He needed an early present yesterday to release some stress so he opened his knuckle bone for some chewing. He promptly took it to my bed and left nice crumbly pieces all over Dad's side of the bed! Azul also received a package in the mail from his Yooper Paws Puppy friends Nick & Pau, puppals from Clovis, California. Azul isn't totally sure that he loves the Topple food dispenser as of yet, but he started Christmas Eve out with a topple full of turkey for breakfast. Thanks Cindy for thinking of us this holiday season.
Yooper Paws of Love is dedicated to providing training with love to you and your 4-legged friend! My mission as a trainer is to EDUCATE owners to ENGAGE better with their dogs to EMPOWER them to function as an effective team together. As a trainer, I help families & their dogs learn to enjoy each other’s company by developing a teamwork and games based approach to dog training that is as individualized as the family I’m helping!
Saturday, December 24, 2022
Christmas Eve Fun
He needed an early present yesterday to release some stress so he opened his knuckle bone for some chewing. He promptly took it to my bed and left nice crumbly pieces all over Dad's side of the bed! Azul also received a package in the mail from his Yooper Paws Puppy friends Nick & Pau, puppals from Clovis, California. Azul isn't totally sure that he loves the Topple food dispenser as of yet, but he started Christmas Eve out with a topple full of turkey for breakfast. Thanks Cindy for thinking of us this holiday season.
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Accomplishments of 2022
Accomplishments of 2022
- I'm working with a local business to start hosting classes inside an events center! So unbelievably exciting!
- SD Handler Chat format will be changing! Stay tuned!
- The NEW Service Dog Public Access Class & Evaluation opportunity will be released.
- New training will be available to other Canine Coaches and fellow dog nerds, beginning with the Confident Canines Class that begins in January.
- I'll be pulling together some new Canine Coaches to launch a new series to help dog owners with some of the most common behavioral issues by expanding the discussion beyond the current "one-size-fits-all" approach to dog training.
- March Focus Around Distractions Mini-Workshop will be coming back for the 2nd year with all new topics & games to help you push your teamwork skills to the next level.
- Oh, and I can't forget the monthly blog Theme of the Month! This year I will be keeping the same monthly themes and expanding on them even more taking them to the next step too.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Hang a Stocking
Do you hang a stocking for your dog or wrap presents to put under the tree?
How can we use presents for our dogs to help create a Calm Christmas?
Ways to invite our dog to do stress relieving behaviors in enriching ways.
- If you are in a multi-dog household, keep chews up and out of the area while dogs are roaming to prevent any temptation to resource guard or fight over them.
- Have your dog lay on a mat, blanket, or towel to chew on the prize. This reinforces calm on the mat. When your dog gets off the mat, the chew is removed and put up unless the dog is called back to the mat to reset the situation.
- If I'm doing this with dogs that don't know the rules (stay on the mat) I will either place dogs in separate rooms with a door/gate barrier or use a human roadblock. For example, Azul knows the mat rule but puppy Finnegan, my son's dog, does not so I would place Azul's mat in a corner of the room and sit in front of him so I can stop the Finnegan invasion so Azul doesn't feel threatened. And most likely my son is going to be working on teaching Finnegan the mat rule too. If your not supervising inexperienced dogs closely, put them in separate rooms with a barrier between them.
Monday, December 19, 2022
Holiday Treats
Ingredients:
1 Package of fresh/frozen beef liver.
1 Can of Peas
1 Can of Carrots
¼ Cup of Mashed Potato Flakes
Directions:
Put liver in a blender first.
Drain peas & carrots and add to the liver.
Slowly stir in potato flakes to thicken to the consistency of brownie mix.
Spray silicone baking molds and place on cookie sheet.
Pour mixture into molds.
Bake/Freeze:
Bake at 350 degrees for 18-24 minutes depending on the size of the mold. Larger molds such as meatloaf molds, might take longer.
Using Homemade Holiday Treats to Create a Calm Christmas
Extra tasty treats come in handy for a wide variety of reasons during the holidays. We can use treats to desensitize to new and potentially scary items, people, or other things that are not normally found in your home. Let's face it, our dogs probably think we are nuts for putting a tree up in our living room and inviting a crowd of people over to look at it. All kidding aside, keeping a high value reward handy for these times of mild stress can be super helpful to create positive associates with these "new" distractions. Check out the post on Helping Fearful Dogs with DS/CC to learn more about desensitization & counter conditioning.
If you've worked with a dog trainer or Canine Coach previously, you've probably heard about training FOR the moment not IN the moment, meaning train skills before you actually need them. But you were busy prepping for the holiday and totally forgot to include your dog in the planning stages. Now the holidays are upon us and you need to teach a certain skill such as mat/station training right now! But you don't have much time to do it. Pairing that training that your forgot or have not practiced in a really long time with a high value reward can help your dog learn really quick. While you can't expect miracles such as your dog going from dragging you down the sidewalk to a perfect heel in just a day, you can teach your dog to lay calmly by your feet while you eat dinner if you have something tasty to reinforce with. Since most people do not want to feed their dog from the table, having a homemade dog treat can be a great alternative! This way you can be sure your pup is eating only dog safe ingredients that smell and taste like people food. The best thing about that is you can make these treats up a few days in advance and have them at the ready when everyone sits down to the table.
Another great way to use holiday treats is to help your dog eat meals while you are traveling. We all have made a trip with our dogs and realized after we got there that they were either too nervous or too distracted to eat their meals at the normal time. While this bothers some dogs more than others, no one wants to spend the holidays worrying about when/if their dog will eat in a new environment. If we have not planned for this, we can scramble to find a human food that our dog WILL eat no matter what. This often leads to running through a drive thru for a cheeseburger or something to get the dog their favorite snack or worse, giving our dogs something unhealthy that might upset their stomach. Preparing some homemade treats with a few simple ingredients can be just the trick to ensure your dog can eat healthy when you are in a new/unusual environment. Check out the Holiday Cookbook above some great dinner recipes that can be put on a lickmat and frozen for meals on the go as well.
The pictures in this blog show Azul eating some holiday treasures using a few enrichment based toys to help use up some mental energy during a bad weather day. He has a puzzle toy that spins to reveal the treats and some things from my recycling stacked together to give Azul a chance to sniff out the treats. I have a recycled drink carrier from a fast food place, lids from disposable coffee cups, and plastic solo cups that all stacked together with various healthy snacks hidden around the items.
Take note of the blanket in this picture! This is the homemade Christmas present I made for Azul this year. He is always loving my blanket with the knot fringes and often steals it when we go out of town. This year I decided to make him this mat/blanket that is just his size making it small enough to carry with us. I gave it to him early because he doesn't tend to like things that smell "new" and I wanted him to be used to this mat before we take it out of town for the holidays.
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