Working Dogs
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
When you have a working breed dog with big nerve (nothing bothers him, everything excites him) and big drive (good luck tiring this dog out with exercise alone and no trained ‘off switch’) living in a pet home we have to be crystal clear about boundaries and expectations. One of the very first ways I like to introduce the concept of boundaries is through place command training and the structured heel. In both of these exercises we create lines and positions that the dog isn’t allowed to cross without permission or invitation. And once a dog starts to understand these concepts, we can start ge ..read more
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Get Out!
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
The Out Command - Learning how to safely give up items of value (like food!) on command and then move off to a safe distance and hold a down/stay or place command so that it is safe for human hands to go pick up those valuable items. During my first sessions teaching the ‘Out’ command, I show the dog what to do when he hears me say the word ‘Out’ by using his remote collar and leash to guide him away from the bone and into command. Once the dog understands the concept of the ‘out’ command we are starting to use different items like food, treats, and toys! What you want to remember with any ..read more
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Walk Reactivity
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
During my walking field trips we always encountered so many challenges and distractions and former triggers that used to send the training dog into a reactive tizzy! We see bikes, atv’s, cats, horses, scooters, roller skaters, skateboarders, cyclists, people and other dogs all out enjoying enjoying summers end. Something that I often talk about in my posts is advocating for our dogs and I wanted to dive a little deeper into what that means and doesn’t mean. When I talk about advocating for our dogs, it means from unreasonable situations and unreasonable pressure and unwanted attention/contac ..read more
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Cultivating Good Choices
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
As owners and handlers of young dogs, we are in a very powerful and unique position to shape their mindset and behaviour by staying on top of things correctly and CONSISTENTLY. Cultivating them towards good choices and calm behaviours by not enabling their inner devil through permissiveness, unearned freedoms and privileges, and missed opportunities to correct poor choices. I can’t stress enough how very important it is to be CONSISTENTLY structured, accountable, boundary settling, rule following and disciplined with our growing dogs to help prevent issues like reactivity, anxiety and aggress ..read more
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New friends
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
When dogs get together with new acquaintances, we handlers and owners need to make sure that they are a good influence on one another, everyone is on the same page mindset/behaviour wise and everyone is behaving politely and respectfully under the human’s supervision and guidance. When I post videos of dogs together you’ll notice that no dogs are jumping on one another, nor body slamming, nor putting teeth or paws on anyone, nor anything else that would instigate conflict or potentially harm another dog. The dogs are freely mingling and enjoying one another’s company in the right calm way. Th ..read more
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Passive Training
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
Passive training is happening when our dogs are holding commands for a duration of time. During passive training, dogs learn how to relax aka ‘calm on command’ which is every bit as important as our active work like learning to recall, going for walks or playing structured games. When we teach our dogs to have an ‘off switch’ through passive training it gives us handlers the ability to help our dogs relax in the home, not bark at sights and sounds outside the windows, settle easily into commands in different environments (ex. Joining a night out by down/stay on a patio under your table or over ..read more
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Leash Communication
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
Leash communication means teaching the dog how to receive information through directional leash pressure, for example a light upward pull means ‘sit/stay’ and a light downward pull means ‘down/stay’. We need to be very careful what we are telling our dogs through the leash because pulling back on the leash (as you see done when dogs are pulling in front of their handler) puts a lot of dogs into a ‘drive’ mindset which creates too much energy or mental arousal making reactivity/impulsiveness/poor choices/or simply more uncomfortable pulling very likely. I really like showing dogs that the lea ..read more
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Muzzles in public
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
I get this question a lot when I’m out in public with a dog wearing a muzzle, and I bet a lot of you very responsible folks with serious dogs who sport their muzzles in public often get it too! So I just wanted to let you know you’re not alone and you are doing the right thing by using your safety tools with an aggressive/formerly aggressive dog and to keep rocking that beautiful muzzle! ❤️ Them: Why is that dog wearing a muzzle? I thought she went to training? [context: many people genuinely don’t understand the nature of aggression and that if given the opportunity to bite again, some aggre ..read more
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Remission
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
When it comes to rehabbing anxious dogs, I always talk about putting the anxiety into ‘remission’ but I never talk about it in terms of ‘fixing’ or ‘curing’ anxiety because it’s a very deeply rooted issue that can come back if the dog’s training, structure, and daily exercise aren’t consistently maintained. Dogs aren’t born anxious, they may have inherent qualities that make it easier for them to become more anxious than other dogs but they didn’t start out that way. Anxiety in dogs is created by how we live with them and what we share with them. The silver lining here is that by changing how ..read more
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Young at heart
Find Your Balance Dog Training
by Kristen Cameron
1y ago
One of the challenges of training young dogs is working with their very short attention spans, minimal mental endurance and their LOOOVE of the zoomies when I’m trying to teach them to focus on work. Young Lauchie is no exception to this phenomenon so we’ve been putting in the reps, making the corrections and giving the guidance to help him learn how to respond to his commands rather than just zooming around like an adorable lunatic ..read more
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