See Spot Sit in Lawson, New South Wales | Coach

See Spot Sit

Locality: Lawson, New South Wales

Phone: +61 402 063 664

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25.01.2022 Congratulations Foundation Skills class graduates!

25.01.2022 These shows are sadistic. They are based on very outdated training myths and are harmful for the dogs in the program. But they are also harmful to dogs in our community whose owners watch these programs and then adopt the methods. Make no mistake, these methods are cruel.

25.01.2022 Congratulations Foundation Skills Class graduates

24.01.2022 Poisoned meat on the footpath opposite Stevenson Park, Mayfield West. Keep an eye out!

23.01.2022 Congratulations Thursday night Puppy Class Graduates! Well done!! Sorry to miss Tess and Luna tonight due to separate health issues. Get well soon!

23.01.2022 Which situations make your animal fearful, and what does fear look like? Importantly, what do the early signs of fear look like? Posture, ears, eyes, tail, f...eathers, breathing how does this change depending on her emotional state? Recognizing those early signs of discomfort is important, because escalated fear could turn really ugly.

23.01.2022 Affect infects. If your animal is angry, can you stay calm? Affect infection, or emotional contagion, is a well-described phenomenon, and its particularly imp...ortant to be aware of when it comes to RAGE. If your brother yells at you, you yell back. Emotions are contagious. Simply put, when you hang out with happy people, you tend to feel happier, have more energy, and feel less stressed. Depression in a spouse frequently leads to depression in the partner. The same holds true for roommates. In addition, children raised by depressed parents are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with depression. In fact, one family members depression can bring down an entire family system. Other emotions, such as anxiety and fear, can have the same effect. There is variability, some people are more prone to EC than others, typcially females more than men. So, how about affect infection between humans and animals? Well, for starters, animals can discriminate human emotional expressions. So just like we can pick up on their emotional state by looking at what they do, at least some species of animals can do that with us too. But emotional contagion isnt about detecting an emotional state in another. Its about feeling the same feeling. Being *infected*. Anyone who works with fearful aggressive dogs quickly learns that they better get their own fears under control if they want to help those animals. The term emotional contagionmay mean nothing to them, but they do know that such dogs often can pick up of their fear and anxiety and make a bad situation worse. Experienced behavioral consultants also learn that they need to help their clients deal with their fears - for two different reasons. One, its very difficult for fearful people to teach their dogs not to be frightened their fears feed on each other. And two and equally important, fearful dogs with fearful owners may perceive other people near their fearful owner as the cause of the owners fear. This doesnt bode well for those others who find themselves in this position. But I wanted to discuss this, not from the FEAR perspective, but from RAGE. I think one of the reasons why people punish their animals is that when youre angry, aggressive behaviour is more likely. So if a dog shows aggressive behaviour, the person engaging with the animal gets more likely to show aggressive behaviour. Because of affect infection, not because of a rational decision. Being aware of that risk is a huge step, I think. There are at least 20 problems with punishment, so you dont wanna go there, especially not because of affect infection. https://illis.se/en/punishment-problems/

23.01.2022 Congratulations Puppy Class Graduates! Well done

23.01.2022 Wishing all of you, your families and your dogs a very Happy Christmas and a safe and sane 2021!!!! See Spot Sit will be closing on 23rd December for annual leave and reopening on 27th January 2021. I look forward to seeing you next year for more fun and learning with your dogs!!

21.01.2022 Please ensure your dog remains hydrated on warmer days and provide protection from the sun during warmer weather...

21.01.2022 Congratulations Dog Training Foundations graduates! Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a safe holiday season!!!

21.01.2022 One estimate says that around 90% of aggression problems in dogs are based in FEAR. In other words, reduce or eliminate the FEAR, and you reduce or eliminate t...he aggression. This, by the way, is a mind shift for many people: they stop thinking of their snarling dog as a mean beast that needs to be put in his place, and start thinking of him as a pitiful fearful critter that needs help. Changing our mindset from authority to empathy, as it were.

19.01.2022 Tuesdays Pearl: Dont worry that using delicious food when training is "bribery". From a trainers website: "...food-bribery dog training is short-term, the d...og isnt taught to respect the human and starts to bite as a result of its owners training with food". Once youve picked your head up from your keyboard, please note that his is just another relic of outdated advice and science-free nonsense. Using food or toys or doors that magically open or other desired outcomes as positive reinforcement simply makes sense and works. Imagine trying to train a chicken to walk through a little chicken tunnel, by first demanding that the chicken respect you. Or (even better) expecting the chicken to work because she wants to please. No matter who youre trying to train, food can be used as a positive outcome of desired behavior. Once the behavior is learned, it will be performed even when your pockets are empty -- as long as the food still makes an appearance at times, and the behavior itself isnt aversive. Even if youre using a bit of food as a lure to move your dog into position, and then reward the behavior, the idea is to pretty quickly get rid of the lure and use a hand signal or verbal cue instead so that you dont depend on the lure forever. Food is the consequence of a voluntary action, not a bribe. Not even close. And, just to thicken the soup (sorry about the cooking metaphor - I hate to cook, so it might not make sense), what about anxious dogs? As a counter-conditioning tool, high-value food (also known as meat) is indispensable. Unless you have a Border Collie, who might spit out even a side of beef to grab a Frisbee, food can transform scary situations into more positive contexts by associating them with something good. By the way, please remember that fear or anxiety are not increased by rewards and cant be turned on and off by the dog. A bit of reassuring and tasty popcorn makes fearful dogs feel much better during thunderstorms (and you can positively reinforce your own training skills by eating some yourself). If anyone tells you that you dont need to use food or other strongly desired outcomes, and instead should pat the dogs head (which many dogs find aversive) or expect her to "please" you, I recommend walking away and quickly. "I never really expected to be controversial." -- B.F. Skinner #vetbehaviordogs #vetbehavior

19.01.2022 Congratulations Thursday night Puppy Class Graduates!!!

18.01.2022 Now, this is excellent advice!

18.01.2022 Train what you Do want instead of using punishment...

17.01.2022 Animals like food, but they crave SEEKING. Haver you heard of contrafreeloading? Its when animals work for food even when its freely available. Actually the...y prefer to do that: scientific studies have shown that as a general rule, animals would rather work on a food puzzle than have the same food served on a plate. When youre eating, youre doing consummatory behaviour. When in SEEKING mode, youre doing appetitive behaviour: searching, exploring, sniffing, digging, hunting. Appetitive behaviour involves a dopamine surge in the brain. So while in SEEKING mode, you get this dopamine fix. When eating, you snap out of appetitive mode into consummatory mode, and then the dopamine levels in your brain actually go down. Dopamine is a major feel-good chemical in the brain, which is why SEEKING is preferred over having just food freely accessible. So, how do you feed your animals?

16.01.2022 Life is hard. It rains. There are dangers about. Competition for resources. ... And yet, in order to survive, animals need to get out and about. Do their thing: Leave the den and go hunting, despite the cold, pouring rain, and unhealed injuries. Climb high into the treetops in search of ripe fruit, literally going out on a limb. Going exploring, looking for food, even though the fresh smell of dangerous predators permeates the air. SEEKING is the core emotion that galvanizes action, producing exploratory behaviour, perseverance, grit. When the goin gets tough, SEEKING gets you going.

16.01.2022 We do animals a disservice by serving food on a plate. Animals are wired to explore their environment and search for resources, such as food. When theyre expl...oring, their core emotional SEEKING system is activated, and the neurotransmitter dopamine is released. This is referred to as the appetitive mode. Animals fluctuate between being in appetitive mode, while foraging, and consummatory mode, while eating. When in consummatory mode, that dopamine surge is vastly reduced. Why is this important to us, as animal caregivers? Well, feeding your animal in a bowl may be a disservice because it doesnt engage the SEEKING system. Theres no dopamine fix. No appetitive behaviour. Theres just eating. Consummatory behaviour. Again, animals are wired for appetitive behaviour, so feeding them in a way that bypasses that need is not doing them a service its potentially the opposite. This may lead to an increased risk of unwanted behaviour, because theyll often find an outlet for those highly motivated behaviours somehow.

15.01.2022 Thursday Puppy Class nails Go To Your Mat exercise!!

15.01.2022 The dangers inherent in cultural myths about dominance...

15.01.2022 Very useful for young dogs too.

15.01.2022 Excellent advice and clear debunking of the myth that dogs are wolves... Soak this up!

14.01.2022 I love this video from my friend and fellow trainer Miki Saito in Japan. How to properly hold a clicker while holding treats. #dogtrainersofig #dogtraininglife #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips

14.01.2022 K9 Nose Work in another setting, the handlers describe it in a nutshell...

14.01.2022 The core emotion SEEKING is all about expectation, curiosity, exploratory behaviour. Foraging. We refer to this as appetitive behaviour. Its not about having o...r possessing the object of their desire. The actual eating behaviour. Carrying out so called consummatory behaviour. The neurotransmitter dopamine is the main player involved in the SEEKING response. And when looking at whats going on in the brain, theres a constant fluctuation of dopamine as the animal alternates between appetitive behaviour (SEEKING activation) and consummatory behaviour (SEEKING inhibition). Being in SEEKING mode is pleasurable, and the animal has a built-in need to explore and investigate, carry out appetitive behaviour. And why is this important to us, as animal caregivers? Well, because of how we serve food. Is the animal foraging, or eating? And because of how we arrange the environment. Does the animal have opportunities of carrying out exploratory behaviour? If not, he may start chewing the furniture or dig up the roses.

12.01.2022 Something to keep in mind!

12.01.2022 Congratulations to Dog Training Foundations graduates!!! Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season to you all!

12.01.2022 Animals dont behave sensibly they behave emotionally. I think this is a good reminder that emotions are key driving forces in determining behaviour. That ...often, what animals choose to do is not in their best interest long- term, or has no apparent purpose here and now. Yes, animals behave for effect, and yes evolution has selected the best behavioural strategies that ensures that animals survive and reproduce, but emotional reactions are the catalysts of behaviour. Those emotional reactions are often aligned with what makes sense here and now, but not always.

12.01.2022 Congratulations Puppy Class August 2020!

11.01.2022 Giving treats to animals in challenging situations is not about coddling or spoiling the animal, its about changing their emotional state and the animal lear...ning other associations, which means future fear learning is less likely in that situation. By avoiding a fearful response, we avoid all the potential pitfalls, the worrisome side effects: RAGE, sensitization, learning and impairment. Its simple, but not easy: https://illis.se/en/cc/

10.01.2022 Animals switch core emotional states depending on context. If theyre in a situation that they experience as scary, and they can get away, they experience FEAR.... Well see freezing or fleeing behaviour. Once they get cornered, and perceive that escape is impossible, their emotional state changes into another core emotion: RAGE. This is when they become potentially dangerous. One of many reasons why we must take the early signs of FEAR seriously.

08.01.2022 UPDATE: Owner Found Lost Corgi found in Mt Vic area. See below

08.01.2022 Congratulations Puppy Class Graduates!!

04.01.2022 Take PLAY seriously its beneficial in a gazillion ways. PLAY literally changes the brain PLAY changes behaviour. ... PLAY helps develop the animals (and humans) personality. Playing animals develop social skills. They cope better with changes in the environment. Theyre less prone to develop problems with aggression or become overly fearful. PLAY leads to a healthy chemical environment in the brain that promotes learning. Dont think PLAY is just about fun and games its not. Its life-altering.

02.01.2022 There are basically two strategies to deal with fear, apart from prevention. Change the environment remove or reduce the animals perception of the triggers.... Or teach new associations there are several ways of doing this, helping the animal relearn that previously scary things or triggers, are now neutral or even fabulous since they predict great outcomes. The animal could even look forward to going to the vet; I know of people whose dogs pull them up the stairs of the veterinary clinic once they realize that thats where theyre headed. Dont ignore your animals FEAR, see what changes you can do to the environment or his learning that will help him cope. More about what to do here: https://illis.se/en/cc/ Or watch part two of this 4-part video series for ideas: https://illis.se/en/crash-course/

02.01.2022 Wednesday night Puppy Class Graduates. Congratulations!!!

01.01.2022 During animal training, clickers affect the brain in ways that food doesnt. Lets unpack that statement. Some animal trainers use food in their training. And ...some of those trainers add a marker signal, such as a clicker, during the learning phase when teaching a new behaviour. The animal does some behaviour, and hears a clicking sound, immediately followed by receiving a treat. The click marks the correct behaviour, and the food constitutes a so called reinforcer, that makes it more likely that the animal will repeat the same behaviour again. And yes, the food is important: without it, the animal wouldnt go back to showing the same behaviour. But the sound of the clicker isnt simply a marker that pinpoints the exact moment the correct behaviour occurred. Heres why: clickers become predictors of upcoming reinforcers such as food, and as such, they engage the core emotion SEEKING system in the brain. When the SEEKING system is activated, theres a surge of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine leads to increased focus, improved learning and memory formation. So, for a clicker-savvy animal, that surge of dopamine will be triggered when the clicker is sounded - not when the food arrives, but when its predicted. Another example of the SEEKING effect: watch someone when they are about to open a wrapped present. Kids on Christmas Eve, for instance. Youll notice that all the starry-eyed engagement, all the arousal, occurs while the gifts are still wrapped and theyre in the grip of that dopamine surge involved in the SEEKING response. Once theyve opened the present and seen whats inside, SEEKING subsides as the dopamine levels diminish. There may be satisfaction, but not this engaged focus thats seen when they still dont know whats in the gift. SEEKING is involved in anticipation, and thats where clickers come in. If youre training animals, and a clicker isnt in your tool box, you should reconsider.

01.01.2022 Let me tell you a story. In 2001, on the 8th of September, I was inside a house that exploded. It went ka-punnnnnk, and it was the most terrifying experience ...of my life. We had borrowed a cottage in the countryside, set on a romantic weekend and mushroom picking. Small wooden cottage, nobody had set their foot in there for a few months. We arrived late Friday night, went straight to bed, and slept like babies. The next morning, Im in the kitchen making coffee, my husband fianc at the time, was in the shower. Actually, Im looking for coffee. You know when youre in a new kitchen looking for something, youre randomly opening drawers and cabinets to get your bearings. And as Im crossing the floor after opening the door to what I thought was an empty store-room, the world exploded around me. Literally. Two things happened, as I recall. There was a tremendous force. I couldnt stand still. I was staggering about, barely remaining on my feet. I guess, sort of, like an earthquake. This pressure wave, or whatever its called, lifted the roof of the house. It blew the main door straight off of the hinges and catapulted it out into the garden. It shattered at least one window in every room of the house we found glass over 10 meters away from the house. One of the cupboard doors next to me in the kitchen opened with a bang and hit the wall next to it with such force that it broke clean in two- we found the other piece several meters inside the room next door. In the kitchen, glasses and these little jars full of spices, things fell out of the cupboards and onto the floor next to where I was tottering about trying to remain on my feet. One of the walls was knocked of the foundation and was shifted about a foot out into the garden. So there was grass between the wall and the floor in that room. I remember two things about this explosion, very clearly. The force wave. And the heat wave. There was no fire, but an extremely hot wave sweeping over everything. It was like stepping into an extremely hot sauna. Very painful. But over in, what? One second? Five seconds? Its been 19 years, that memory has been a bit corrupted because Im recalling the memory of the event again, and that gets a bit twisted with time and repetition. I couldnt say. It was so hot that it melted that cloud of fine hairs framing my face. And a plastic bag containing our breakfast bread. Also, melted. It was the most terrifying experience Ive ever had. I remember going AAAAAAAHHHH! rather loudly as the heatwave swept over me and melted my hair. And then it was all over. No more heat. No more force wave. The silence after all that destruction. And I went AAAAAAAHHHHH! Again. Into the silence. Im going AAAAHHH a second time, just for good measure. Why am I telling you this? What could my near-death-but-getting-away-with-some-melted-hair experience 20 odd years ago have to do with the unwanted effects of fear? A lot actually, because, guess what, not only do people and animals sleep, eat and go to the toilet, or just go, we also experience the same core emotions, including getting the same side effects from intensely fearful experiences. And I experienced at least three of those side effects. See, FEAR has four unwanted side effects. RAGE, sensitization, learning and impairment. Lets just quickly look at those. Fearful animals may switch into RAGE, another core emotion. Theyll try to get you. Learning. I cant tell you what I did last weekend, but I can tell you the main events of a few minutes the morning of September 8th 2001. Almost 19 years ago. Strong emotional states trigger learning, and we tend to remember such events better than events that were not emotional. I remember the setting, little details. The melted plastic bag. A broken jar of curry at my feet. And your horse is going to remember that bad things happen when the veterinarian visits. If bad things happen when the veterinarian visits. Impairment. That may seem like a contradition with what I just told you about emotional events triggering learning, but arousal above a certain level, actually makes you stupid. After yelling AAAAAAAH into the silence after the explosion, my first coherent thought was: I need to clean up this mess. Look at all that curry! Wheres the vacuum cleaner?! My first thought: completely irrational. About here my husband, fianc, comes barging into the kitchen, all wet and slippery because he was in the shower with a piece of soap. His experience was different from mine. He also recalls two things. One, the water stopped running, and two, part of the inner roof fell on his head. He was wet so he never noticed the heat wave. And hes more surprised and on edge than terrified. His first rational thought, which he also yells at me as Im standing there going weve got to clean up this mess is NO, weve got to get out!!!. And he had to more or less herd me out of the building becasue I was looking for the vacuum cleaner and he wasnt quite getting through to me that we had no idea what just happened, there might be more explosions or fires or whatever. And bringing the parallel of this to your dog in the vets office. If hes really scared, and you say sit and he doesnt sit, its likely because hes looking for the vacuum cleaner. He just doesnt understand what youre saying. He doesnt understand SIT, doesnt know how to do it. Arousal past a certain point will make you stupid. Fourth side effect: Sensitization. The last side effect. I was on edge for hours. Couldnt sit still. Fidgety I was jumping at shadows. Which is why Im listing this as an unwanted side effect of FEAR: the ripple effects of sensitization can cause a lot of suffering to the animal, and headaches for you, the animals guardian.

01.01.2022 https://www.canineprinciples.com/blog/he-only-wants-to-play