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Fur Get Me Not often uploads valuable resources and updates to help you connect, train and communicate better with your fur babies.

reward dog training | dog trainer Brisbane

Be the most rewarding thing in your dog’s life | Reward dog training

So why is reward dog training the way to go? It is really simple: if you are the most rewarding thing in your dog’s life, they will choose you every time! Not only is that exactly what most owners want from their dogs. Using anything but positive reinforcement or reward dog training is a welfare issue. It shows a lack of understanding of what motivates a dog and what doesn’t motivate a dog. There have been numerous scientific studies that haven proven again and again that punishment increases anxiety and the likelihood that your dog will resort to aggressive behaviours. Don’t believe me, check out some of the science here.

So, how do you become the most rewarding thing in your dog’s life? Well, it starts simply by building a relationship that is built on trust and positive interactions. Like any relationship, this takes time and consistency. It means shifting your focus and looking for all the things you like about their behaviour. Then all the things you don’t like should be seen as opportunities to learn alternative ways.

One game that I love to play which is good for you and your dog, is to count out 30 treats in the morning. Your goal is to hand them out before their dinner that night. It just starts to gently shift your focus and is also particularly great for those that may have an anxious dog, as often your focus quickly becomes about their triggers. This can bring back the joy in your relationship.

So what are dogs motivated by? Again, what science has proven is that they have the thinking capacity similar to an 18 month old child. So let’s forget all that dominance garbage as that definitely has not been scientifically proven. Dogs are motivated by what feels good or doesn’t feel good. So if you make them feel good 100% of the time you are off to a great start. Of course, like any relationship this takes ongoing commitment and if you need help we are here to cheer you both on.

Spoiling your dog with a five star experience | Dog friendly accommodation

We love that holidaying with your dog is getting easier and easier, and it just got even better with luxurious hotel chain Ovolo Hotels offering a V.I.Pooch package to ensure that your dog really feels welcome in all their hotels. We had the pleasure of trying out this package at their 5-star hotel “The Valley” in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane and we definitely felt like we were spoiling our dogs and ourselves.

Their holiday accommodation package provides you with the following:

A doggy bed where your furry buddy can snuggle and relax like a real boss
An eating/drinking mat and food bowl so they can feast in style
A doggy bag with specially designed dog toys and treats, and…
Dog-friendly staff on hand to provide assistance when you need it

My experience of the package

Keep in mind, this is a five star experience so it does have a five star price tag to go with it. So it isn’t for everyone’s budget but it is certainly great value with all of the inclusions. For those of us who couldn’t afford this regularly, it is worth considering for those occasions like birthdays when you are normally investing in spoiling your dogs anyway. Or maybe like me, you don’t like going on holidays without your dogs and have missed the hotel experience for your own special occasions.

Right from the beginning of the booking they asked for some information about our dogs, which was very much appreciated given my anxious girl. I felt comfortable then in letting them know that Shimmy would appreciate the staff not interacting with her directly and, if possible, a quieter room. I was really impressed that all staff adhered to this which meant that Shimmy was able to really relax and enjoy the holiday, too. They even considered the disturbance to the dogs when bringing things to our room in that, rather than knock on the door, they left things outside the door and rang to let us know it was there. This was a nice extra touch that showed the staff’s compassion and love for dogs.

The room was stunning! I kind of expected it to not be overly clean, given it was dog friendly, but it really was a luxurious hotel experience with beautiful finishings and luxurious dog beds to top it off and no long list of rules of what the dogs can and can’t do either. The goodie bags for the dogs and us was such a nice touch too. I appreciated that these treats were all natural too, and nothing that could potentially be toxic to the dogs.

Overall, I would definitely recommend trying this experience but would suggest that you speak to staff and google street view each individual hotel so you can ensure it will be a positive experience based on your dog’s individual needs.

My top tips and things to research and consider with individual hotels are:

A lot of hotels are based in the city, so if your dog is scared of traffic or doesn’t like being in a busy street then going in and out of the hotel may be problematic.
How will your dog get to the room? Is your dog okay in a lift if that’s the only option?
Is your dog sensitive to sounds like people coming in and out of their rooms?
Where are the locations with grass for toileting options?
What walking spots are around?
Pack with you for your dog: Adaptil spray, lickimat, long lasting chews to help them settle into a new environment.

Remember, if your dog has any issues that would prevent them from enjoying an experience like this such as dog reactivity or specific fears, we can help with a Behaviour Consult either face to face or via Zoom.

How to choose a good dog breeder

You’ve decided to get a puppy and you’ve made the decision to get one from a dog breeder. You’ve done your research on different breeds and picked a breed that is right for you. Now, how to find a good dog breeder?

Below is our top list of things to consider when choosing a good dog breeder.

Is your puppy coming from a dog breeder or a puppy farm?

Can you meet your puppy’s mother before you select your puppy? Ideally you can meet the father as well, however this may not be possible if the father does not live at the breeder’s place.

Too often we are helping puppies with anxiety disorders. When we take a history for these cases, we often find out that the breeder wouldn’t let the mother be viewed by the adopting parents. They might have said something such as, ‘let’s meet half way and we’ll bring the puppy.’ Or, if you get to the property the breeder prevents you having access to view some areas of the property.

This type of behaviour from the breeder are big red flags. Most likely these dog breeders are actually puppy farms where large amounts of dogs are bred. The majority of dogs from puppy farms have ongoing physical and behavioural conditions due to how they were raised.

How a good breeder can minimise genetic physical and behavioural issues

If you do get to meet the parents and mum or dad appear anxious, hyperactive or aggressive, these behavioural traits have a good chance of being passed on to puppy.
Has the dog breeder done any relevant health or genetic tests for the mum and dad dog, and if relevant, the puppy? Each breed will have specific health issues that can be genetic such as hip displaysia or luxating patellas and these should be tested for before the mum and the dad dog get together. If an adult dog has a health issue, this can be passed on to the puppies.
The breeder should be keeping in contact with the families of previously adopted puppies to track if any behavioural or physical issues have occurred. This is important info for any breeder as it gives them information to alter future pairings of a mum and dad dog to avoid future issues.

Setting puppies up to be emotionally resilient

Is the dog breeder open to you visiting multiple times before puppy is ready to go home with you? This is ideal as it allows you to observe puppy and parents a few times. It also allows puppy to become accustomed to you. Also, we have heard stories of puppy farmers setting up a house to appear like a good breeder. If you visit multiple times you may pick up things like the littermates changing.
Can your dog breeder show you what socialization program they do with each litter of puppies? We now know that puppies can be set up to become more emotionally resilient individuals if they have a socialization program which commences at day one, that is at the breeder’s.
Note that socialization should extend beyond just meeting other dogs and people, and your breeder should be able to articular more than just these things. For some basic info about dog socialization, watch this video: Puppy Socialisation.
Can the breeder tell you when the sensitive or fear periods are for a puppy? This is important is it will impact the intensity of their socialization program each day.
Does your dog breeder have a commitment to positive reinforcement methods. Ask them what happens if either the puppies or dogs do any behaviour they don’t like. Beware responses including shouting, hitting, ‘time out’ or any other form of punisher. These responses impact on the short term welfare of the dog. These methods can also have long term impacts and create behavioural issues.

Final things to consider

Does the breeder interview you? You want a dog breeder who cares and wants their puppies to go to good homes.
Is your dog breeder registered with the Queensland Government? Legally every breeder needs to be registered to sell or give away dogs. More info can be found here: Information · Dog Breeders Register (daf.qld.gov.au). In addition, your dog breeder should be affiliated with other professional organisations such as Dogs Queensland.
Do they breed more than one litter at a time or multiple breeds? These are warning signs that they may be more focused on financial return rather than welfare of the dogs.
Were the puppies raised in a normal home environment? If they were raised in sheds, this does not set them up well for adjusting to a domestic home and often means they may have trouble with independence training.
Search google and social media for any stories or reviews about the breeder. Don’t be afraid to post on a breed specific Facebook page for experiences too.

If you have been in contact with a dog breeder and you aren’t so sure – trust your instinct and keep looking.

Once you get your puppy don’t forget to enroll them in a puppy school!

Why seeing a Brisbane Behaviour Vet can be the best thing for your dog

So, you have been referred to a Brisbane behaviour vet…

If we are concerned that your dog may have an anxiety disorder we will refer you to see a behaviour vet for appropriate diagnosis and treatment. A behaviour vet can be the best thing for you and your dog in this situation.

An anxiety disorder is a medical issue that affects the brain. The only person who is qualified to diagnose and treat anxiety in dogs is a vet. As behavioural trainers we are not qualified to diagnose a disorder. However, we are experienced enough to know when your dog needs to be assessed by a behaviour vet. For dogs with anxiety disorders, training alone will not fix the issue, and may do more harm than good. Please take our referral seriously and act as quickly as possible. A dog that is left to live with untreated anxiety is a dog that is suffering.

What happens to the brain with untreated anxiety

Your dog can become more sensitised to situations or objects that they are anxious about if they are continually exposed to them. Each time your dog is exposed to the thing that causes them to experience stress, this stress response triggers the part of the brain that is responsible for flight and fight. The more this response gets practiced, the stronger that response will get. If you think of that response like a muscle, the more it is exercised the stronger it will get.

The part of the brain responsible for rational thought, learning and memory (the cortex) does not effectively work when this part of the brain is triggered. The cortisol spike caused by this stress response will block the cortex for hours. For dogs who experience chronic stress or anxiety, this part of the brain can remain blocked. So we need to decrease triggering this stress response in the brain. When we do this your dog can have the opportunity to instead strengthen their thinking and learning response.

For some dogs with fear response about specific situations, it may be possible to slowly change how your dog feels about these situations without the assistance of a Brisbane behaviour vet. However for many dogs with anxiety disorders it is near impossible for them to be calm and relaxed at any point. An accurate diagnosis and treatment from a behaviour vet will help your dog stop having such extreme reactions of stress. This then allows behaviour modification plans be effective so we can help your dog start to have calmer responses in situations that would usually cause them stress. We can only do this because their brains have the right chemistry to think, learn and listen. They cannot do this under extreme stress.

Anxiety disorders are predominantly genetic

Most anxiety disorders are predominantly genetic and the dog is born that way. Similar to type 1 diabetes – lifestyle can positively impact the symptoms but it requires a medical intervention like insulin. We wouldn’t withhold insulin for someone that had type 1 diabetes and we shouldn’t withhold anxiety treatment for a dog that may have an anxiety disorder.

Behaviour Vets are an investment

Think of your local vet like a General Practitioner. They can be great to start a conversation about anxiety but this conversation should include a referral to a Brisbane behaviour vet. This is because our general practice vets do not specialise in anxiety disorders. A behaviour vet is a specialist in behaviour and more like a psychiatrist. Behavioural trainers are like psychologists. Beware that the training industry is unregulated so a lot of trainers are more like school teachers and may not be able to identify the red flags that indicate a dog may need assistance from a behaviour vet. It is best to start with the method that will help you and your dog the quickest.

Fees for a behaviour vet versus a general practice vet are not comparable. The fee for a general practice vet usually covers 15 minutes of advice, a behaviour vet will spend hours with you doing an assessment, history taking and observation and spend lots of time in preparation and follow up to ensure you and your dog succeed.

I wish I was referred to a Brisbane Behaviour Vet sooner

When I adopted my rescue Shimmy she was 16 weeks old and she was a tricky pup. I was an aspiring trainer and worked very closely with a dog trainer. Shimmy and I spent hours each week at the training school and in my own time working on different skills. I was basically playing behavioural whack-a-mole. I would address one problem and another would pop up. All I was doing was pushing those big red warning flags below the surface.

The experienced trainer I was working with should have referred me to a behaviour vet. Instead, they were using inappropriate training techniques which created an environment where Shimmy kept being stressed to the point that it was almost all she knew. Not to mention, I wasted thousands of dollars on training when it was not a training issue. It was not until I became a qualified trainer that I identified something was not right and saw a behaviour vet. It was the best thing I have done for Shimmy.

Shimmy now has quality of life and has come a long way with treatment. But this could have been done when she was younger. This would have been far less costly and far easier to treat. Most importantly, early intervention would have saved her years of suffering. Now I live with the guilt of knowing I could have helped her sooner. I have made it my mission to help other dogs like Shimmy get the right treatment as early as possible.

If you are unsure as to whether your dog needs training or a behaviour vet, we are always happy to chat and a detailed assessment is included as part of our Behaviour Consults.

Our top tips for using a high reward dog treat

There are so many options when it comes to using food in dog training and what might be a high reward dog treat for some might not be right for your dog, that moment or the behaviour you want to train. In this article we will discuss the six things we should always consider when using a high reward dog treat in training our pet dog.

Will my dog digest this ok?

Make sure you are not introducing too many new foods for your puppy or dog in one session. Introduce one new type of high reward dog treat at a time and give at least 48 hours or longer to check that this new food is ok for your pup’s digestion. We generally favour plain single ingredient items such as dehydrated meat or cooked meat. Avoid store bought treats which have long lists of ingredients including preservatives. Also avoid processed or salty meats such as devon or bacon. Talk to your vet if you are unsure.

Is it safe for my dog?

This follows on from the point above, but did you know there are lots of human foods that can be toxic to dogs? While this isn’t a complete list of toxic foods, it is a good guide of some of the dangerous ones for your dog. If you are unsure if something is safe for your dog, err on the side of caution and don’t feed it to them until you can check with your vet.

If you are giving your dog something to chew on, we like chews that are simply dried animal parts with no preservatives. We love Clear Dog Treats who are based right here in Brisbane.

We don’t recommend using rawhide chews due to the risk of dogs choking. Fortunately there are many raw hide free options, including all the chews from Clear Dog. For any chew please supervise your dog closely as there is still a potential risk they may break off a chunk and choke on it.

We often get asked if this type of training will make the dog fat…well any dog will get fat if they are fed too much. We recommend getting your dog to work for their food. This means they are only fed their daily food allowance via training activities or food enrichment toys. Measure out how much food your dog needs for each day and use this for the day – this way you know how much you have fed them and can change it accordingly to maintain a healthy weight.

Will my dog want to work for the food?

There are many types of reinforcers for our dogs. When we are thinking about reinforcers we need to think that it is something that our dog will want to work to get access to. A reinforcer is not just something that our dogs find pleasant. I find most food pleasant, but I will put in effort and work to get access to cheese, most seafood and chocolate. Your dog will have their own list of food they find pleasant versus the food they will work to get access to. This list will also change depending on the situation.

What is reinforcing will change – mix it up!

You know your dog loves chicken and come to class with a big bag of cooked chicken. You spend all class only giving your dog chicken and by the end, they have had so much chicken it stops being reinforcing. Just like if someone kept giving me chocolate bar after chocolate bar. Keep it interesting for your pup. Bring a mixed bag of treats so they don’t know what you are going to bring out next.

Pick easy to handle high reward dog treat

For adult dog treat training we want our treat sizes to be approximately the size of a baby pea. For puppy training, half of the size of a baby pea is ideal. We don’t want our dogs to become full five minutes into the class – small treats will help prevent this.

Make sure your reinforcer matches the difficulty of the skill your dog has performed

Too often we don’t get the behaviour we want from our dogs because we are pretty stingy with our rewards. Imagine you worked a 12 hour day for a job you didn’t really feel that passionate about. You are exhausted at the end of the day. Your manager comes over and tells you that you did a good job (some verbal praise). They also tell you that you won’t get any money for this work. Apparently you should just want to do the work to please them and get more verbal praise. Will you turn up for work tomorrow? Our dogs are the same. If we reward behaviour with a reward our dog finds valuable, we will get more of that behaviour. But if we don’t reward for behaviour we want, that behaviour will be less likely to happen again. If you are not rewarding your dog in some way, you may be having this behaviour repeat due to negative reinforcement – read more about this here and why we don’t recommend this style of training.

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