Danny Decourtelle Dog Trainer & Behaviour Consultant

02/03/2025

“Just one more”

“That was so good”

“Did you see that?”

As tempting as it is, our advice it to keep training sessions as short as possible, but frequent.

Rather than putting aside an allocated time slot at a specific time of day (“ok it’s 4pm so time for half an hour of training”) try instead to incorporate all those new behaviours into daily life throughout the day in short bursts.

Take the pressure off both yourself and your dog.

Think less about ‘training’ per se and perhaps more about life skills, habits & patterns of behaviour.

You are likely to hear both Vanessa ( ) and myself frequently talking about how we micro-dose new behaviour, or introduce small, incremental & consistent steps/approximations that gently nudge towards the target behaviour.

Remember that a training session can be as short as a couple of seconds.

Even though we are aware that new habits are formed in the brain by strengthening the neural pathways through practice we need to remind ourselves that dogs struggle with lots of repetition so the balancing act is to always leave them wanting more…

I was reminded of this today when I read the following passage from ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by Haruku Murakami:

“Right now I’m aiming at increasing the distance I run so speed is less of an issue as long as I can run a certain distance that’s all I care about.
Sometimes I run fast when I feel like it but if I increase the pace, I shorten the amount of time I run, the point being to let the exhilaration I feel at the end of each run carryover to the next day.
This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel.
I stop every day righ at the point where I feel I can write more.
Do that and the next days work goes surprisingly smoothly.
I think Ernest Hemingway did something like that.
To keep going, you have to keep up the rhythm.
This is the important thing for long-term projects.”

02/03/2025

Having worked extensively with a long-line, a very clear observation of mine is that by providing distance, he seems much more inclined to actually stay close (out of choice).

Another is that lead frustration has hugely been reduced. In fact it’s gone and he now tolerates a short lead (when needed) with no issues at all.

The power of the long-line.

22/02/2025

MINDSET + EXPECTATION + PREDICTABILITY

Whenever we go out together (the most exciting, stimulating, interesting part of his day) we NEVER do so with the intention of meeting other dogs.

We don’t expect other dogs to entertain him and neither do we allow him to be entertainment for other dogs.

He is with us and we are with him.

It’s not an opportunity to catch up on podcasts or to make a few calls.

He has friends and like most of us they can be counted on one hand. Occasionally one of them might even join us. However, the expectation that it’s all about other dogs is simply not there.

It’s a mindset of emotionally working with the dog as an active member of the team instead of being a passive observer essentially encouraging the dog to ignore you.

20/02/2025

RESOURCE GUARDING BEHAVIOUR

I am currently working with a few people that are dealing with a resource guarding dog.

We all know that hindsight is a wonderful thing and that we can’t actually go back in time and change the past however…..

Having an understanding of how these behaviours most likely came to be can make dealing with them less vague.

As we all know, erm… (cough) socialisation includes the individual learning what is or isn’t a threat and how to appropriately respond in certain situations.

Now picture the scene, a puppy under 4 or 5 months old picks up a sock or a tissue or a pen. The human panics and chases after the puppy, restrains them, open their mouths and removes the item.

The puppy is now learning that when an item is in its mouth people are a threat and that it should avoid you, turn away, run, hide or eat the item as quickly as possible less you (the item thief) takes it away.

That head turn away from you is likely the first step towards resource guarding which, fast forward 6 months, is particularly resilient to change.

It’s not easy or pleasant dealing with resource guarding and particularly when your best friend bites you. It is infinitely easier, more efficient and effective to avoid it in the first place.

Like all of these things it will take considerable time, patience, understanding and commitment to deal with resource guarding. Some people much more cleverer than me even claim that you can’t ’get rid of it’ and that it will always be floating around waiting for the right circumstances to reappear …. But you can manage and control it.

20/02/2025

DON’T STRAY FROM THE PATH.

The methods & techniques I use in helping dogs overcome & cope with fearful or overwhelming situations are slow.

There I said it…….

When you see my dog here strolling past sheep & hens with dogs barking in the background (at us) it’s worth remembering we didn’t reach this point overnight.

Sadly I do see people give up or lose motivation because they don’t see results quick enough.

What someone means by ‘quick enough’ is anyone’s guess really.

A week? A month? A year?

It’s not us humans that make those decisions.

Yes, it’s a slow process but quitting will not speed it up….So, don’t stray from the path

16/02/2025

A really uplifting Google review.
Beautiful words.
These reviews as well as being utterly charming mean an awful lot to me & I’m genuinely appreciative.

16/02/2025

How does one train train a goldfish to swim through a hoop on cue?

You can’t push it, shout at it or force it and you won’t be able to correct it with a slip-lead or e-collar when it’s naughty or gets it wrong.

But it can be done.

01/02/2025

EAST LONDON DOG TRAINING COLLECTIVE

When 20 sheep decide to follow you….

It looks great doesn’t it?

A dog walking across a field only to be followed by a flock of sheep, close enough for him to jump on, chase & bite….

But we didn’t get to this point overnight.

He’s just turned 4 now and he has a lot of those boxes ticked that might indicate trouble for some;

…an overseas dog ‘rescued’ from Romania that missed out on that all important ‘socialisation period’, a nervous & anxious dog, over-reactive & fearful, suspicious of strangers, strong guarding tendencies, prey drive blah blah blah…

So how did we reach this point?

At The East London Dog Training Collective Vanessa ( ) and I work, in the main, with dogs & people that are experiencing issues around Separation Anxiety & Reactivity.

I think it’s fair to say we do this because these dogs are often the most challenging but more so because they need the help the most.

Despite past offers we are not sponsored & we have no merch for sale, the tools or equipment we use get about as technical as a long line, a mat or a tug toy.

Most of all we do not offer results based around any time frame. In fact we promise nothing more than a proven program of behaviour change that requires time, patience and dedication.

In many (most/all) cases it can take quite a while to undo these emotional knots of your dog’s inner state & being.

As with most things in life that are worth it, it will take effort & time.

We have a very robust track record of helping people and their dogs with the stress & emotional pain associated with fear, anxiety & frustration but without a doubt we can categorically state that the best results (most effective & efficient) are clearly from those that have the most consistent input.

17/01/2025

Communicating at a distance is really uplifting.

Giving them space and allowing them to make decisions can be empowering.

Building relationships, confidence & trust.

14/01/2025

I was delighted to hang out with this lovely lady at the weekend.

She is a little under-confident…

A POST ABOUT CONFIDENCE

ITS HEAVY (and probably really boring to most)

We often talk of dogs lacking in confidence but how do we actually encourage, teach or train a dog to be more confident?

To my mind, confidence is about promoting a sense of autonomy & empowerment in an individual.

EMPOWERMENT

Industriousness , creativity and resilience are some of the main elements of empowerment & confidence.

Industriousness (& persistence)
This refers to effort or even ‘try harder’ (persistence refers to perseverance).

So how do we encourage our dogs to try harder & for longer during training sessions?

The most obvious process for increasing industriousness is simply to reinforce it.

You can then shape more industrious behaviour by incrementally requiring greater effort in specific tasks.

(Note: research has shown that effort can generalise. In other words reinforcing effort in some training tasks can promote increased effort in other behaviours…)

Creativity
When we say creativity, I suppose we could also say ‘problem-solving’.

This could be defined as the act of ‘contacting reinforcement that is not otherwise readily accessible’ and it is about overcoming frustration and this is a key aspect of empowerment.

The best way to encourage creative behaviour (problem solving) is to try and shape alternative behaviour in order that the dog to access reinforcement.

We do this by reinforcing approximations of new behaviour, slowly and incrementally moving towards the complete behaviour

Resilience
Resilience (bounce back) can be a challenging notion to analyse.

The key in conditioning for resilience is to set the dog up to experience manageable frustrations (which are not excessive) and condition them to overcome the frustration.

In short, promoting these elements of industriousness, persistence and creativity will give your dog the tools they need to overcome frustration (IE become more resilient) and learn that certain situations are in fact, manageable.

01/01/2025

MICRO-DOSE THE BEHAVIOUR, HABITS & LIFE SKILLS YOU WANT.

East London Dog Training Collective.

What New Years resolutions are you making for your over-reactive dog?

How about micro-dosing ?

From a psychological perspective whenever we start a new task, we are full of enthusiasm at the start and as we catch sight of the finish line we get another boost of energy with success within our reach.

What often happens in between however, is a bit of a lull and that’s the trouble with year long targets - the down mood in the middle can be so long that we lose interest and fail to pick it up again.

That’s why we often start New Year’s resolutions with the best of intentions only to fail to maintain momentum somewhere in the middle and then give up.

Microdose

So rather than bold resolutions with targets a year away (and huge spaces in the middle) let’s instead break it all down into much smaller components and aim for approximations instead.

We refer to this as the micro-dosing of new patterns of behaviour, habits & life skills. Taking small (smaller than you think) incremental steps that sit just at the edge of what you your dog can do/cope with/tolerate. Steps that ever so gently nudge in the right direction without ever tipping over that threshold, it’s a balancing act for sure.

If your target is that your dog simply walks past another without losing their mind then let’s start with an approximation of that.

This might mean looking at another dog 200 metres away for a few seconds (for example)

Perhaps your target is that your dog spins on cue and you’re struggling to lure that spin with a treat. Then perhaps try for a quarter spin instead and work up from there …

Get yourself a diary and write down these little wins so you can track progress.
Treat your dog and importantly, treat yourself too.

Be systematic and be consistent and remember that they may seem like small steps to you,but to your dog they could be huge.

Remember that training is not about today, it’s all about the future anyway.

30/12/2024

Took these two out for a stroll.
One of them pulls on the lead, can you spot which one?

24/12/2024