Support Skills
Upskill your detector dog, reskill your pet dog.
Upskill your detector dog
Your dog doesn't need to know anything to do Talking Dogs Scentwork®
Literally no pre-trained skills are required!
But . . . some exercises can enhance your dog's performance, make the whole process more efficient, and make you and your dog's lives easier. Improving mutual communication and understanding is always advantageous both while you're engaged in scentwork and in your day to day interactions.
- No more chasing around if she picks up random items during the search
- No more prising the scented article from your dog's jaws
- No more worrying that your dog will run away during off lead searches
- No more frantic catches as your dog launches off platforms
- No more tense searches wondering if your dog is going to run off
I use these valuable skills every day with my own dogs. They help us live together as a pretty harmonious mixed species family (2 humans, 6 dogs and 1 cat) For example:
- Drop and retrieve help prevent guarding behaviour
- Leave helps stop my dogs from eating waste on walks
- Recall gives the dogs freedom and helps keep them fit
- Stay let's me open the front door without them running into the street
- And learning and practising them all keeps the dogs, and me, mentally and physically stimulated, strengthens our relationships and helps us communicate effectively thus avoiding frustration and misunderstandings.
Whatever life stage your dog is at, you will find these exercises super useful.
All the training methods I use are reward based and are suitable for young pups, teenagers, adults and seniors.
Your dog shouldn't notice a difference between training and playtime
so all exercises are pleasurable, rewarding and effective.
Let me take you through how to teach these super useful, some may say essential, skills. There are around 5 hours of video in 15 lessons that take you through each skill step-by-step. All are supported an enhanced by downloadable course notes. With the help of six dogs of various ages, breed and experience, you will see how each skill can be taught right from the start.
Plus I've added two bonuses. You get 'Jackpot' my best selling guide to using food in training. And I'm giving you a bonus video lesson to learn how to teach the three basic positions: Sit, Stand and Down. This gives you a fantastic all encompassing course, without having to attend a single class.
Learn:
- How to make giving treats more fun
- How to discover what games your dog wants to play
- How make the game the reward
- How to build trust so that your dog wants you to take her toy
- How to teach your dog to carry items
- How to break exercises down into small achievable chunks
- How to teach a relaxed, reliable stay
- How to teach a release cue so that your dog only moves when you give the word
- How to teach your dog to want to come back to you
- How to use a recall whistle
- How to use food rewards like a pro
- How to communicate clearly and effectively with your dog
- How to teach your dog foundation skills and beyond
Included in this course for FREE is
Jackpot! The Simple Guide to Food Rewards
This guide has been on the required reading list for trainers since I first published it in 1996. I'm including the 2003 updated and revised version for free in this course. Using food well can make such a huge difference to your training and to your results. I'm giving you the handbook with all the answers.
Teaching these skills has been my bread and butter for my whole career. I'm giving you the most effective, easy to understand methods that I've found. Training without fear but with efficiency is a win-win outcome. You and your dog can enjoy the process of learning. And to have a dog who is well trained, happy and a pleasure to be with is the ideal outcome. By breaking complex exercises into small manageable steps I've done all the hard work for you. Now you get to do the fun part!
I've been teaching these skills to my clients for 30 years. In classes for puppies, adolescents, adults, at 121 sessions and for sporting dogs taking part in scentwork (of course), Talking Dogs Rally®, agility, gundog work, and more. I've learned which methods work best, plus tips and techniques to help hone the skills to your own dog. Teaching these foundation exercises makes such a huge difference to your dog. They can be the difference between you leaving your dog at home or taking her with you on a family day out.
The bottom line is that the more training you do with your dog,
the more freedom you can give her.
Give your dog more freedom, let's get training.