At Engaged Dogs, one of our overarching goals
in all we do is to work “smarter, not harder.”
Like any good formerly gifted child who was taught their worth was based on their productivity, I like to put a positive spin on this internal belief system in order to benefit us and our work with our dogs. (Kidding, but only a little. 😉)
In this week’s Fitness Tip, let’s incorporate building strength, coordination, and mobility for the pawrents with building your pup’s recall, or more commonly called: “Come” when called.
What you need:
· High incentive snacks- we love Stewart’s Freeze Dried Liver, Vital Essentials- all varieties of “nibs,” and Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers. All of these treats are going to supplement your pup’s nutrition, are made with minimal ingredients, and your pup will love them and be eager to work for them.
· Kibble- If you kibble feed your dog, use their regular kibble. If they will not work for this or if you do not kibble feed, we recommend Carna4- all recipes (duck, chicken, goat, venison,) and Open Farm Raw Coated Kibble- all recipes.
· Comfortable clothes and shoes you can move in.
· A space where your dog can be safely off leash or on a long line with no interruption from other pup and pawrent teams. Begin the exercise in a low distraction environment. Once you and your pup have played a few times, you can take this around increasingly more distractions to build their focus and engagement with you. This better enables them to know you are more rewarding, exciting, and engaging than that dog/ squirrel/ kid/ scooter/ car/ ball/ etc.
What to do:
*** Before beginning this training game, allow your pup plenty of opportunities to sniff the area around them where you will be working. (Recommended 5-15 minutes, depending on the dog and their genetic needs, prior exercise and enrichment for the day, and whether this is a brand new to them area or not.) Allowing ample opportunity for sniffing prior to expecting focused attention on you sets them up for success by decreasing the likelihood that they will be distracted by their environment because they have had an opportunity to explore it and to satiate their needs. ***
· Keep your kibble and high incentive snacks separated. Throw a piece of kibble away from you and tell your pup to “Go Find.”
· As your dog begins to “Go Find” the kibble snack in the grass/ on the ground, begin to move backwards, moving quickly and lightly on your toes.
Once your pup eats their yummy snack, they will mostly likely look at you because:
1) You just gave them a yummy snack and they now know you have food.
2) You’re moving backwards. That’s unusual and exciting!! Dogs like movement. They will likely naturally begin to move towards you….
· As they “Look” (give eye contact to you,) say their name + “Come!!” (For example: “Penny Grace! Come!”)
· The moment that they begin moving towards you, continue moving away for a few steps and cheer them on enthusiastically.( For example: “Yes!! Good girl Penny!! Yes Yes Yes!!! Good Good Good! You are such a good girl!! What a good choice!! Good Come!”(( And YES I say all of these things as I am cheering your pups on in sessions. LOL))
· Stop after 5-10 steps backwards, leaning down towards your pup as they continue to come to you and quickly, using both hands, rapid fire reward them with lots of little pieces (size of the tip of your thumbnail,) of those high incentive treats. Continue to tell them they are wonderful, and so good, and so intelligent, and all the wonderful compliments you can think of before repeating the process.
· As you complete a few repetitions and your pup understands the principles of the game, you will likely find that they anticipate the recall and reward system you implemented and will begin to return to you more quickly. This is Great!! And exactly what we want!! Our goal is for your pup to always know that YOU are the MOST rewarding, exciting, engaging thing in their environment at all times. This is one of the ways we can create that relationship with them.
Benefits of this exercise:
For Pawrents:
· Strengthening of your toes, ankles, calves, knees, hamstrings, hips, and more!
· Increased coordination
· New neural pathways built in your brain as you do something different and challenging
· Increased mobility
· Increased fun
· Improved relationship with your pup
For Pups:
· Increased bonding with their human; working to create a secure attachment relationship
· Burns a lot of mental and physical energy
· Fun!!
· Teaches them that their human is super fun, rewarding, and engaging and makes them want to stick close to their human
· Dogs were bred to work and like a job. Creating jobs like these training games is immensely satiating to the pups whole wellness
· Increased safety. Dogs spend 90% of their lives off leash and we must have off leash control of our pups to keep them safe if/ when they hop out of the car unexpectedly/ the neighbor let’s them out/ the leash slips out of your dog walker’s hand/ etc.
Check out the linked videos of Teddy and Hudson practicing this week’s fitness tip and notice how enthusiastic they are to follow me around.
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