Wordless Wednesday - Almost | In a spin.

We shared this post on our Facebook page this morning, but thought it deserved to be featured on the blog too.

If you follow our Facebook page you guys will know that Lottie has a lump on her back. She had investigations on Monday and we are currently waiting for the results. When she came back from the vets she was very groggy and clearly didn't feel very well.

Today however, was a completely different story. She woke up bright and early and couldn't wait to go out for an early morning walk. We had time for a cuddle in the sunshine before I had to go the hospital for an appointment.

Once I arrived home we did our daily training session. We like to learn practical tricks as well as some that are fun. At the moment I am teaching her to spin right and left.I thought it would be great to share a video of our progress so far. 

Our left spin is coming on great, but as you can see we have some way to go with the right spin. I dont't know if your dog does this, but if Lottie isn't sure of what I am asking her to do she does every trick she knows in the hope that one of them has to be right. Of course it makes great viewing for us humans. 

Does your dog know any clever tricks? 

Jessica and Lottie 

This post is part of the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday blog hop. Hop around and see what others are doing this Wednesday

Training Tips Tuesday | Our five top Clicker Training tips.

It always amazes me the power of a dogs mind. They just never stop learning. I don't know about your dog but Lottie is always so eager to learn new things.

Positive reinforcement have grown dramatically over the last 10 years (Thank goodness it has). Lottie and I are completely hooked and Lottie just would not be the same dog without it.

When I first started clicker training I read so many books, about how if I didn't press the clicker at exactly the right point then all the training would be pointless. I suddenly panicked thinking "who exactly is training who here!". I wanted to make Lottie know exactly what I wanted her to do and clearly.

Here are our five top clicker training tips that I hope will help you:

1. Make sure you read up on clicker training before you start. I know this may sound pretty obvious but the last thing you want to do is start and then realise you are actually carrying out the training wrong. With clicker training it is really important to get it right from the start, in particular the timing of the click. (I found it helpful to first use the clicker without Lottie been present. I would drop a tennis ball and click when it hit the fall, it really helped me learn to click fast and more accurately). These are a few books I recommended:
Click for Joy - Karen Pryor Clicker Books. 
Clicker Training for Dogs - Karen Pryor
Clicking with your Dog - Peggy Tillman (This is really good to start off with)
Mary Ray's - Superdog

2. Be persistent and don't try to rush , I know most of the books say things will happen really quickly and it should not take long for your dog to grasp the concept. I really feel this completely depends on the dog. If your dog doesn't take to it straight away, don't give up. Don't wait for the perfect behavior. For example if you want to teach sit, first click when your dog starts to crouch in its back then build it up from their.

3. Find out weather your dog is treat or toy orientated. For us we use treats, this means every time I click the clicker she gets a treat. However this certainly is not the only way and we do have some doggy friends that use toys instead. In their case they would click the clicker and then reward the dog with a game of fetch or tug with their favourite toy.

4. Don't end your training sessions on a bad note. If your dog is not doing the command you are saying, then your dog is not disobeying you it just hasn't learnt the cue completely. If you find you or your dog is starting to become mad end the session immediately. Do a trick that you know your dog can do and end it on a really positive note. Would you want to repeat something that ended badly the last time it happened?

5.Remember you can clicker training to fix behavior not just learn tricks. To achieve this you simply click when the dog does the desired behavior and ignore everything else. For example if your dog is used to jumping up on visitor make them aware to ignore the dog until they are sitting nicely, once this happens you can click for all four paws on the ground. The dog then learns they get nothing for jumping up but a nice tasty treat or toy when their paws are on the ground.

These are just a few of the tips I would of found useful when I first started clicker training. Please feel free to let me know if you have any other handy tips.

Jessica and Lottie.

This post is part of the Training Tips Tuesday blog hop, hosted by DOGthusiast and Tiffany’s Diamond Dogs

Tasty Tuesday | Low Calorie Tasty Treats For Your Dog Ideal For Clicker Training.

Our household is a big believer in positive training. Clicker training is an essential for me and Lottie and we just wouldn't be the same without it!

For our doggy friends who are not familiar with Clicker Training it is a positive reinforcement based system of training. The essential difference between clicker training and other reward-based training is that your dog is told exactly which behavior earned the reward. This information is taught with a distinct and unique sound, a click, which occurs at the same time as the desired behavior. Every time the click is heard a desired reward is given. This can be in the form of food or your dogs favourite toy.

To provide the distinct click we use a doggy clicker, this is our favourite Clicker.

It does however come with one disadvantage, if your dog is a great toy lover and gets a buzz from suddenly getting their favourite toys after each click that is great. However for us, although Lottie does like her toys and loves a good game of fetch or a play with her squeaker. It just doesn't cut it for her for training. This means that once I click the clicker I need to give her a treat every time. Now our training sessions are short at around 10 -15 minutes. As you can imagine you could easily get through a lot of treats in that time! Because I want to teach Lottie useful tricks so she can help me around the house we normally do around 3 sessions a day!

This is where Coachies come in. I basically came across this magic invention by accident. I was searching one of my favourite online pet stores and in the training section saw these Coachies treats. I decided to click the link to check them out as it promoted them as low fat! I was very wary at first as so many treats state this, when in fact they are no different than most others!

Coachies are a small heart shaped tasty treat which are highly palatable and do not break up in our treat bag. They are oven baked and have no artificial colours, flavours or added sugars which make them perfect for reward based training. Even better they are only one calorie a treat! 

They come in three variety's adult, puppy and natural. Each variety comes in two sizes 75g or 200g. From our local Pets at Home store they are really affordable and a 200g is £4. I feel this is really fairly priced. A 200g bag lasts us at least a month! We use the natural variety as they are chicken which Lottie loves.

Please mum may I have some more? 

You should all check these great treats out and be sure to let us know what you think?

Jessica and Lottie 

We're participating in the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop kindly hosted by Sugar The Golden Retriever and Kol's Notes  If you are looking for tasty ideas, take a look at what other dogs are baking and eating!