Hey everyone, I hope you’ve all enjoyed the fantastic weather we have had this weekend! ☀️
This week’s blog is short and features a little on hiking up a Munro and teaching your dog to make eye contact.
Munro Bagging...
We spent last night staying in Ben More lodge before hiking up Ben Lawers today - Luna’s 2nd Munro. It was stunning being above the clouds/mist and what fantastic views at the top - highly recommended! 😎
We met a man hiking up to the summit with his 6 month old puppy!! ❌ Please don’t do that - I would highly recommend that anyone with a puppy under a year old does not attempt to climb a Munro. It can be very damaging to their growing bones, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments! Wait until they are at least a year old then start the Munro bagging, it’s much safer! 😋
Teaching eye contact...
Teaching your dog to make eye contact with you is a really important skill and behaviour for a number of reasons including:
To build a strong bond between your dog and yourself
To ensure that your dog regularly checks in with you during walks or when out and about
As a distraction technique if there are lots of people/dogs etc around
Steps to teach this important life skill...
Hold a treat in one hand and make sure your dog knows it’s there
Hold your arm out at a 90 degree angle with the treat in your hand
As soon your dog looks at you (and not the treat) mark this behaviour with a ‘yes’ or ‘good’ and give them a piece of food from your other hand
Repeat several times
Now try again but with the other arm/hand
To add distraction you can move your hand up and down, shake it about etc whilst waiting for eye contact
To add duration to the eye contact, wait a couple of seconds before marking and rewarding, the duration can then be gradually increased
Try it when you are out and about walking to make the behaviour increasingly reliable - it works as a great distraction
🌟 Give it a go in your home or garden first to practise before taking the behaviour into more distracting environments
This weekend’s blog post is very short because we’ve been too busy enjoying the sunshine. Anyway it’s time to rest now... have a great week everyone and as always, happy training! 🐾
Cheryl x
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