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The Monthly Wag September 2024
Ready Set...Train! Monthly Newsletter
ReadySetTrainDogs
September 08, 2024
Hello Fellow Dog Lovers!
Thank you for subscribing to our monthly newsletter! We’re thrilled to have be a part of our ever growing community of dog lovers and training enthusiasts. Each month, you can look forward to receiving valuable training tips, behavior insights, and updates on our upcoming events and classes. We're excited to share this journey with you and your furry friend!
Table of Contents
Dog of the Month: Colt
Name: Colt
Age: 3 Years
Breed: Belgian Malinois
Favorite activity: Working
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Best personality trait: Comforts those that are sad or stressed.
Fun fact about Colt: If there is a dog that comes into Shawn’s(Colts owners) working area without Colt’s knowledge, he will put Shawn in timeout for at least two day by giving her side eye and trying to make her feel jealous.
Colt started training with us though our Good Manners class. He was rescued by his owner Shawn from a bad living situation. After mastering his basic good manners behaviors, Colt started taking Rally Obedience classes with us and immediately excelled! Shawn says that Colt can tell when they are heading to rally class and eagerly jumps into her car! Colt often goes to work with his mom a veterinarian. Shawn rescues many dogs with medical or behavioral issues. Colt is now living the dream and is loved and spoiled by his family!
Monthly Training Video: Target Training
Training Topic: The Hunt for Good Behaviors
Do you notice when your dog is being good? Are you actively communicating with your dog when they exhibit desirable behaviors? As dog owners, it’s easy to fall into the trap of responding mostly to unwanted behaviors—like jumping, barking for attention, counter surfing, or chewing on your favorite shoes(lets face it these behaviors are in your face and down right annoying)—while overlooking and failing to acknowledge the positive behaviors that are often easy to miss.
Behaviors such as sitting calmly or chewing on a bone might seem subtle and easy to miss, but it’s crucial to recognize and communicate approval when your dog displays these good behaviors.
It is important that we create a clear picture in our minds of the behaviors we want our dogs to do in every situation. If we don’t know what we want form our dogs, then how do we expect them to do the right thing? Once we have clear pictures in our minds of the behaviors we want our dogs to do we need to start hunting for said behaviors in everyday life with our dogs and then reward those behaviors in some way. Behaviors that are reinforced are behaviors that will be repeated.
Here’s a simple exercise to try today: Choose a behavior you want your dog to perform—like sitting for attention, chewing on a bone, or picking up a toy. Observe your dog and, when they display the chosen behavior, mark it with your marker word and reward them (for more on using a marker, check out our training video here: https://youtu.be/T6ZelJgGYGY?si=2OFwObJrYTGmXtgm). Rewards can be anything from praise and attention to treats or playtime. You’ll likely notice that your dog starts offering these behaviors more frequently as they receive more positive reinforcement.
This exercise is what we call capturing. Capturing is like taking a picture of a moment in time. Whatever behavior our dog is performing when we say our marker is the behavior we took a picture of and are reinforcing. You can quickly branch out to new behaviors to capture. Have fun hunting for good behaviors with your dog. They are probably doing more good then you previously thought!
Upcoming Classes and Events
9/8: 10:00 am- Rally Novice Class | First Class
9/9: 6:30 pm- Toledo’s PET Bull Project Volunteer Orientation and PET Safety Class. If you sign up to volunteer we give a free class on being safe around dogs and reading canine body language.
9/14: 2-4 pm Willys Park-Free park training and vaccination event hosted by Toledo’s PET Bull Project. 80 Rabies/DHPP vaccines and new collars/leashes will be given away for free to anyone in need. Ready Set…Train will be providing free training for anyone that comes to the event.
9/21: 10:00 am- Canine Good Citizen Class. This six week class is designed to get your dog certified as a canine good citizen with the AKC. Test is administered week 6.
9/24: 6:30 pm- Good Manners I First Class
All of our upcoming class still have several spots available. Sign up today!
