Craze Dog Training

Were you told the 3, 3, 3 rule when you adopted your dog?

I’ve handled over a hundred successful adoptions for foreign rescues, and not once did I tell this rule to an adopter. Just like with my behaviour clients, I’ll never use timeframes as a goal

You just cannot put a time on something that is as delicate as a dog settling into a new home. If you moved to another country, or if you moved into a home with a totally new family, could you safety bet that you would be totally settled in a really specific amount of time?

I get the sentiment behind it, but it does more harm than good

So, scrap the 3, 3, 3 rule. Take each day as it comes, create a safe place for your dog to call home, meet their needs, and enjoy the process 🙌

The one and only Tomas! 🏆

What a journey it’s been. From the house split in two, to face licks, walks, and warm greetings every morning

A collection of small wins gradually increasing over time. Combined with absolute 10000000% commitment from Nicky and Roger; checked in with me daily with videos and updates, followed everything to the point, and developed their own skillset to progress Tomas themselves. They totally deserved this huge outcome. Even when things seemed standstill at times, they trusted the process and now they can start really enjoying life as a family, and Rog can start heading into the ‘positive credit’ area in his relationship with Tomas

Some of you reading this may be in a similar situation with your foreign rescue. We’ll probably never know what triggered Tomas’ severe reactions to Rog. But Tomas is a perfect example that a relationship doesn’t need to stay that way, it can regrow with time, consistency, and most importantly KINDNESS. By also covering all bases, such as the medical side which the amazing got sorted for us (I cannot recommend Grace enough!)

But it doesn’t end there! We are now expanding Tomas’ world bringing in more trusted people to his inner circle. As well as working towards car journeys and making some new dog friends

For anyone struggling with their own dog who may be showing this behaviour to members of the home or visitors, just know the help is out there. You can always book in a free, no commitment discovery call tobounce things off me and to see how I could help 😁

What are the quadrants anyway?

Are you confused by seeing R+, P+, P-, R- on social media? I’m here to save the day

I got a lot of positive feedback on my weekly email (link in bio) where I explained what the quadrants mean, so I decided to bless you all with it in video format

Also, this took me forever to edit the footage into a six minute clip, so do me a favour and share it about

Enjoy!

What is ‘meeting their needs’?

You will see this thrown about on social media a lot, and you may be confused as to what that means for your dog

Every dog is an individual. And with that individuality, comes a unique set of needs for your dog (aside from the necessity needs that keep every animal alive, very dog has them and they need to be met)

Your dog will have things that they like to do and get out of their system to feel ‘fulfilled’. When your dog is fulfilled, you will in general have a dog that is less likely to perform what we deem as ‘problem’ behaviours (although, some problem behaviours are actually just normal behaviours, they just don’t suit us. It’s confusing I know)

You want an example? Okay, in these clips you have Amber. Amber lives in a rescue kennel, therefore physical and mental exercise (a need) that involves a lot of movement and a lot of sniffing, is something she inevitably will have less of (as well as other things that are associated with kennel life, but let’s not complicate this any further).

So, expecting her to walk on a loose lead first thing in the morning is out of the question. In fact I would call myself a total idiot for expecting that to happen. Why? Because she hasn’t had her physical (and mental) needs met

But, after a longline walk somewhere that is rich with scent and has plenty of room to runaround in, upon returning to the place she originally pulled like a train in, she walks like a dream on the shorter lead. Her needs were met, therefore she receptive to training and overall is more relaxed

Some of you may have gun dogs or herding breeds for example. And you may wonder why you can’t get their attention; have a look into what those breeds were bred to do, ask yourself, are you finding a way to replicate those jobs to meet their needs? If not, get that ticked off, rather than trying to get engagement from training alone

I love the outside the box thinking when it comes to Rommies

We think something happened to Enno in transit to the UK paired with his skittish nature and natural skepticism of the unknown. This is certainly not uncommon to come across in our foreign rescues

Standard methods are not feasible for this guy. The pressure is too much and he’ll withdraw and shutdown. So we needed to get creative in working training into the things he enjoys

As he can’t go for walks just yet, we bring the outside to him! Free work with outdoor objects and a chew on a good fresh stick are his favourite things to do. We cheekily throw a bit of collar introduction into that so that Enno doesn’t even know he’s training, which is what suits him individually. Sticks for rewards at his most excited, and leaving the collar around his free work setups

We’ve just started this, but we can already see he’s much more into this style. If we just present him the collar he runs off and avoids, but in this context he is quite inquisitive!

It’s a long journey ahead for Enno, but the more we work at his pace, the small wins will all add up 💪🏼

Foreign rescues are different, we can’t deny it. If you’re struggling, shoot me a DM, even just to get things out into the open to start a conversation

Treat and retreat

Top class game. Can’t get much simpler than throwing food away from you

I pretty much do this with every dog I meet regardless of their circumstance; I like the dog to tell me they are ready to be fed from my hand rather than me accidentally coerce them into it

You can see the power of it in this video. Tomas is voluntarily edging closer to Lauren because she’s not trying to get him closer. It’s his choice, and his confidence is rewarded further by Lauren providing him with the option to retreat back into his safe zone

To anyone dog parents or professionals that aren’t using treat and retreat when introducing dogs to new people, get on this right away, I guarantee you will see a positive impact on your dog and the relationships they grow with people

Especially great for our foreign rescues!

If you have the means and resources to do so, drive your dog

This may be a luxury for some people, so if you are someone without a car and want to find ways of providing this for your dog, my DMs are always open to bounce ideas around 🤝

I find street walking just so dull. I can never trust the people I encounter and find myself unable to relax as I wonder what is around the corner. I also want to avoid having to micromanage my dog’s movements on pavements on roads. It’s for their safety of course, but I want to allow them to be a dog as much as possible, and having to restrict them is again, boring for me and boring for them

I’d rather sacrifice 5-10 minutes each way and give my dog quality beneficial time out and about. The upsides really outweigh the downsides of less time outside

I even do this with non-reactive dogs, because again if I can and I know it’s going to benefit us both, why not?

Some dogs need to learn how to navigate a street because of where they live, and that is a whole different conversation. But if I don’t need to street walk, I won’t 😂

Let your dog figure it out for themselves

Giving the control over to something else is not something us humans do well at. But when our dogs have choice and control over a situation, they thrive

Do not underestimate the power of simply letting your dog watch and learn about the things in their environment

When you take a step back and place trust and confidence in your dog, 1) it’s very easy for you, you can take a breath and relax, and 2) your dog benefits from teaching themselves

Find yourself a nice distanced spot where your dog feels safe, slow down or even stop for a few minutes, let your dog take the lead. Enjoy

If it’s not a problem for you, it’s not a problem for me

Personally I love it when a dog jumps up at me 😂 but I know that’s not for everyone

I mean it’s probably not ideal if your Great Dane wants to jump up at your dear old nan, knocking her 10 feet back outside as soon as she opens the door

And if you don’t want your dog to jump up, for reasons such as the above or simply because that’s not how you’d like your dog to behave, I won’t reinforce it. It’s all down to your preference

But don’t feel that just because I’m a professional you have to start panicking about your dog jumping up at me

I also get it frequently where people are worried about telling me their dog sleeps in their bed, or sits on the sofa. I love that s**t, if there’s no behaviour issues around it and it’s safe for everyone involved (dog included) then have at it, let your dog walk on the table for all I care

Elephants and dogs, train one with tools and it’s abuse, the other it’s just training 🙄

Will carry on talking about this forever. Get your dog thoroughly checked! 🏥 and don’t forget their gut health too. How a dog feels has a massive impact on how they behave, you can’t train away pain!

Three things you should know about foreign rescues 🌍⬇️

1. They are incredibly smart! This may not manifest in how we usually assess dog intelligence, but ex street dogs are observing and learning EVERYTHING. It’s their survival instinct! They have to learn fast as on the street this could mean life or death. You can be SO creative with foreign rescues dogs, they are teach you as much if not more than what you can teach them!

2. They are very in-tune with people. Many foreign rescues have been on the streets, and to survive on the streets this means cooperating and coexisting with humans. Street dogs are very natural dogs and as dogs have co-evolved with us for thousands of years, they read us very well. Think about it, being able to read us humans, our body language, emotions, tone of voice, scents, is often key to survival for street dogs. Knowing who to approach and who to avoid, they learn this fast, which is why it is crucial to build trustworthy relationships at the dog’s pace when we have them in our homes. Foreign rescues are often great judges of character!

3. They are super resilient. Foreign rescues endure some of the most stressful events any dog could go through. From traumatic starts in life, to kill shelters, to being transported to different countries, and being plonked in homes with people they do not know. The fact they go through all that and still desire to build relationships with people is almost unbelievable, and so admirable. Like all dogs, foreign rescues deserve the utmost respect from us and should be appreciated for the brilliant dogs that they are. Just because they are so resilient, does not mean they should be taken advantage of. To use harsh methods on foreign rescues just because their genetics doesn’t fit into a “picture perfect” life with a dog, is a total injustice!

Is there anything you’d like to add about what you’ve learned since living with your foreign rescue? Comment below! 💙

Reactivity training should be boring

Would you believe this dog is reactive to strangers? Or would bite? If the answer is no, I’ve succeeded

Don’t get fooled by bulls**t. One minute clips of dogs losing their s**t to suddenly walking to heel are not what they are cracked up to be. It’s actually physiologically impossible for the dog to be not stressed and to be “fixed”, as adrenaline and cortisol takes much longer than that session to dissipate

When a dog loses their s**t, it is known as going over threshold. When this happens all learning goes out the window, and from here dogs will now be what is known as trigger stacked, meaning they will react quicker to triggers they may not be reactive to normally. It becomes a s**t show, basically

Pushing a dog into this state before training is setting everyone up for failure. The aim is always to stay at a level where the dog is slightly out of their comfort zone, but is able to cope, and as a result, learn

So yeah, real reactivity training is boring. It doesn’t make great TV, or great TikTok’s, but it makes the dog feel fu***ng great. And makes us feel great. That’s the goal isn’t it? Also it doesn’t take forever if you know what you’re doing (I wish it was as easy as throwing treats at dogs 😂)

Remember, reactivity usually comes from a place of fear and those big explosive behaviours are made defensively to gain distance from the thing the dog is afraid of. Forcing them into obedience and slapping slips and prongs around their necks is doing f**k all to change that dog’s fear, and those robot-like behaviours you see mean nothing if the dog doesn’t feel any different. Quick fixes are appealing to humans, they aren’t helping our dogs

Work with a professional and learn how to support your dog. I mean a real professional though, not some prick with a prong 🥱
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Want to work through your dog’s reactivity with me? Link in bio ⬆️

This happened a couple weeks ago! 💙 Murphy is actually now up for adoption too:

Man, what a beautiful, beautiful moment.

Watching Murphy experience life today was just indescribable. I feel so proud and overcome with emotion.

I’ve been working with Murphy in kennels for a long time now, and I’d put in all the hours, blood, sweat, and tears all over again just to re-live this walk today.

Murphy used to be so reactive that if you walked him past where he saw a dog previously, he would redirect and bite your arms, chest, and even lunge at your face. He built up quite the bite history, and his quality of life was going downhill fast!

It’s taken time to get everything right; diagnosing his pain and getting effective pain relief, the right behaviour medication so that he could cope in kennels, the enrichment, the training, the early as f**k walks in the dark with head torches with walkie talkies to scout out triggers, the behaviour modification, the kennel setup. A lot of time. We wouldn’t give up on him though.

I hope everyone with a reactive dog can experience what I experienced today. It’s out there for you, it may not be tomorrow, or next month, or in the next year, but your version of Murphy’s result is coming.

Over the fu***ng moon, my heart is very full

Please consider adopting Bobbi 🩷 SHARE!

Bobbi arrived in kennels December 2021 when she was 18 months old, she’s now almost 4 years old

She has had ZERO visits, not even a home check 😔

She’s come so far from the dog who was reactive to almost everything

She still has her challenges, I know her inside and out and exactly how to help you with these challenges. Anyone who adopts her will have access to me for the entirety of your life with her

I regularly take her home and she’s an absolute pleasure to share a home with. I’d adopt her in a heartbeat if I had the environment she needs

Please please please if you think you could give this awesome girl a home, drop me a DM or head to website to fill out an enquiry form

• adult only
• no other dogs at home (can make dog friends outside)
• reactivity/street dog experience preferred
• garden
• no city centres or flats
• a keen interest in force free training