Clarity K9 UK

Let's talk muzzles...

Muzzles are a great tool that, in my opinion, every conscientious dog owner should utilise. Obviously, not every dog 'needs' to wear a muzzle but regardless, training your dog to happily accept a muzzle is a very important aspect of training.

There are many reasons that some dogs may need to wear a muzzle. They may have a bite history, a court order, can be dog or human selective, reactive or may nip out of fear or over excitement and some may simply require one to prevent them picking up and eating things from off the floor.

Even if your dog hasn't yet shown signs of needing a muzzle, there may come a time or an unexpected situation, such as an emergency vet visit, where a muzzle is needed to keep everyone safe (even the nicest of dogs may bite when frightening or in pain).

Pant room

It is vitally important that if your dog is going to wear a muzzle that it is comfortable and is the correct fit. I see so many dogs wearing muzzles that are far too small, too short and have bearly any pant room! If a muzzle is uncomfortable, your dog is not going to be happy wearing it! How would we feel being forced to wear a pair of shoes that were 2 sizes too small for hours at a time? Horrible, right?

A well fitted muzzle is deep enough for the dog to open its mouth fully when panting without its chin touching the bottom, it doesn't ride up into the dogs eyes and has at least half an inch between the muzzle and the nose in length.

A good muzzle will allow the dog to drink whilst wearing it and be completely bite proof if required.

These photos are of my boy, Ivaar, wearing his correctly fitted heavy duty, bite proof muzzle. Looks huge doesn't it? That's because most muzzled dogs you see are wearing incorrectly fitted baskervilles that aren't fit for purpose

*TOP TIP*
To get enough pant room when measuring your dog for the fit, measure the circumference of your dogs muzzle whilst closed. Then measure the height of a tennis ball. Add the two measurements together.
That is the depth your muzzle needs to be

I'm very proud to announce that Ivaar has been awarded 'working dog of the year' for the second year running by the Tamaskan Dog Showing Club!

We've been working hard and will continue to do so throughout this year 😁

🎆✨🎇

Wise words from Carters pet services.

Bonfire night can be a very stressful time for many dogs. Making sure your dog has been thoroughly exercised during the day and is tired will help keep anxiety levels down.

Providing a "den" such as a crate will help your dog feel safe and secure (provided they are crate trained) and blocking out the sound of the fireworks with a loud radio or TV and drawing the curtains will help too. For some dogs, plugins such as pet remedy and thunder jackets help to keep stress levels down.

Ivaar is scared of fireworks so 2 weeks before they're due to start I begin medicating him with CBD oil to give it time to build up in his system. This, alongside his soft crate and classical fm up loud, help us to keep his anxiety at a more manageable level

Myself and Ivaar wish you all a safe bonfire night

I think the main thing to take from this post is how important appropriate training is. Sure, dogs are allowed to experience those emotions but it is how they deal with them and express them that is important. It's every dog owners responsibility to do their best to make sure their dogs are comfortable and happy in as many situations as possible and then advocate for their dogs in situations where they are not.
I don't allow resource guarding from my dogs...there may be a time where my dog has something that is dangerous; it is important that I am able to safely and swiftly remove it. Do I punish resource guarding? No. My dogs are trained from a young age to have an understanding that nothing that is taken away is being done so unfairly. Trading games make taking things away a positive experience

"Just a generation ago if you went near a dog when he was eating and the dog growled, somebody would say, 'Don't go near the dog when he's eating!, what are you crazy?'
Now the dog gets punished or put to sleep !

Back then, dogs were allowed to say, NO.
Dogs are not allowed to say no anymore!!!

They can't get freaked out, they can't be afraid, they can never signal 'I'd rather not.' We don't have any kind of nuance with regard to dogs expressing that they are uncomfortable, afraid, angry, or in pain, worried, or upset.
If the dog is anything other than completely sunny and goofy every second, he goes from a nice dog to an 'AGGRESSIVE' dog."
- Jean Donaldson

Listen to your dogs people, they are trying to communicate with you in the only way they can !

Myself and Ivaar attended Dogfest at Cirencester Park today. What a fab day! Such an amazing experience for dogs and people alike; we'll definitely be returning again next year

Ivaar did me proud and behaved impeccably all day despite the levels of distraction and possible triggers! We even had a member of pets as therapy try to recruit us on the fly because he was so impressed by how calm and laid back Ivaar was! He said he stood out from the crowd for all the right reasons!
It's moments like that which make all the hard work worthwhile! 🐾💕

Never put a limit on what you can achieve with your dog!

Ivaar started off with 0 food drive and 0 toy drive and, typical to most wolfdogs, didn't have any interest in doing things to please me but we kept working on things anyway.

Fast forward to today and he has much better food drive, we're still developing a toy drive and he's just been awarded his official intermediate trick dog title acknowledging his ability to perform 75 individual tricks!

We're now working towards 100 🤩🐾

Introducing the lovely Bongo!

What a lovely handsome lad he is 💕 Bongo is a 2 year old rescue dog from crete and has only been with his new family for a few weeks. One of the conditions of adoption was that they had a training session with myself to work on Bongo's lead walking and dog reactivity. He spent his entire life on a short chain so had very little socialisation and had seen very little of the outside world. He's a big lad who will only get stronger so his owners wanted to get to work on these issues so they could start off on the right foot with him.

We covered the best ways the owners could build a stronger relationship with him in order to improve on his engagement before embarking on working on his door manners. We practised my door routine for some time until Bongo finally understood that flying through the door was going to get him nowhere.

Next we covered his lead walking. I showed his owners the correct way to handle the lead for best communication and how to appropriately teach him where he should be in order to keep that lead slack. He's a smart cookie and it didn't take long for him to grasp the concept!

Finally, we brought Ivaar out to work on Bongo's dog reactivity. It was clear that his reactivity was stemming from barrier frustration and, after some well timed lead corrections to snap him out of it, his curious side took over and he was calm enough to begin using his nose and actually seemed interested in meeting Ivaar. A few other dogs passed during our session and he didn't react once!

I'm confident that Bongo will grow into a well rounded and confident dog with the guidance of his devoted owners. He is just a big puppy finally getting to experience the world for the first time 🌍🐾

Happy international dog day from our home to yours! Celebrating 4 wonderful years of adventure together and hopefully many more to come 💕🐾

Gorgeous boy Briggs! 😍

Briggs came to me back in April as his owners had started to have issues with his behaviour.

He is a very large boy and had developed pretty serious reactivity to cars and dogs and pulled hard on the lead. His owners had began to dread taking him for walks and his behaviour meant that it was impossible to take him out with the pram as his behaviour was a danger to the baby and owner alike!

We talked in depth about changes that needed to be made to his daily routine to improve his engagement and excitement levels. Once that was done we head out to implement the correct tools and handling techniques to make it clear to Briggs what kind of behaviour was and was not acceptable by correcting bad behaviour and rewarding him when he behaved in an appropriate way.

In the park, we brought my own dog Ivaar into the scene to work on his dog reactivity. Handling and body language was everything here. Briggs wasn't aggressive at all but just didn't understand what was expected of him when other dogs were around causing him to act out in frustration.

The exercise with Ivaar was simple...if Briggs was calm, he was rewarded and moved closer. If he showed signs of loading, we walked into him doing a 180 turn to cut off his line of vision and allow him time to calm back down to a better frame of mind.

The first two videos where taken during our session; one of him reacting to a car and the other of him reacting to a dog. The last video was sent to me recently by his owner of him actually meeting an playing with a new doggy friend! This hadn't been possible for Briggs for months as his owners were afraid of him hurting another dog. The screenshots in the comments are messages sent by his owner 😁

It's so lovely to keep in touch with clients and here about how far their dogs have come following a session. They should be super proud! He's come on leaps and bounds! 💕

Trying something new this summer!

Myself and Ivaar attended a mantrailing workshop recently as a way of further developing his scentwork skills, his confidence around strangers and our teamwork skills

Mantrailing is a low impact dog sport in which the dog uses its nose to track down and locate a missing/hidden person in an outdoor location. It's a great sport that provides amazing stimulation and enrichment for the dog and is something any dog can have a go at regardless of age, breed or experience!

So, if you're looking for something new to try with your dog why not give mantrailing a shot!

Teaching your dog to do nothing...

Sounds strange I know but this is such a valuable part of any dogs training that often gets left out.

Dogs need to be taught how to switch off and relax in a range of environments and situations. It's great if your dog will chill out at home but if it's vibrating with energy, bouncing off the walls and getting restless and stressy when out you can't expect your dog to be able to focus or listen to you. Teaching a dog to relax is invaluable, especially for the more anxious Dogs.

Teaching a dog to do nothing is simple; start in a none distracting environment, ask for a down and reward calm behaviour. Make sure that you're not delivering the reward if your dogs body is tense, they're whining or panting. Gradually build up duration and distractions.

You can work on this training anywhere! Garden, park, highstreets, shops, restaurants/cafes! Your dog will thank you for it!

Say hello to the handsome, young Arlo.

This 5 month old lad had a 1-2-1 session with myself recently. His owners were concerned about Arlo showing the early signs of resource guarding around some toys, food and most of all...fox 💩 (What's better than a pile of p**p to munch on!?).

Tackling the resouce guarding while he is still young was top of the priority list. I gave them all of the tools and training skills they needed to turn things around and nip things in the bud.

Once that was covered we moved on to addressing his excitement levels. Like most puppies, Arlo gets very excited to see new people which often results in his jumping up and mouthing. We discussed a range of techniques and tweaks they could make to his routine to begin building that all important engagement and work on managing his energy levels.

He was a great young dog and I have no doubt that he'll develop into a wonderful and well balanced companion 🙂

Introducing handsome Enzo! 😍

This stunning boy was booked in for a 1-2-1 with me to work on sharpening up some basic behaviours and to work on lead walking and recall.

Enzo clearly had the basics in place and had a wonderful bond and relationship with his owners but at 14 months of age, soaring hormones meant that some training had been forgotten and there were some areas (particularly lead walking and recall) that his owners needed a hand with to help set him up for success in the future.

We outlined some of the principles that we would use as a base for all training before we got to work; this included covering engagement, hand feeding, markers and lead pressure. Once that was done, we set to work tackling lead handling techniques and pressure/release on the slip lead to start improving his lead walking. We talked through what actions the owners needed to take to work through any reactive outbursts (Enzo was a very excitable boy and was desperate to greet every dog he saw! Cats and pigeons were also high on the interest list!). We then popped Enzo on a long line to begin working on re-establishing a recall. After adding in a new recall command and pairing it with markers and lead pressure where appropriate, Enzo was absolutely smashing it!!

To end the session we headed inside to look at his feeding and night time routines and put in place a few changes to help further build Enzo's bond and engagement with his owners, work his brain and help him settle.

He was an ace dog to work with! Full of beans and personality! I don't doubt for a second that he will succeed with his dedicated owners by his side 😊🐾

!!ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT!!

There's a reason we bang on about this so often during training sessions! Engagement is everything!

You can implement all kinds of training methods when working with your dog but, if the engagement isn't there, your road to success will be much longer and harder than it needs to be; regardless of what it is you're trying to achieve!

Become important and relevant in your dogs life! If your dog acknowledges and respects you, they're far more likely to look to you for guidance when it matters most!

So, no matter where you are or what you're doing, reward that eye contact! It's exactly what you want 👀

Introducing the handsome Ralphy

Ralphy is a 1 year old romanian rescue dog who has been with his current owners for 12 weeks. He came to them from a rescue centre with an aray of behavioural issues due to him growing up a stray on the streets of Romania with little to no positive interaction from humans.

The rescue centre informed his new owners that if things didn't work out, poor ralphy would be out of chances and he would be euthanized. Thankfully for this lovely lad, his current owners are not willing to give up on him and so approached me for help with some of his more pressing issues.

Although they had managed to solve some of the problems he arrived with (which is an amazing achievement in the short time they've had him!), they were still struggling with reactivity and nipping towards people entering the house and people out in public.

It was clear that ralphy was driven by fear. He greeted me with barking, growling and even nipped at me a few times in an attempt to frighten me away. He was afraid of me and so displayed fear aggression in the hopes it would create distance between us.

We got to work and I showed his owners how to help ralphy feel more comfortable when people enter the house and how to manage his behaviour in a constructive way. Using treats, I spent a little time building a relationship with ralphy before we headed out on to the driveway to work on pressure and release techniques using the slip collar to build engagement and appropriately correct any unwanted behaviour.

By the end of our session, we had ralphy passing a person on the pavement and watching people walk by without reacting at all. On the few times that he did react, he was able to decompress and relax much faster. By the end, we all agreed that he was relaxed enough to remove his muzzle and he was happily accepted fuss from myself.

Ralphy still has a ways to go and it's certainly going to take work and patience on the owners part but they took everything we covered in and ralphy made amazing progress during our session! I have no doubt in my mind that they will get him where he needs to be!

Ralphy is lucky to have such caring and dedicated owners 💕

Keeping that wolfdog mind working with some scentwork practise this evening!
~
Scentwork is a brilliant way to keep your dogs mind active and tire them out in a constructive way. Sniffing is a very important activity for a canine and scentwork is an activity that can be enjoyed by all dogs regardless of breed or age.

Sniffing activates the "seeking system" of the brain encouraging the release of endorphins, such as Dopamine (a feel good hormone), which in turn reduces anxiety and stress and increases feelings of motivation and reward.

Lovely to receive an update on Winter the Weimaraners lead walking this evening 😊🐾

Video will be posted in the comments below

Very proud moment this morning when Ivaar was announced working dog of the year 2020 by the Tamaskan showing club 🎉🎉

What a great start to the new year! 🥳

Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean we stop training! Me and Ivaar have been taking a slightly more relaxed approach over the festive season and working on prolonged down stays during our morning walks

Down stays help build impulse control around distractions and teach Ivaar to maintain a calm mindset in places he would usually experience excitement

Out walking these two beauties, Bella and Kilo, in the winter sunshine the other day.

There really is no beating those gorgeous staffy smiles 😍💕

All work and no play? That's the question 🤔

Here's some screenshots of me working Ivaar yesterday. Ivaar is a working breed that needs a lot of stimulation to keep him happy and stable.

Providing mental stimulation goes a hell of a lot further to tiring out a dog than simply taking it for a walk. Dogs are intelligent creatures and need to WORK both their minds and their bodies.

I provide mental stimulation to Ivaar in the form of obedience training, trick training, retrieval, scent work and Bikejor (among other things). Our walks ALWAYS incorporate some form of training even if its just recall and heelwork.

The importance here though is that Ivaar thoroughly enjoys training. Training sessions are kept short and sweet and are always fun and engaging. Quite often training sessions are tied into some kind of play such as tug or flirt pole. Play is just as important for dogs as training when it comes to learning and building a bond. Training through play is a great way to develop work drive and improve engagement with the handler 😊🐾

Gorgeous baby Otis 🥰😍 just look at that beautiful face; I'm in love!

Otis and his owners had a puppy 101 session with me back in July. It had been a very long time since his owners had had a puppy and he is their first GSD. They were keen to learn everything they needed to know to set him on the right path right from the start.

During the session we covered everything puppy! Including, but not limited to, early training such a lead walking, building engagement, teaching manners, diet, inappropriate puppy behaviours such as mouthing, toilet training and socialisation.

A big shout out to his owners, who were already doing a brilliant job with him! He was already crate trained, almost completely toilet trained (other than the odd accident here and there) and he was already crate trained!

To learn more about my puppy 101 sessions, you can find the information in the services areas of my website 😊

Introducing the handsome Juke!

9 month old Juke and his owners had a 1-2-1 session with myself back in July. Jukes owners were struggling with overexcitement, jumping up and mouthing which was starting to become a serious concern as he grew larger. They were worried that this behaviour would pose a danger to elderly or young visitors to their home.

Juke was a wonderful dog to work with. He was a very wired young dog who needed firm and confident handling but he was extremely intelligent and picked up on the training quickly.

During the 1-2-1, we focused on tackling Jukes irrate energy levels. Using a combination of properly timed corrections and food rewards, we lowered Jukes arousal and showed him a more appropriate behaviour (in this case, "place/bed"). Any attempts to mouth or jump up were met with a lead correction and a firm "enough". It didn't take long before Juke started offering alternative behaviours such a sitting or moving away to chew a bone which were then praised. During the session we also looked at marker training and building more engagement between Juke and his owners as well as constructive ways his owners could help tire him out and burn some energy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this session and by the end Juke was mouthing and jumping significantly less, was offering more positive behaviours and even settled in his bed long enough to fall asleep; something his owners informed me he had never done with a visitor in the house.

Onwards and upwards Juke! And a big shout out to his owners; they have been doing fabulously with his training! 💕