Conformation Class Information

New Conformation Class
I am very excited to announce that Yvonne Chohan will be teaching a Monday, 12-12:30pm four week conformation class to start on June 22!  Registration is open for this.  We hope to make this a regular, ongoing class.

New Conformation Class Policies
Effective immediately, we are going to ask that people not bring in season bitches to conformation class.  The space is simply too small to ask other dogs, young males in particular to deal with such a challenging distraction.  While we understand that males may be exposed to in season bitches at dog shows, we don't feel that group classes are someplace where a dog should have to deal with that.

Also, we occasionally have dogs that can overstimulated and reactive during class.  We are going to ask that if anyone's dog becomes reactive, which we define as barking or lunging at other dogs, that the owner step out of the room with their dog and walk them around a bit to see if they can relax and settle down.  If they can, they are welcome to return to the room.  If they can't, or if multiple dogs can't we will have them alternate being inside while the other dog steps out, then do our best to put them in different classes in the future if need be. We are not referring to dogs who may bark once or twice, only if a dog really can't focus and becomes disruptive to the class.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or need any clarification.

May Newsletter

We are all in this together

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Suzanne Clothier seminar and was lucky enough to have my dog Venom be a demo dog for the seminar.  It was incredibly emotional for me as I was desperate to try to keep him comfortable, relaxed and safe, all while trying to capably manage and handle him, while being coached by one of the best dog trainers in the world with more than 80 other people watching me!  I was thrilled with our session and am super grateful to Suzanne for the input and advice.  I have already started working with Venom and am seeing a lot of progress in a short amount of time.  The reason I wanted to share this is to let people know that 1) we are all always learning and if we are good we are always trying to improve our knowledge and skill base, 2) even professional trainers struggle with being able to think, be there for our dogs, not get too emotional and find time to train and work on the "less than fun" stuff and 3) being in a position like that is a great reminder that all of us, our dogs, the handlers or owners, all of us can struggle with decision making, performance and management when feeling highly anxious and so we should be empathetic to our dogs as we work through this stuff.

Me watching as Suzanne works with Venom.

DOG OF THE MONTH

This month's Dog of the Month is Biggie.  Biggie is a 2 1/2 pound Chihuahua who I have been working with to develop confidence and help her and her owner rebuild their relationship. When I first worked with Biggie, she charged me barking, by our third session she was playing fetch with me and choosing to sit as close to me as possible chewing on her toy.  Proof that ALL dogs, no matter how defensive, reactive, fearful are capable of positive change when they are worked with correctly.  Good job Biggie and Tiana!

UPCOMING CLASSES

Puppy Preschool

Thursdays, San Leandro, 5/21, 6-6:50pm, 6 weeks, $165

Strength, Balance and Body Awareness

Fridays, Pleasanton, 6/12, 6-6:50pm, 3 weeks, $100

Small Dog Beginning Obedience/Manners

Tuesdays, San Leandro, 6/30, 6-6:50pm, 5 weeks, $150

NEW CLASS COMING SOON
I am working on a new class that will be offered in July.  It is called "Greeting and Salutations" and the whole class will be for working on greetings.  Dogs will work one at a time and do dog/human greetings and some dog/dog greetings for appropriate dogs.

UPCOMING SEMINARS
Mark your calendars now!  My friend Christine Salazar, owner of Dodger's Paws Dog Training in Pleasanton are teaming up to co-host an exciting seminar on September 19!  Anna Bettina of Happy, Healthy Pup in Georgia will be presenting on Naturally Complete Canine which will focus on raw feeding, essential oils and herbal use in dogs.  We are so looking forward to this seminar!

Also, Christine is hosting Pam Johnson who will be doing a two day workshop on Rattlesnake Avoidance Training without the use of Aversives as well as a one day seminar on Canine Freestyle!  I am excited to be attending both of those seminars!  More information on these workshops here!

April Newsletter

Wow, time has gotten away from me.  Coming home from my two week vacation I was so busy catching up that I forgot to do the newsletter!  Our vacation to Virgin Gorda, an island in the British Virgin Islands was amazing.  We visited the Toco Toucans from Adventures in Toucanland and also Richard Branson's Necker Island.  See my blog posts on both of those adventures here:

My Adventures in Toucanland

My Visit to Necker Island

Now, back to reality!  Our classes are going strong.  I am very excited about the new Old Dogs, New Tricks class that I am currently teaching and will definitely be offering it again.  I am also offering a trick class called All Tricked Out!  that you might want to check out.  New offerings along with our ongoing classes including Puppy Preschool, Beginning Obedience/Manners, Intermediate, CGC and more. Take a look at what we have coming up, I would love to see you in class!

DOG OF THE MONTH

Kaia is a sweet, adorable Flat Coated Retriever puppy.  She is owned and loved by the Andy, Diana and Natalia Olveira.  I was lucky enough to get to spend two weeks doing in home day training with Kaia and she is also enrolled in our current Puppy Preschool class.  She is already so great at her basic training and getting lots of fun and positive exposure and socialization.








UPCOMING CLASSES
Skill Building for the Show Ring, 4 weeks, $120
Pleasanton, Fridays, 6-6:50pm, starts May 1

Conformation/Handling Class, 4 weeks, $40
San Leandro, Tuesdays, 7-7:30pm, starts May 5
San Leandro, Wednesdays, 12-12:30, starts May 14

Puppy Preschool, 6 weeks, $165
San Leandro, Thursdays, 6-6:50pm, starts May 21

All Tricked Out!, 4 weeks, $110
San Leandro, Thursdays, 7-7:50pm, starts May 21

Our Vibe, Our Tribe

This post came across Facebook and I instantly connected with it.  I shared it on Facebook and wanted to make sure to share it with our none Facebook users.

Braveheart is and was also meant to be more than a training "business".  My goal, dream really, was to build a community of like minded dog and bird lovers.  I wanted people who love their dogs (and other animals) to learn to train them while loving the journey and looking at training as a way to interact with, offer mental stimulation, strengthen the relationship and maybe make some friends and feel supported along the way.  We are open and welcoming to newcomers who share our vision.  This is my vibe.  Braveheart is my tribe.  Thanks for being a part of it.

March Newsletter

It just occurred to me today, on March 18 that I have not yet done the March newsletter!  The reason is that I am on vacation in the Caribbean on a small British Virgin Island called Virgin Gorda.  We have been here for 11 days and are leaving the day after tomorrow.  We had a lot of preparing to do which is how doing the newsletter slipped my mind!  So, I write this newsletter sitting on a beautiful deck in a private villa looking out at the Caribbean.  This trip has been a dream come true.  I am missing my animals desperately, but have filled the void to some extent by hanging with animals here and caring for the Red Foot Tortoises that live at the villa.  If you follow my Braveheart Birds blog, you have likely already seen some of my posts and photos.  I will be writing a full blog post about our animal adventures on this trip, so please subscribe to my Braveheart Birds blog to see more of the amazing photos of the animals we met. But, here is a taste for you:

Me feeding Toco Toucan Paz

My husband Rick with a lemur from Necker Island who ran up and planted himself on his shoulder

OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS

I am really excited about new class offering called Old Dogs, New Tricks.  This class was designed for older dogs, which I am classifying as over 7 years old or over 5 for giant dogs.  This class is also open to younger dogs that are suffering from obesity.  We will work on light exercise and training, mental stimulation, proprioception exercises and encouraging fun interaction with older dogs.  I am so excited about this class and I hope that many of you will join us!  Register here.  

CONFORMATION CLASSES

Conformation students, please remember to register online for our four week conformation classes. If you want to pay by check or cash, just choose "mail in payment" and mail it or bring it to the first class.  Drop in still allowed when there is space, simply email me to double check.

UPCOMING CLASS

Conformation, Tuesdays, 7pm, starts 3/24
Conformation, Wednesdays, 12pm, starts 4/1
Puppy Preschool, Thursdays, 6pm, starts 3/26
Old Dogs, New Tricks, 6pm, starts 3/27
Three's Company, 6pm, starts 5/26
Register here. 

UPCOMING RATTLESNAKE AVOIDANCE AND CANINE FREESTYLE WITH PAM JOHNSON

My good friend and colleague Christine Salazar of Dodger's Paws Dog Training in Pleasanton is bringing Pam Johnson from Southern California to teach rattlesnake avoidance without aversives and a canine freestyle seminar.  I will be attending both and I encourage you to do the same!  Register here! 

Reinforcement, rewards, treats and toys

This post is for anyone who is concerned with using food in training, who is afraid their dog will "only do it if they have treats" and who think that their dog should "know it" by now and be willing to "do it" just because they said so.

I continue to have these questions asked even by people who I have been working with for a while and I feel I need to address it.  Perhaps I am not clear in my way of explaining things and have failed in some way to help people understand how reinforcement really works.

Reinforcement by definition in terms of training and behavior refers to something that makes a behavior happen again and more often.  We use things like food, attention, access to things, treats, toys, play and more for reinforcement.  Here is the kicker, the LEARNER, meaning the dog is the one who gets to determine the value of the reinforcement, not the trainer.  If what you are using as "reinforcement" is not serving to increase the frequency of the behavior then it is not reinforcement! So, you can pat your dog on the head all you want or say "good girl" all you want, if the behavior is not getting stronger or even maintaining, you aren't reinforcing and in fact, you aren't training your dog to be more reliable.  The first thing we need to determine is whether or not something is actually reinforcing to the animal. If you are insisting that you will use only praise to reinforce your dog but the dog does not find your praise valuable enough your dog's training will not be reliable, plain and simple.  Dogs and other animals don't come programmed to just do whatever we say because we said it.  Neither do people, actually.  We all behave and do things because of the outcomes it brings.  Yesterday, I went to the vet and picked up medication for my close friend's dog.  She was very busy, was going away this weekend and needed the meds and I had time so I ran and got them and brought them to her.  I did not do this because I would be reinforced in some way or because I would get something.  I did it because my relationship with this friend is based on years and years of a trusted friendship that frequently involves us helping each other when needed. I do things for her and she does things for me because we CHOOSE to based on our history which includes a lot of positive reinforcement.  This is not unlike the relationship with my dogs.  In the beginning, when I was building a relationship with them I used food to reinforce everything they did and learned.  I do my best to set them up to get it right, so that I can reinforce their correct behavior and continue to add "insurance" and more reinforcement history so the behaviors are strong and remain strong. Over and over and over until they pretty much always gave me the response I was looking for.  Then, and only then, did I begin to add in other reinforcers to the mix.  Only after I was truly convinced that they had a solid understanding did I begin to ask them to do things and use different things to reinforce them. Things like attention, scritches, access to things, play, toys or sometimes just a wink and telling them how clever they are, but I am always continuing to reinforce them. 

Take a look at this video.  It shows a variety of different reinforcers used for different animals.  It is critical to keep in mind that just because a reinforcer is effective in one instance or environment does not mean it will it be in another environment.  For instance, Sonic is shown enjoying playing tug and fetch in the video, however, I know from experience that this would not be the case outside or in a group class.  In a class setting I would need to use food with him.  Reinforcers may need to change depending on the level of distractions, the environment or just the level of difficulty of the behavior.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE_CYoNMvAM.

When training a new behavior we may use food as a lure.  In other words, use food to guide the dog into position to accelerate the dog being able to do the behavior.  Frankly, when training my own dogs I use a lot more shaping.  I don't do as much shaping in classes and with clients because it is more challenging to learn how to do this, but honestly people tend to get frustrated having to reward such small steps and having to wait for things to happen.  So, I use a food lure which of course, has it's own challenges.  When using food as a lure, you must stop luring as quickly as you can.  I will sometimes lure a dog only two or three times before waiting for the behavior to be offered or prompting without food, however I am STILL reinforcing with food after they do it. It is critical to stop luring with food as soon as you can or you may get into a situation where the dog "only does it when you have food".  This does not mean using food is flawed or that the dog is being manipulative, it means that the execution of training was not done correctly.  Food was used as a lure too long.

This next part is probably the most important thing.  It is critical that if behaviors are to be strong, the animal continues to be reinforced for them.  After the behaviors are learned and reliable we can begin to play with different reinforcers and change things up, but don't fool yourself into thinking that you can simply stop reinforcing the animal.  People are quick to admit that they would not go to work without some form of pay or positive reinforcement for their work, but want their dogs to behave like little robots.  We have to remember that while we consider them "ours", dogs and our other companion animals have their own lives, feelings, strengths and weaknesses.  We cannot expect them to just do what we say because we said it.  We also cannot expect behaviors to remain strong and reliable if we drop off the reinforcement for the animal.  It simply doesn't work that way.  If it did, it would be easy, simple and every dog walking around would have impeccable manners and be from from behavioral issues.  It takes time to build reliability.  It takes working them around different distractions and in different environments always reinforcing them heavily when they make correct choices.  

It is time that we stop viewing dogs are little automatons and seeing them for what they are, intelligent, thinking, feeling individuals.  

I always try to look at my training and my dog's reliability honestly.  When something isn't going how I would like, it is ALWAYS my issue, not the dogs.  I haven't practiced enough, I have not proofed enough, I have not worked on something enough.  If I had done my part better, my dog would be more successful.  

So please, use food with training.  Reward the dog often