are most easily formed early, before 12-14 weeks (sometimes less in some breeds such as the German Shepherd, and longer in sociable pet breeds)...
and so I don't want to waste this precious time...
I can only go as fast as Louis tells me...

Although Louis is up to date with his puppy vaccination schedule, I cannot be entirely sure that he is protected from horrible and potentially deadly diseases such as parvo, because the maternal antibodies may have interfered with the early vaccinations.

Thus I am taking a calculated risk of exposing Louis to the world in the safest way (not at dog parks, public parks). I feel that the benefits of increasing Louis' confidence around people at this early age when his brain is most flexible are too important. Louis was a little concerned of being in a moving trolley - though he has had lots of experience with being at heights at home - the heights didn't move at home! He quickly accustomed to it, but he was much more confident on his own 4 feet where he can control his approach to people and things.

Louis LOVES children - and seeing little kids at Mitre 10 is the greatest reinforcement for him and will help him feel that it is a great place to visit.

Thank you Mitre 10 Kenmore for being so helpful!!!

29/10/2024

Louis - my 11 week groodle - Station/platform
Look at his tail wag!

Station/platform training is so important and so useful in so many ways. I have found so many benefits for my past dogs and for clients. I have numerous home made carpet topped coffee table size tables and now I have some smaller Cato boards.

Here the platform "training" is building confidence in Louis that "he is in the driver's seat, doing stuff and getting rewarded for it". (I use my human brain to set up the situation so that Louis is choosing to do what I also want him to do!)

Instead of describing all the benefits, I will link to a great post I saw from Lighten Up Dog Training recently in the comments.

20/10/2024

Louis 8 weeks
First harness fitting (verdict - too big!)

This video shows me luring Louis' head through the harness neck loop and NOT reaching the head loop towards Louis and over Louis' head.

We sometimes complain that the new puppy invades our space and jumps up....but then we invade their space and pick them up and reach towards them and put different things on their body...

Puppies and dogs are really tolerant of us humans...and sometimes they aren't....
And we can be quite scary looming over and reaching into their personal bubble...

I take things slowly when first introducing a harness (or any equipment I will add to their body)

I have not shown the prior steps of teaching Louis to follow some food in the hand as a lure. And I also put the harness on the ground and let Louis sniff it first.

Louis practiced following a food lure for the first few days he was home. This was also a great way to bond with my puppy!

I just used the puppy kibble he was eating at his breeder home in a cupped hand.

There are so many things to teach my puppy so that he knows how to navigate life in my household.

I use food strategically. That doesn't mean that Louis misses meals. This also doesn't mean that Louis always has to "work for his food" Strategic food also means his food being put in the playpen with an open gate so that he builds positive associations with being there.

20/10/2024

Louis 8 weeks - Snuffle Mat Settle
This is Louis' first session with the snuffle mat settle. He is doing so well. This is his first "down" as well!
Here I am doing the beginning steps of a relaxation protocol that I use a lot - lure down (with the help of "tented legs") and eat treats off the snuffle mat, and then repeat.
This is the beginning of learning how to settle...
and is not the same as "mat/bed/station training" where Louis would remain in "working mode" focused on me and actively "staying" or "tether/crate/playpen training". I also do this training - but I use different "pictures", and different techniques.
This activity provides so many benefits.
Immediate benefits are that I can use this activity to lower Louis' arousal when he has eaten and played and needs a little help in funneling the energy down.
Later benefits are that this snuffle mat "picture", and the extra cues I add later, will signal Louis that – “this looks like calm down and rest time” – rather than him being busy and frustrated not knowing what to do.
By showing Louis this behaviour and practicing it daily, Louis will be more likely to choose this behaviour as a coping strategy of his own accord.
Many of the poodle crosses and cocker spaniels (and many other breeds and X-breeds) I see need help in learning to switch off and relax. I plan to set Louis up for success in my home by teaching him this important skill early!

19/10/2024

Louis socialisation 9 weeks

Socialisation - "introducing the puppy to the things he will encounter during his life, at the puppy's pace, so he grows in confidence and is not afraid of people, dogs, and other things he will encounter....different environments, strange/sudden/or loud noises, moving vehicles/bikes, different surfaces - slippery modern floors, stairs, different animals, people in different clothing...and the list goes on.

I want my puppy to have positive experiences and gain in confidence quickly.

Although positive associations are most easily formed early, before 12-14 weeks (sometimes less in some breeds such as the German Shepherd, and longer in sociable pet breeds)...
and so I don't want to waste this precious time...
I can only go as fast as Louis tells me...
the tortoise beats the hare...

I have noticed that Louis is a little fearful of standing adult strangers when he is on the ground. I noticed this on some visits to friends.
He may have some genetic predisposition to be cautious of strangers, but he also may not have met many adults outside his family in the first 8 weeks of life. He did grow up with children and he gets very waggy when he sees children!

Louis is quite sensitive to different noises in the environment (though he was quite calm and playful in the recent loud thunderstorms). He "notices" noises - and shows a little concern, but he does want to investigate, rather than run and avoid.

Thus I am taking things slowly (as you should always do).

Car Park TV from the travel crate is a perfect mode of socialisation.
I parked near a pedestrian crossing at the local shops in the late afternoon/early evening when it was cooler and "just the right number" of people would be around.

Louis was able to view the new environment and passersby from the safety of his semi-enclosed high vantage point in the car. Louis has already had many short car rides. I was feeding Louis high value kangaroo jerky as he took in the world. Socialisation should be fun, and I want strangers to predict good things. If it was too much he could sit back down in the soft crate.

I only stayed for about 5 minutes. Then back home to play, eat and sleep. I will choose a different location tomorrow.

At home I am introducing new noises in a gradual manner, and when Louis was concerned about the neighbour hammering yesterday, I took him over to see what it was, and that it was nothing to worry about.

Louis is doing well and I love being able to show him the big world out there!

15/10/2024

Louis - Playpen 8 weeks

This is my day playpen set-up.

I have used playpens from Vebopets for 15 years and highly recommend them!

This playpen is 95cm high and will be suitable even when Louis is older. Many dogs prefer playpens with an open top to a crate. You can still have a small crate in the playpen for cosy sleeping. I do have a night crate in my bedroom.

Since this playpen's door does not go the ground, I have organised my Cato Boards and also my favourite piece of training equipment - a carpet-topped low table - so that Louis can enter and leave by himself.

The first step in playpen training is to position it in a place that your puppy will like. Some quiet and privacy but close enough to the action in these early days.

I have an Adaptil puppy diffuser plugged in nearby.

Then make it inviting! Louis has a small crate with a blankie with his mothers smell, a big fluffy bed, water, favourite toys and things to chew.

Then let your puppy enter the playpen of their own accord. Usually this is by the strategic use of daily food.

Here I have a Lickimat with some Prime100 SPD Slow Cooked Duck and Potato that Louis just loves!

Louis already has been learning "sit to say please" (rather than jump up), and he offers me a lovely sit on the stairs - though I was not asking for a sit here.

14/10/2024

Meet Louis!

Louis is my new groodle puppy 😍. He is predominantly standard poodle with a dash of mini poodle and a dash of golden retriever.

I adore him - he is confident, friendly, smart, very playful - and oh so cute🥰

I have not had him a week yet - but have taken a gazillion videos.

This video was taken last week at 8 weeks - 5 minutes after he arrived home from a 25min trip in the car in a big Brisbane thunderstorm. He sat in the crate for a few minutes and I let him come out of the travel crate of his own accord - then he wanted to PLAY 😍

I will add videos of our everyday life and the lifeskills I am teaching him.

Its all about "setting up for success" or "be proactive not reactive!" and timing and managing your daily routine as best you can to help your puppy be successful naturally.

*Lots of interactive play with me with soft toys
*Safely and curiously experiencing new objects, environments, sounds, people and dogs at his pace
*Strategic use of food for lifeskills training and to promote calm when desired
*Introduction of harness
*My use of a playpen and babygates, and a crate for night sleeping
*Safe and slow introductions with my 7yo German Shepherd Ava
*The heeling "reward zone"
*How I prevent puppy biting in my daily life

And so much more...Stay tuned!!!

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Brisbane And Toowoomba
Toowoomba, QLD

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+61456957096

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