GM News - February 2023

Happy February!

This edition of GM-News is all about progressing your training. Lessons give you the basics and then you and your dog further develop your skills.
Questions? - Make contact :-) We Love to Help!

Amanda, David, Rodna & Ruth
Gentle Modern School of Dog Training

Your Ideal Dog

A Handling Distractions with Confidence (HDC) course will be run in conjunction with Play+Train (P+T) over four sessions in Feb/March:

Come-back (focus on Recall) 12 Feb
Control (focus on Heeling) 19 Feb
Calmness (focus on Stay and Wait) 26 Feb
Conventions (Manners) 5 March.

You don't have to become an ongoing P+T member to take part in these four sessions; you can do them as a stand-alone course.

The content of the four sessions prepares you for participation in an optional fifth session, the Ideal Dogs of Australia certification assessment on 19 March.

For full details go to Handling-Distractions---IDA and contact Amanda if you're interested (0418 371 060)

Top Tips for progressing your training

Lures

Are you and/or your dog relying on food in your hand? Luring a response can become a crutch you get stuck with.

"I haven't got food, Rover won't respond!"

"Has my human got food in that hand ready to reward me?"

The following short articles by Paul Bujold of The Sophisticated Dog examine

Distraction, Duration, and Distance

The type and level of distractions present, the amount of time you are expecting your dog to perform the behaviour, and the distance you are from your dog during the behaviour have a huge impact on your dog's ability to respond to your instructions. Critical to success is your increasing the "D's" one at a time. Nicole Wiebusch takes you through this process in The 3 D's and Why They Matter in Dog Training

The ultimate dog birthday party! Invite your dog's best friends to a Trick Workshop - You put together the group, and we provide the fun!

Body Language

Invest 2.19 minutes in your body language interpreting expertise by watching an instalment of Puppy Watch by UK trainer Sarah Whitehead. Sarah narrates two Wolfhound pups playing.

Dogs in the News

Check out the winning images of the 2022 Dog Photography awards, chosen from more than 1,400 entries from 50 different countries

Your reward for reading right to the end of the newsletter :-)
Ruth's new Kelpie pup, Dusty, having a rest.
Plus, a video of a Moose shaking like a dog and shedding his antlers!