Cold Ears

Natural Changes
 
With the sudden change in temperature, particularly here in Canada, Your Dog's coat may not have naturally changed to the winter hair, to keep them warm.

Keeping Your Dog Healthy and Safe
Keep exercise short and sweet. Do not let them get cold. And if they do a lot of running around they will be warm, however as soon as they slow down and stop, they get cold, really fast! 

Body Temperature
Whether you have just got home or back to the car, from exercising your dog, have a dry towel and dry the ears - FIRST...Why? 

Because drying and warming the ears (whether they are wet or dry), will warm the rest of your dog much quicker. Rubbing the ears, gently, improves circulation to the rest of the body, much quicker. 

The Ears

The ears are an amazing part of the body, whether human or animal.
They contain the links to many other parts of the body, through an elaborate link of sensory connections. When we effect these sensory systems, by warming up the ears, they send messages to the other parts of the body, activating heart rate, circulation and respiration.

If you have a man made coat on your dog, keep that on, for a few minutes more, until you find your dog's ears are naturally warm.
If you are back into your warm house, you can take the coat off. 
If you are in your car, keep the coat on until you get home to your warm house.

Paws
Lastly, wipe and dry your dog's feet.....
There are many chemicals in the salt and in the ground generally. Wiping your dog's feet, dry, will stop absorption and will reduce the risk of your dog licking their feet and absorbing anything nasty into their digestive system.

Have fun, stay warm and keep your Dog Healthy!

Jane
 

Mental Changes at Both Ends of the Leash!

Communication is a Two Way Process

Change is difficult for our dogs and us. Going into areas outside our comfort zone is a challenge within itself. When we ask our dogs to do it, we are also challenging ourselves in the way we look at and see our dogs in a new light.

We battle with learning a new skill, while our bodies and mind want to do what is familiar with what works, sometimes instinct takes over. Our bodies are on autopilot, moving in a familiar pattern with keeping our balance and at the same time keeping us safe.

The change in your dog’s movements whilst stepping up and over, walking through and standing still with exercises on the ground, are all sensory inputs that your dog is experiencing on the sensory level.

The new skills that you are learning with the way you relate to your dog, stroking the leash, two points of contact, touch, moving your body to support your dog in moving, standing or inviting them to move out of their ‘stuckness’, is effecting you on the sensory level too.

Sometimes, the change within our dogs is so slight – the way they hold their tail, the lifting of the head, the bending of a knee or hock joint, the placing of the feet – all indicating that change is happening.

New Pathways in the Brain 

Within the physical challenges, the brain is receiving sensory information of changes happening at the cellular level. The brain then processes this new information, and starts to set up new pathways in the brain, as new learning is happening. This whole new infra structure takes, in a human brain, 30 days of doing the new exercises daily. I personally feel with dogs the time it takes is shorter.

When we do exercises in a way that is not ‘normal’ for the dogs - non habitual, change does happen on a whole new level.

An example would be to see how they manoeuvre on a short flight of steps. How does your dog do these at the moment? See what they do and then, ask them to stand before moving onto the step, whether up or down. Help them move a little bit slower. Can they do that? What do they struggle with? How does their body cope with the change of pace? Do they bunny hop or use their legs independently to step up or step down?

Do the exercise a few times, and then leave it until the next day. See what change there is the next day. It may be slight it may be more obvious however, there will be change not only on the physical level but mentally too.

Taking time outs to allow our brains and bodies to process information is so conducive to learning.

Standing and allowing the dog to take in what is going on gives us the opportunity to ‘see and listen’ with how the dog is coping and responding.

How are you coping and responding?

As sensory information is relayed to many areas of the brain associated with emotional processing, we often see shifts in a dog from an unfocused, anxious state to a more calm and focused state.

As information is processed in our brains and we see change happen and we become more adaptive, we become more focused, less anxious and more relaxed with our new learning.

Our communication with our dogs becomes empathetic, sensitive, observant and mindful.

And our listening skills improve to a new awareness, at both ends of the leash.

Jane

Inspiring You to Empower Your Dog to Reach Their Full Potential 

5 Steps to Empowering Your Dog

To Inspiring and Creating Training Success

1.The Path to Meeting Everyday Needs
Implementing a dog's basic needs will enable them to be in a place of learning, on a continuous basis.
When a dog is comfortable within themselves and feels safe with you, awesome happens.
Their learning is not only accelerated but is more in depth.

2.Planning for Success with Guidelines
Decide what is the objective you wish to teach your dog. When it is clear in your head, break it down into smaller steps for your dog. Your dog will reach the objective much quicker.
Rewarding the small steps of success will graduate onto the huge strides of learning.

3.Developing Your Relationship
As you start to teach your dog, observation will show you how they learn. You will find out what skills do and do not work, for an individual. You will inspire yourself to add new skills to your toolbox. The relationship will be enhanced and you will really begin to 'tick'!

4.Love, Joy and Creating Trust
We all love our dogs and they bring us feelings of joy.
When we develope trust first, by doing the 3 steps above, our relationship with our dog will reach a whole new level of understanding and respect.

5.Cultivating Learning to become a Training Success
Moving beyond our comfort zones in finding out how our dogs think, process information and learn, will inspire us to gain more knowledge, have a deeper understanding and connection with our dogs, than we ever thought possible.


We are in a scientific age. 
With the knowledge and understanding of how we as beings process and learn new skills, we have the opportunity to grow in understanding of how our dogs process and learn new skills.
This opportunity will open up ourselves to be awesome owners for our companions and awesome handlers in a professional capacity.

Inspire Your Dog

Jane

Want to learn more?
I invite you to attend one of my seminars or to organise one in your area, 
Contact:  jane@inspiredk9s.ca

The next one is in November in Ottawa.

Changing Habits of a Lifetime.

Ingrained Habits
I have always been very conscious in really thinking about how dogs learn and how we can influence success and accelerate learning with changing habits.
I was reading an article the other day about how we get into our habits without really thinking about them. It made me giggle, so I have to share!
The example they gave was how we put our underwear on. If you think about it, when we put them on we lift one of our legs first, before the other. We might put our right leg in first before the left or vise versa. We don't have to think about it, we just do it. And we most probably started doing it that way when we were knee high to a grasshopper and one of our parents showed us how, by putting them on us the way they put theirs on and we've always done it that way!!

When I run my seminars and workshops I always have a bit of fun with the audience.  I explain about habits, how we do not think about them, except when we need to or have to change them, then we really have to think about the way we do things.
So, when explaining the theory, we do a practical exercise. As I explain it, if you are interested, join in the fun!
I would like you to fold your arms. Keep them folded for 10 seconds then unfold them. Then immediately fold them the other way!! 

Did you have to think about it? 

When you get dressed tomorrow and you put your underwear on, put the opposite leg in first.......!
So, how many of you lost your balance!

I have a sore left hip, so for me to do anything that involves balance, I have to slow myself down and really concentrate about what I am doing. I have to be in the moment. If I do it while my head is thinking about something else, you can guess what happens!!

We process information individually,  dependant on the way we were brought up, our history of how we got to be 'Here' and how we were taught to do things. Whether we think in pictures, do things in a logical order, see the end result then figure out how to get started..... it's all different, all unique.

In all my years, the one constant with training a dog is to watch them to see how they learn, then adapt my training so they can be successful.
I have to change my habits of skills and techniques, step outside the box, in that moment, with that dog, for success to follow.

My TOOLBOX

Whether I am working with a dog or a client, this is how my toolbox works:

Teaching -      we start to teach
Observation - we see the action of our teaching
Outlook -         we acknowledge what we see, (ie;fooling around or shutdown) 
Learning -      how they are in the moment, gives us a clue to how they are feeling
Behaviour -   we change our teaching, so the subject can change their behaviour
Outcome -      changing our input with different skills, changes the output 
Xcellent! -      The outcome is excellent

As an example, working with a dog that needs to be more flexible in bending its body both ways and turning more efficiently. I observe how they are moving, muscle development, gait, how they hold their tail and where their weight is, on the forehand or in the hind end. I acknowledge that information and then work on the dog's balance.
If there is one point of contact I change it to two, by using the balance leash around the chest, I can help bring the dog into 'pockets'  of balance,  ensuring that all the weight is evenly distributed.

I slow the dog, then allow them to walk faster, then slowing them again, using the two contact points and 'easing and releasing' so there is no constant tension for the dog to lean into.
I help the dog into a stand position, with no tension. (These 'pockets' of balance are the little steps of success. The balance will become a habit in time).
Having these little breaks, with some nice calm contact, will bring the dog into the present moment and give you a chance to connect, before walking again. They start to slow themselves, walk in a calmer way as their balance shifts.

When you ask them to turn towards or away from you, either stationary or moving, you are assessing what they can achieve each step of the way. 
Because you have previously prepared them by being balanced, they are then able to consciously slow themselves and be successful.
The same as when you folded your arms in a different way or changed the way you put your underwear on! You are more conscious, in the moment and aware.  

What's happening?
You are influencing change in their habit, with increasing their flexibility.
You are giving input to the dogs sensory systems to influence inner change.
The dog is teaching you whether your techniques are working, or whether you need to change them.
You are affecting them physically and mentally to change into a new habit of co-ordinated efficiency.
They become more focused on the task at hand.
Their awareness is increased.
You are empowering them to be successful.

Changing a Habit

Science has proven that it takes a human 30 days (without missing a day) of  input to a new habit to make it stick. It becomes easier as the days go on however for the first three weeks or so, it is difficult, you have to think about it. As you get nearer the 30 days, it becomes easier and to the point that you can do it without thinking about it.
I believe this is the same with a dog. 
When I trained guide dogs in achieving certain tasks within their guiding role, showing them what they needed to do in certain situations, it took time, every day. But as they understood and it became second nature for them, it became a habit.
It takes 5-7 months to train a dog to guide safely and efficiently.
Give your dog a chance to make the change. 
Be consistent, be patient and see the difference.

Jane
"Empowering Dogs to Reach Their Full Potential"

Do you want to learn more about these skills and techniques?
If so, I invite you to contact me to discuss a workshop or Seminar in your area.
jane@inspiredk9s.ca