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Training, Behaviour & Dog Care

Training, Behaviour & Dog Care…

Welcome to our dog training and behaviour section. Happy dogs in Happy families is what Love Underdogs is all about. Naturally, a lot of the harmony between dog and owner depend on a mutual understanding.

The material included in this section is valid for anyone who owns a dog.

If a new dog has just joined your family, you will hopefully find some great tips on how to handle things from day one.

For your new dog, the event of joining a new family is life changing. They need to learn everything there is to learn about you, your habits, and the members of the family they now share their home with. They need some time to learn what is expected of them and what they can expect from you. Be kind, be encouraging, understand that your dog is only trying to do the right thing and remember everything takes time and effort on both parts.

Make it a happy and fun journey, practice getting to see the world through your dog’s eyes, observe the ways in which they assimilate information and learn, and it will be a wonderful journey. Having a pet make us better people in part because they teach us patience, compassion, attention to details and unconditional love. In return, trust that your dog will do the same in the best way that they know how.

However your relationship with your animal is unique, and depend on your ability to be attentive to their way of thinking, remembering also that it is constantly evolving. This is, of course, the very exciting part of owning a dog. The ever changing landscape of your relationship means that every day brings new opportunities to strengthen the bond you have, to learn about each other and to become part of one another’s journey to living fulfilled lives.

In the words of our own collaborator, animal trainer Jay Pratte:

‘Remember, even when we meet new people, they might have what we consider “baggage” that we learn to deal with. A rescue dog will have faced some uncertainties in life, but with time, love and patience ALL of these can be overcome.’

POSITIVE TRAINING METHODS ONLY PLEASE
The Love Underdogs team support positive training methods only and here is why in the words of acclaimed dog trainer Victoria Stilwell:

‘If you treat fire with fire, you will get burned.

This concept is not rocket science, but it is still science. A study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour concluded that confrontational training methods such as hitting dogs, intimidating them with punitive force and using techniques of restraint like the ‘alpha roll’ actually do very little to correct dogs’ behaviour and in fact increase the likelihood that they will be fearful and aggressive.

Behaviour is closely linked to and influenced by emotions, so punishing a dog for unwanted behaviour while not understanding why the behaviour is happening or its emotional effect on the dog only serves to make things worse. Punishments such as leash jerks and collar corrections, hitting, poking, ‘nudging,’ kicking, hanging by the collar, or using electric shock or spray collars may be effective in suppressing behaviour at that moment, but these tools and techniques do little to solve the problem in the long term and can make a dog’s behaviour much worse in the future.’

Victoria Stilwell

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