GM News - August 2025

Just squeaked the August edition in - our 70th!

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

Top Tip 1. Building Blocks of Training

Knowing the four key training steps enhances the effectiveness of your training:

Acquisition - Your dog learns a behaviour (knowledge is acquired)
Fluency - When your dog's response is accurate, strong, reliable and consistent
Generalisation - You want your dog to be able to perform the behaviour anywhere. Aim for everyone involved in caring for your dog to practice with them everywhere, anytime.
Maintenance - Use it or Lose it :-)

Easy Steps to Train a New Behavior by Niki Tudge on the Pets and Their People Blog gives a nice overview of the training process.

Top Tip 2. How to know when to adjust/progress your training

Training guru Jean Donaldson’s Push-Drop-Stick rules are a helpful guide on when to progress to the next level of any training.

This graphic is from the Academy for Dog Trainers Facebook page

Top Tip 3. Training is Enrichment!

If training is intimidating or painful, for example, it would be the opposite of enrichment, but done in a positive way that prioritises fun and relationship, training will benefit body, mind and spirit of dog and handler.
Check out Training as enrichment: A critical review (an academic paper) by Dr. Eduardo Fernandez

Body Language - Sounds

Barking
Baying
Growling
Howling
Whimpering
Whining

Maybe your dog also "grumbles" or does the canine equivalent of "purring". Pluto has melodic yawns. It's all communication.
Check out The Meanings Behind Different Dog Sounds by Pat Miller

Reward for reading to the end . . .

I loved this sweet and funny YouTube short of the Boxer dogs and the Cicada, Survival of The Cicada! by RxCKSTxR, I hope you do too.