Pawsitive Training NL

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🥺 NO LOVE FOR WALNUT? 🐾💔

We can’t believe this beautiful boy is still waiting for his forever home.

Walnut is a young Shepherd mix with so much love to give. At almost a year old, he’s basically an overgrown puppy — goofy, energetic, affectionate, and still learning his manners. He needs someone willing to put a little time into working with him, but we truly believe Walnut has incredible potential to become an amazing companion.

Walnut absolutely loves attention from his humans! Long walks, adventures, playing fetch, running around — if you’re looking for an active buddy to experience life with, Walnut would love to be by your side❤️

He enjoys other dogs, although his enthusiasm can sometimes be a little much for certain canine friends. A home without cats, small dogs or young children would be the best fit for him.

Walnut is approximately 60 lbs, neutered and fully vaccinated.

All this handsome boy needs is someone to give him a chance🥹 We know his person is out there — please help us find them by sharing his post! 🐾❤️

If you feel Walnut would be the perfect addition to your family, please send us an adoption application https://sites.google.com/view/nlwestspca/adoption-application

I don't.
I don't crouch.
We're told to crouch down so we appear less threatening to a fearful dog.
Crouching makes you smaller.
It also makes you slower.
And around a fearful dog, oh, that matters.

It's absolutely fine if you disagree with me.

When I'm crouched, my centre of gravity is different.
I'm less mobile.
And with a dog I'm still getting to know, I want to be able to respond easily to their movement.
They move away?
They suddenly come closer?
They change direction?
I'm not trying to haul myself out of a squat at the same time.

Legs get tired.
At some point that small, non-threatening crouch has to end.
And then what?
Up you go.

From this small human who's been sitting down nice and low to.
"Hello, I'm actually this big"
And sometimes that change itself can spook a fearful dog.
So no, crouching isn't some terrible thing that nobody should ever do.
I just don't think it's automatically the best or least threatening position simply because we've made ourselves smaller.

And actually, I think we can get a little too caught up in what position we're supposed to put ourselves in around fearful dogs.
Crouch.
Stand
Sitting?
Sitting can have its place, but oh boy that's very individual too. If I need to move away quickly, those extra seconds it takes to get back onto my feet can matter.
And I don't particularly want to find myself stuck on the ground when a fearful dog suddenly becomes uncomfortable with my presence.

But what really matters?
Maybe I don't need to make myself smaller.
Maybe I need to make the pressure smaller.
And sometimes they're not the same thing.

That's why I don't start with,
"How should I approach this dog?"
I start with,
Do I actually need to approach them at all?

🐕 𝑨 𝑾𝑨𝑮𝑮𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑨𝑰𝑳 𝑫𝑶𝑬𝑺𝑵’𝑻 𝑨𝑳𝑾𝑨𝒀𝑺 𝑴𝑬𝑨𝑵 𝑨 𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑷𝒀 𝑫𝑶𝑮.

⚠️This is probably one of the most misunderstood pieces of canine body language.

We’re taught from childhood:

🤦‍♀️Dog wagging tail = friendly, happy dog.

But that simply isn’t always true.

➡️A tail wag tells us that a dog is emotionally aroused and engaged with what’s happening. What it doesn’t tell us, on its own, is whether that emotion is positive.

A dog may wag their tail because they’re:

🐾 Happy
🐾 Excited
🐾 Anxious
🐾 Uncertain
🐾 Frustrated
🐾 Conflicted
🐾 Highly alert
🐾 Over-aroused
🐾 Preparing to react

➡️And this is why looking at one body part in isolation can be dangerous.

Imagine two dogs.

🐶 Dog A:
Their tail is making big, loose, sweeping movements. Their whole backside is wiggling. Their body is curved and relaxed, their face is soft and their movements are loose.

Now compare that with…

🐕 Dog B:
Their tail is high and wagging rapidly in short, tight movements. Their body is stiff. Their weight has shifted forward. Their mouth has closed. Their eyes are fixed on something.

Both dogs are wagging their tails.

⚠️But they may be communicating VERY different things.

This is also why statements such as:

“But his tail was wagging!”

can sometimes be heard after a dog has growled, snapped or bitten.

The wag was noticed.

The rest of the dog wasn’t.

When reading canine body language, look at the whole picture:

👀 Are the eyes soft or staring?

👂 What are the ears doing?

👄 Is the mouth relaxed or suddenly tightly closed?

🐕 Is the body loose and curved or stiff and upright?

⚖️ Is the dog’s weight moving backwards, forwards or remaining neutral?

🦴 Where is the tail being carried?

💨 Is the wag broad and loose or short, fast and tight?

And most importantly…

🌎 What is happening in the environment at that moment?

✅Body language only makes sense in context.

Dogs are communicating with us constantly, often long before they feel the need to bark, growl, snap or bite.

We just need to learn how to listen.

❤️ A wagging tail isn’t a green light to approach a dog.

Read the whole dog, not just the tail.

Congratulations to all of the dogs who’ve completed reactive class!
The dogs made amazing progress over the past few weeks

Puppy FUNdamentals 
The puppies have been working hard learning manners. They’ve explored some weird new things that the humans wanted them to do(aka props)
learnt a whole bunch like sit, down and leave it and much more!

Message us for more details on our classes

Focus and Manners class!
The dogs have been working hard learning new manners
Some of which are loose leash walking, stay, leave it and much more!
We’ve had some cool new props introduced teaching them learning is fun and rewarding
Message us for more details on our classes!

THE RISE OF REACTIVITY IN TEENAGE DOGS

Your puppy was doing beautifully.

They were happy to see other dogs, walked past people without a problem and seemed increasingly confident in the world.

Then adolescence arrived.

Suddenly they are barking at dogs they used to ignore, lunging towards things they find exciting, becoming much more easily distracted or reacting to situations that previously seemed completely ordinary.

What happened?

Adolescence is a major developmental period in dogs. It involves changes in the brain, hormones, motivation, social behaviour and the way dogs respond to their environment. Although there is no single age at which every dog becomes an adolescent, the period is broadly considered to extend from around six months through to somewhere between one and two years, depending on the individual.

Research has found measurable changes in behaviour during canine adolescence. In one study, dogs were less responsive to a familiar command from their primary carer at eight months than they had been at five months, while their response to the same command from an unfamiliar person actually improved. The researchers described this as evidence of a temporary adolescent phase of altered responsiveness.

But adolescent reactivity is more complicated than simply saying, “Their hormones are going crazy.”

REACTION AND EMOTIONAL CONTROL

During adolescence, the systems involved in motivation, emotional responses and behavioural control are still developing.

A teenage dog may therefore notice something intensely interesting or concerning before they are able to regulate their response particularly well.

That can look like:

Barking at another dog.

Pulling towards people.

Chasing moving objects.

Becoming extremely excited when seeing another dog.

Suddenly reacting to noises.

Struggling to disengage from something interesting.

Becoming more easily frustrated when prevented from reaching something they want.

This does not necessarily mean the dog has suddenly become aggressive.

Reactivity simply describes a heightened behavioural response to a stimulus. The underlying emotion may be excitement, frustration, fear, uncertainty, or a combination of these.

THE WORLD CAN ALSO START TO LOOK DIFFERENT

As dogs mature, their social and environmental awareness changes.

A young puppy may approach almost everything with curiosity. As the dog develops, they may become more selective about what they find interesting, concerning or worth responding to.

Some dogs become more socially confident.

Others become more cautious.

Some become more interested in other dogs.

Others become less tolerant of unfamiliar dogs.

And some begin displaying responses that were barely noticeable during puppyhood.

This is one reason why socialisation does not end when puppyhood ends.

A dog still needs appropriate experiences as their behaviour and perception continue to develop.

PREVIOUS LEARNING MATTERS

Adolescence doesn't erase everything a puppy has learned.

Instead, new developmental changes occur on top of previous experience.

If a young dog has repeatedly practised barking and lunging at other dogs, that behaviour can become increasingly well established.

If they have learned that barking makes an approaching dog go away, the behaviour may become particularly persistent because it has been reinforced.

Likewise, if a dog has repeatedly experienced unfamiliar dogs at a distance, remained comfortable and learned that they can observe without needing to interact, those experiences provide a very different learning history.

This is why management during adolescence matters.

Every opportunity to rehearse a behaviour can contribute to learning.

GENETICS STILL MATTER

Not every adolescent dog develops reactivity.

Individual temperament is influenced by genetics as well as developmental experience, learning and environment. Research in pet dogs has found associations between breed and social fearfulness, supporting the idea that genetic differences contribute to behavioural tendencies.

This is important because adolescence should not be treated as a universal explanation for every behavioural change.

A sudden increase in reactivity can have many contributing factors.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Don't wait for your teenage dog to “grow out of it”.

At the same time, don't assume that every reaction needs to be confronted head-on.

Instead, look at what is happening immediately before the reaction.

How close was the trigger?

What did the dog's body language look like?

Was the dog excited, frustrated, worried or uncertain?

Could they still eat?

Could they respond to you?

Could they look at the trigger and then disengage?

Or had they become completely absorbed in the situation?

Distance is often one of the most useful tools.

A dog that can calmly observe another dog from 20 metres may be completely unable to cope at five metres. Working at a distance where the dog can remain below their reaction threshold gives them an opportunity to observe, process and learn without repeatedly practising the explosive response.

And remember that adolescence is a developmental stage, not a deadline.

Your teenage dog is still developing.

They do not need more pressure simply because they are getting older. They need appropriate boundaries, continued learning, sensible management, opportunities to make good choices and experiences that build their ability to cope.

The goal isn't to suppress the reaction.

The goal is to help the dog develop better ways of responding.

A teenage dog who suddenly becomes reactive isn't necessarily becoming a “bad dog”.

They may simply be a young brain, in the middle of development, learning how to navigate a much bigger and more complicated world.

Donna Williams,
Emerald Park Border Collies.
www.emeraldparkbc.com

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Registration is now open for our annual Howl-O-Ween dog walk! Pawsitive Training NL

📍NEW LOCATION 📍

The walk this year will be held at the Western Long Term Care/Hospital!! Not only will we be raising money for great charities NL West SPCA and elderdogcornerbrook we will also be bringing some spooky Halloween fun to the residents and patients of the long term and hospital ❤️‍🩹 plus costume prizes!! Minimum donation of $10 per dog to enter.

So register now or day of and bring your pups for a fun walk! Register in person at Danny’s paw prints or email [email protected]