September Schedule

This month we are tackling common struggles for family pets and service dog teams. I'll be expanding on previous blogs written over the last few Septembers.

Check out the list of available blogs here!

September Schedule 

All of these classes will be $150 for 4 sessions. (A discount is available for those who are already on a private session package or currently in the SD Support Package!) All classes will be tweaked to provide specific strategies for the dogs who sign up. Email or text us to sign up for any of these classes.

Service Dog Classes

Advanced Final Eval Prep Class

Monday’s at 4pm

This class is for clients that are in the final stages of training and putting the finishing touches to achieve their goals. We will be giving the C2C SD Evaluation & the Alliance of Therapy Dog Test in this class.

Intermediate Positive to PA Experiences Class

Monday's at 6pm.

This class is a mid-level class for Service Dogs & Therapy Dogs. We will be traveling to multiple environments, mostly outside, to practice basic teamwork skills around distractions. We will be doing lots of walking to practiceleash manners and settle.

Beginners SD Foundations Class

Saturday’s at 4pm

This is for teams that are just starting their Service Dog journey. We will be working on basic skills including tuck, settle, stay, wait, leash manners and basic task foundations.

FAD Family Pets Classes

Advanced Environments 

Wednesday’s at 11am

This class is for current clients who want to do more with their dogs in challenging environments including pet friendly public places and events. Being an advanced class, this is only open to those who have done extensive training with me and have dogs that are ready to work around strangers and other dogs.

Group Games & Walks

Wednesday’s at 7pm

In this group we will be mixing walks with games designed to help teams be successful in real life situations. This class is perfect for anyone wanting to work on leash manners with fearful, fizzy & adolescent dogs. All teams must have attended at least 3 sessions prior to participating & at least 1 longline management session.

Small Dogs Group

Thursday’s at 5pm

This class is perfect for small dogs (under 40 lbs.) needing to practice basic skills in distracting environments. The skills we practice will be determined by the needs of those who sign up.

Helping Fearful Dogs Walk

Thursday's at 6pm

This class is perfect for large dogs needing to practice basic skills in distracting environments. We will be focusing on skills needed to figure out safe distancing from other teams, utilizing exit strategies, and lots of LATTE (Look At That, Then Enrichment!) to help dogs & owners learn to cope better when distractions enter the environment.

YP Nosework Club 

Nosework Club is going to resume next Tuesday, Sept 10th from 6-8pm. Beginners beginning at 6pm and searches will become more challenging as the night goes on.

The cost to new clients is $125 for 4 sessions. Club members pay just $10 per session! Members with fearful dogs can schedule a private practice session from 4-6pm.

Please RSVP with Tammy or Penny!

Distracted Dog Days

Announcing the Distracted Dog Days Sessions

August Special:

Distracted Dog Days Sale!

This is a special package designed to give you and your dog all the support you need to become a successful team.

The highlight of this package, starts with one 4 hour session that allows us to evaluate needs, train needed skills and create individualized training exercises to practice skills in a safe environment then transfer those skills to a real life environment. 

New clients will attend with their dog for all sessions.

Returning clients can choose to drop their dog off for most of the session and come back at the end to see what we learned and how to do the training at home.

That sounds like A LOT and it might be overwhelming, doesn't it? 

But don't worry! This is achieved by moving back and forth between calm restful periods and higher energy periods specifically geared towards your easily distractible dog. 

One of the key struggles with easily distracted dogs is their inability to self regulate their arousal level. Once they get excited or amped up, they simply can't come back down to a calm level on their own. Your dog is not alone in this struggle!  The good news is that we can help them learn how to settle back down!

After your half day session (4hrs), we will do 2 follow up sessions (up to 2 hours each) spread out over the next 60 days. That's up to 8 hours of Day Session Training for your dog!

You'll also receive up to 4 Hrs of pre-recorded webinar that you can view on your own time OR access to 1 online class. During your 60 Dog Days Package, you'll basically have a Trainer in your back pocket with unlimited text/message support to get rapid answers to your questions.

You won't find a more complete package out there! Message us for more details and to schedule your 4 Hr Dog Day Session!

Creating Patterns

How do you create patterns to speed up your dog training?

Before reading this post about patterns & pattern games, be sure to review the post on Understanding Routines that I wrote a few months ago. Routines & Patterns are very similar yet have different applications so I want to start with defining what I mean for both of those words.

Routines - Ongoing behaviors that often apply to daily activities such as meals, going out to potty, bedtime, etc. In a routine the dog may perform multiple behaviors in response to changes happening in the environment that are practiced every day or every time that event happens.

Patterns - Short repetitive behaviors that are used in the training phase of a new behavior that will often be modified to increase the difficulty of the behavior or phased out once the dog actually learns the behavior.

Think of this way, we use routines to teach our dog what is expected in specific situations in order to receive the reinforcement they are seeking and we use patterns to teach our dogs a specific behavior that will earn reinforcement which later will be put on a cue once the dog has learned the specific behavior.

The first example of a pattern game that I teach in all my classes is the Up/Down Game.  Check out this video of Henney playing the game for the first time.

The directions for teaching the game can be found in the description of this video!

When playing a pattern game, I like to start with 10-12 small, easy to swallow treats in my hand so I can rapidly reinforce the desired behavior. Typically the game will last less than a minute. All my clients are taught how to use a pattern game to teach hand targets, then told to add that activity into something they do every day such as going to the coffee pot. I suggest they put a treat container at the place of their daily activity and pull out the 10-12 treats doing a 30-60 second hand target game before they fill their coffee cup, or whatever activity they are about to do.

Clients are instructed to play the Pattern Game exactly as we did in the session for 1 week. Then we tweak the game to make the behavior slightly more challenging. Week 1 they practice simple hand targets, Week 2 they play the Moving Target game, & Week 3 they play the Hand Target Heelzone Game. By doing this they are heavily reinforceing the hand target but slowly using that hand target to teach the behaviors they want the dog to do such as stand up, switch sides, heel, wait, etc.

When to use patterns and when to avoid patterns!

Those who continue training learn how to use Pattern Games to encourage behavior such as eye contact, heel, and recall. Since teaching heel is a struggle for many dog owners I'm going to use that as an example with 2 of my favorite games. Starting with the Finding Heel Game that I play.

Puppy Level

Adolescent Level

When you play lots of pattern games with your dog, at some point they typically start predicting what your next move is, often trying to get there before you even ask for it. At this point they know the behavior and if we repeat the patterns much longer without increasing difficulty or adding in new distractions, the dog will get board and decide to do their own game. Ideally we want to recognize this before it actually happens and make changes to keep the dog involved and learning.

To explain this a little better, I'm going to continue with the "heel" example and move on to the Bucket Game. By design the Bucket Game is geared to breaking patterns and routine habits, instead encouraging the dog to focus more on the handler for direction. If Belle sees my red buckets set up in pretty much any environment she easily jumps in heel ready to play the game because she loves it so much. 

See the video description for details!

In real life, I'm not about to carry my red buckets everywhere! As a Service Dog in Training, I need Belle to learn to heel in very distracting environments which requires a great deal of focus. To teach that level of focus, I need to keep changing the games and patterns in a way that makes her focus on me even without specific resources that I use for pattern games. To phase out the props and move more into real life situations, I need a game that makes it easy to always change the criteria. Sometimes this means blending different pattern games together to make a new pattern. Other times this means creating a brand new game with lots of direction changes such as working in a wide open space like a yard, field or parking lot and frequently changing directions.

There is a lot more games when it comes to teaching a solid heel and a many more things you need to consider about leash manners in general before you can figure out what will work best for you and your dog. The Leash Manners E-Book that will soon be released is designed to walk you through some of the challenges with leash manners and provide you with helpful resources to teach the behaviors you love using reinforcement the dog loves by playing games vs using corrections and telling your dog what not to do. Watch this blog for more info about the Leash Manners E-book!

July Party Schedule

Announcing our Summer Session Special!

We are starting with an altered scheduled for July 1st -3rd

Monday, July 1st, all of our Group Walkers are invited to attend a special group walk at 7PM, starting at the Yooper Paws Training Center. This is good for Fearful & Fizzy Dogs that need to stay 20+ feet away from other dogs in order to remain calm.

Tuesday, July 2nd, we have private sessions during the day and 2 evening activities. Our young Service Dogs in Training (SDiT's) that are working on SD Foundations are invited to attend a group session at 6PM at the Training Center with the possibility of a road trip to TSC.

Then also on July 2nd at 7PM the YP Nosework Club will be hosting a Searching For Scents practice session. All members are invited to join in the fun. If you're not a member yet, reach out to Penny or Tammy to find out how you can join.

Wednesday, July 3rd, the Group Trail Walkers will be adding a picnic to our adventures. This is designed for dogs who can greet other dogs after walking together and are able to settle down at a table with other dogs nearby. We will have a few private sessions after the walk before closing our doors at 2PM. 

From July 3rd @ 2PM to July 8th at 10AM, Yooper Paws of Love will officially be closed and Emergency Pricing will be in effect. Emergency Pricing includes:

• Phone calls for current clients of 30 minutes or less will be $50.
• In-person sessions for current of 60 minutes or less will be $75
• New clients in need of an emergency session during this time will be expected to pay for a package including the Behavior Evaluation and 6 Session package for $450 + $50 emergency session fee.

On July 8th we open back up for our July Summer Sessions Specials

Instead of having classes that require a 6 week commitment during summer vacation session we are going to be hosting a series of low cost private party sessions! Who doesn't love a good summer party? Each party will be a bit different allowing you and your dog to pick what's best for you. All parties will take place on the air conditioned Training Center allowing you and your puppy to be at the heat! 

The Private Session Special for these Summer Parties is $30 for a 30 min Session.

Monday Movement Puzzles

Our favorite movement puzzles will be set up for you to enjoy! These typically include a combination of basic skills that can be linked together to do more challenging behavior chains in a fun pattern that uses movement as the main reinforcement. Movement puzzles are great to build teamwork while using mental and physical energy at the same time. Plus you can do this in our air conditioned building on days where walking might be a bit challenging.

Tuesday YP Nosework Club

The YP Nosework Club will continue to meet at 7PM on Tuesdays, but you can also schedule your 30 Min Private Session to practice on your own (or with Belle & Azul). This is great for those super sniffers that are not quite ready to be indoors with the large group. Fearful & Fizzy dogs do really well with nosework! Once they learn to love the game, nosework often helps to build their confidence enough to play the games around other people and dogs. 

If you've been wanting to give Nosework a try, this is the perfect opportunity.

Wednesday Group Sessions

With the heat that typically hits in July and August, we will be suspending most of our Group Walks unless weather is fantastic. Instead we will be doing small group indoor sessions. Each group will be designed specifically for the dogs that will be attending.

The current Wednesday AM Trail Walking Group will be meeting at 10AM and will either go for a walk if weather allows or work in the classroom.

Additional Groups will be formed based on interested participants. If you know you have a few friends that have been training with Yooper Paws, this is the perfect opportunity for you to work together with the supervision of a trainer!

Thursday Playdates

This will be similar to Wednesday's small group, with the exception that the focus will be on play more than training. Of course play includes training and all our training sessions include play. You can schedule a playdate with Belle or schedule a playdate for a few friends.

The Positively Puppy Class will continue to meet for class from 1-2PM with the option of a 15 min playdate before or after for puppies.

Obstacle Course Fridays

Each Friday the Yooper Paws Training Center will be set up with a different obstacle course. You'll recieve guided direction from a Canine Coach to show you how to do work through the obstacles, then the remainder of your session to play on your own. You'll have 30 minutes on the main obstacle course, then a Get Moving Puzzle/Activity will be set up in the Paws & Relax Room for you to enjoy. 

Private Sessions

We are still scheduling Private Training Sessions this Summer! Private Sessions are 1-on-1 sessions with a Canine Coach  that last 1 hour designed to work on your training plan. These cost $75 per session or a package of 6 sessions for $300. Schedule Your Next Private Session Here!