Dog trainer

[Rachael_Astro]

I've got a dog trainer coming to the house today, Astro's beginning to accept Koda more but we are still a long way off! It doesn't help that Kodas stealing his toys and barging in when I'm giving him a fuss. Because of the toy stealing Astro's started to guard his toys a bit so need to nip that in the bud! Also he needs training on the lead, it's difficult to train when there's 2 of them but on the other hand I don't want to be walking him on his own as walking them together helps them bond.

 

Astro's always been quite vocal but it's got worse since we got Koda, he does it when Koda jumps up at me, on the sofa, when Koda tries to bite me, when Kodas running round trying to bite his tail, I think he's trying to tell him off but it's difficult to discipline Koda when Astro's barking and getting Koda more excited!

 

Thankfully there's nothing serious apart from the guarding so I'm hoping she can give some good tips

 

 

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[robke]

apart from toy guarding sounds like our household LOLOL

[Jo]

Good luck! Hope it goes well [emoji3]


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[Rachael_Astro]

Thank you! Astro growls and sometimes snarls at Koda when he gets too close too so want to know what I can do to help them get along better really. I'd like to be able to take them out in the car without worrying about there being a fight on the back seat!


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[robke]

Bindi growls from time to time but nothing that ends up in a fight...they just let her be when that happens...

[Rachael_Astro]

Bindi growls from time to time but nothing that ends up in a fight...they just let her be when that happens...

Aww does she! To be fair they've only has 2 fights one was when Koda jumped off the bed onto Astro and tried to steal his toy, and the other was when I was giving Astro a treat and Koda tried to steal it out of my hand (he's a lot better with food now though)


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[Emma]

Good luck Rachael. [emoji3]


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[BingBlaze n Skyla]

I don't know if it helps but using the non pull harness on blaze even when walking bing's n skyla with him really helped , n having the walking belt meant I could focus on him a bit more , I also did one on one walks and walks together , if you've got the time blaze n skyla sometimes bare their teeth at each other too but they don't usually fight from it
Good luck with the trainer tho hope it helps

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[Rachael_Astro]

I don't know if it helps but using the non pull harness on blaze even when walking bing's n skyla with him really helped , n having the walking belt meant I could focus on him a bit more , I also did one on one walks and walks together , if you've got the time [emoji4] blaze n skyla sometimes bare their teeth at each other too but they don't usually fight from it
Good luck with the trainer tho [emoji4] hope it helps

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Thank you! [emoji4] I'm going to get a head collar from Indi Dog for Koda but not sure if that would work attached to a harness? [emoji848] or I could have Astro on the walking belt and Koda on a normal lead with the head collar maybe!


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[BingBlaze n Skyla]

I used a double ended lead with blaze n his harness to his semi-slip just incase he tried to slip it

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[Rachael_Astro]

I used a double ended lead with blaze n his harness to his semi-slip just incase he tried to slip it

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Ahh thank you that's a good plan I'll ask Sid to make me one of those


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[Rachael_Astro]

The dog trainers just been round, she's a 'pack leader' dog trainer which I know everyone doesn't believe in, but it's worked for us already! She just made some very small changes to what I do at the moment and they did so well!

Koda was trying to push boundaries a bit (typical husky) but after just a couple of checks and hand signals he was stopping jumping up at me and stopping jumping on Astro. We have put toys away so they will be having limited time with them (mainly when they are in their crates)

On walks Kodas been the one bouncing around, but we took him on his own and he was perfect, no issues at all. So it has in fact been Astro winding him up! We went back and got Astro, who as usual was really vocal when I was trying to put his harness on, but again with some checks and spending more time doing it calmed him down. I'm putting his harness on a good 5 minutes before taking him out now to give him time to calm back down before we go out. On the walk Koda was perfect he didn't even react to a cat! I've still got the walking belt on but in the training stage I've got slip leads on both of them too so I can check them if they react to dogs/cats etc

She said I've been trying to exercise and train at the same time which you can't do, it's got to be separate.

So really simple thing really, but they definitely make a big difference!

As for the grumpiness from Astro, she said she's not worried about that it will just sort itself out after time. Yippee!


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[Bradley]

Awesome news hope it all works out for you [emoji4]

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[robke]

if it works for you why not...works for me 99% of the time LOL

[Jo]

Hi Racheal
Hows the training going? We had our 1st 121 on sunday and have been given 'homework' 5 mins 5 times a day in the house and garden we have to put Amy on a short lead to collar to keep her next to us and we walk, stop, walk, change direction, when we stop we wait for her to sit and look at us ( without a command) and gets a treat! Shes doing really well, we put some ' down' commands in and 'come' - amazing what she'll do for a piece of liver or tuna biscuit!!! [emoji3]


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[Rachael_Astro]

Hi Racheal
Hows the training going? We had our 1st 121 on sunday and have been given 'homework' 5 mins 5 times a day in the house and garden we have to put Amy on a short lead to collar to keep her next to us and we walk, stop, walk, change direction, when we stop we wait for her to sit and look at us ( without a command) and gets a treat! Shes doing really well, we put some ' down' commands in and 'come' - amazing what she'll do for a piece of liver or tuna biscuit!!! [emoji3]


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Hi Jo I've got another dog trainer coming round on Monday! Astro's quite a nervous dog and I don't think he's benefiting from the whole alpha theory training. The guy that's coming round works at the rescue where I got Koda from and he works with more positive reinforcement so hopefully that will work a bit better [emoji4] good luck with Amy!


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[Jo]

Hopefully he'll be fab! Good luck! [emoji3]


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[Sir Shiloh]

Wishing you the best with your training

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[Rachael_Astro]

I've just had a dog behaviourist round and I have to retract what I've said previously about Ceasar McMillan style 'in charge' training working well. Astro's a very nervous dog and I think that's made him a lot worse, the behaviourist explained everything from a dogs point of view and it's definitely not a good way to train a dog.

The guy that came round today works at the rescue and he is very much about being calm in every situation. He said by letting the dogs walk out in front of me it's making them feel like they are protecting me which is why it escalates so quickly into barking and jumping when they see other dogs. He's taught me how to use the slip lead properly (not practically strangle them like the other trainer was doing), and how putting myself in between them and what they perceive as a danger helps them calm down and see that they don't need to protect me. He said to face whatever is causing them to get stressy and not turn my back on it as the dogs will just try to warn me that there's something behind me then.

Another issue is people at the door, I have a glass porch door which I usually close if someone knocks and Astro is going bonkers behind the door. He's taught me about boundaries, so when someone's there, keep the porch door open. If they try to cross from the living room into the porch, correct them and block their path. He's said I need to practice knocking on the door and having the door open about 10 times a day.

Same for rooms, they follow me everywhere at the moment which is a guarding issue, so if I get up and they try to follow me I have to correct them and tell them to stay

Koda is pretty chilled but Astro is going to take a lot of work, hopefully by husky camp he will be a lot less stressed but him being in the car is another story!!


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[Jo]

Sounds like you had a busy day! So how do you use a slip lead without strangulation? The guy we went to ( but not going back) had us put Amys collar tight and lead her off that, she strained and chocked the whole time which made me worry about her throat!
Hopefully Astro will respond well to all your hard work [emoji3]


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[Rachael_Astro]

Sounds like you had a busy day! So how do you use a slip lead without strangulation? The guy we went to ( but not going back) had us put Amys collar tight and lead her off that, she strained and chocked the whole time which made me worry about her throat!
Hopefully Astro will respond well to all your hard work [emoji3]


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You put the slip lead on quite high up the head, just behind the ears. Tight enough that it won't slip down but not too tight! If you use the corrections at the right time you never have to pull the lead and they don't pull you, so the first trainer snapped the lead quite hard and made them sit by pulling it right up and you could see they were choking it didn't make me feel comfortable. This trainer showed me how to give them a little bit of slack but not too much, as soon as their head passes my hips I just give a couple of tugs on the lead and they fall back. He did it in such a calm way and Astro wasn't nervous at all. Koda took to it like a duck to water like he does with everything!


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