by The Crunchy Canine | Dec 17, 2023 | TESTIMONIALS
“I highly recommend Katherine and her team at The Crunchy Canine. Training is tactful and effective, for both humans and doggies. Big bonus if you can also tap into puppy socialization.
As a first-time dog owner, I gained confidence in how to handle all sorts of dog situations, and can take Benji with me to many places now. He walks beside me nicely, doesn’t snarl at other dogs across the street and has even grown to like the cat.
All through the guidance and education from The Crunchy Canine. Thank you.”
Karen with Benji in Hamilton, Ontario
by The Crunchy Canine | Nov 30, 2023 | BLOG
Did you know that every breed has a purpose? Every bred was bred for a specific job. Many people buy a dog based on looks, or because they met one or two dogs of a certain breed, and thought “wow I really like this breed, I think I should get one”. The problem is that without doing any research on the breed, you might be in for a big surprise when the dog is displaying the exact behaviours they were bred to do (the behaviours you may not like). We get MANY inquiries for dog training where owners are complaining about their dogs behaviour and when we see what breed the dog is, we know that this owner did not do their research. It is the owners responsibility to learn about the breed, and find out how they can meet the dogs needs and keep them happy and fulfilled. It is not the dogs responsibility to go against their genetics and conform to meet the human’s wants simply because the human did not do their homework.
So what is it that your dog was bred to do? Even if you already have a dog, and you did not research the breed, it is not too late. We see people learn, evolve, grow, and adapt all the time to the dog that they have! It comes down to what are you willing to do to be a better more educated dog owner.
Here is a list of the top 15 most common breeds and/or breed categories that we see in pet dog homes that often display behaviours that the owner was not prepared for and what they were bred for:
- German Shepherds – Bred for herding and guarding sheep. They are extremely athletic, and while they should be friendly they are bred to be inherently leery of people outside of their inner circle (which is why they make great guard or protection dogs).
- Retrievers (Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers and Poodles) – Bred to retrieve water fowl for hunters. Love water, will fetch/retrieve indefinitely. Strong drive to work and put objects in their mouth.
- Hounds (Dachshunds, Beagles, Coon Hounds etc) – Bred to follow their nose. Tracking is their main purpose in life. Their nose will override almost anything else. Incredibly independent, bred to work and cover plenty of ground.
- Mastiffs (English, Bull, Cane Corso, Dogo D’Argentina etc) – Bred to guard and protect homes and property. Instinct to protect from other animals including dogs and large animals like bulls, bears and even lions.
- Rottweilers – Bred to protect and guard livestock and property. Naturally leery of outsiders.
- Dobermans – Bred for protection. A guardian breed, naturally suspicious.
- Terriers (Jack Russel, Parsons, Yorkshire, Wheaten etc) – Bred to hunt and kill rodents and small animals. Strong prey drive and willingness to not back down. Will shake and kill small animals. One of the more intense working breed categories.
- Boxers – Originally bred for hunting and guarding. High energy, protective in nature.
- Pointers (Weimaraners, German Short Haired Pointer, Vizla etc) – Bred to hunt large game and adapted to smaller animals. They excel in hunting pointing, and retrieving.
- Border Collies & Australian Shepherds – Bred to herd livestock. Intense drive to control and move other animals and people. Bred to use their mouth to control livestock as well by nipping at heels/ankles.
- Bernese Mountain Dogs – Bred to pull carts and to drive cattle, as well as protect livestock from predators.
- Doodles (all of the varieties) – Half retriever, half whatever they are bred with. You can get the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds.
- Spaniels (Cocker, Springer and Brittany) – Bred to flush out game for hunters. Natural swimmers and will retrieve water fowl.
- Schnauzers – Bred to hunt vermin and protect livestock.
- Huskies & Malamutes – Bred to pull heavy sleds and cover ground. Malamutes were also bred to protect their families.
by The Crunchy Canine | Feb 14, 2022 | TESTIMONIALS
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We originally came to the Crunchy Canine for help with Luna’s over excitement and extreme pulling when we walked her. At one point, her pulling and excitement got so bad, walking her became a chore that no one enjoyed or looked forward to.
We tried a multitude of tools (leash, slip-lead, gentle-leader etc. etc. etc…) but nothing seemed to register with Luna, or, she would get better for a bit and then get used to whatever tool we were using and it was back to square one. Once we started to advance her training and worked one on one with Katherine, we decided to switch her over to the remote collar. After the first week, we saw a significant change in Luna – for the better – she was responding more, being more aware of us and what we wanted from her. She was even noticeably starting to enjoy her walks more, as she never really enjoyed walking with the gentle leader on or any of the other tools we tried. But with her collar, she genuinely seemed so much happier. She had more freedom, less restraint but more control and consistency with her training. There was now a very clear, “black and white” approach to our training and more structure. Her recalls started to improve to the point where after the first few weeks, she was coming on command, staying by our side and with little to no motivation from the e-collar, she just started to understand what we expected from her more. We are improving each and every day and for the first time in a long time, we are extremely excited and hopeful that the remote collar is going to bring Luna to a point where she can have the best life possible. We are confident that our choice to switch to the remote collar was the right choice and one we will forever be thankful for.
A lot of people are apprehensive of the remote collar at first… but from our experience and after having used NUMEROUS tools, I can confidently say that the remote collar was the best decision we have ever made, besides the day we decided to get our Luna, of course ! If you’re thinking about making the switch, do it! This tool can seriously change yours and your dogs life, it did for us!”
Jordan with Luna from London, Ontario
by The Crunchy Canine | Oct 11, 2020 | BLOG
Obedience is not the answer to your problems?
Obedience…such a commonly used word when we talk about the way we train our dogs. We have been brainwashed to think that obedience is the only thing we need to worry about. The end all be all to training. They must obey, they must sit, they must lay down, they must do what we say. They must do so willingly and with positive reinforcement only, but also without an expectation of reward. However, dogs are sentient beings with emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Why as humans do we think we are superior and need to control our dogs? Because that is what obedience is all about, control. If I say sit you must do as I say and sit because I feel the need to control you and make decisions for you despite how you are feeling about the situation.
Lets unpack why an obedience based training mentality is not ideal and actually not needed.
1. Obedience does not change the way the dog feels about the situation. Take for example if your dog is reactive on leash and it stems from fear, so you ask for eye contact from your dog and you enforce the rule that when we pass a dog you must give me eye contact on demand, in no way does this change the way the dog feels about passing dogs while on a walk.
All it does it put blinders on your dog. Your dog is still afraid of and would still react if it was allowed to look at that other dog. In the training world this is called teaching an “incompatible” behaviour. So that means you teach the dog to do something else so that it can’t do the behaviour you don’t like. This does not change the emotional state of the dog and rather only suppresses the behaviour. As trainers and owners, we should be looking for ways to help support our dogs, lift them up, help them feel better in their own skin. Instead of focusing on obedience alone to solve all our problems.
2. The second reason being that we should not feel the need to control another living being. I am not saying you can’t teach your dog to sit when you ask them to. It is more about the mindset behind the WHY you need your dog to sit. When someone wants to focus on obedience, I often as why? Why does your dog NEED to sit before crossing the street? Why does your dog NEED to sit before you give him a treat? Most people cannot answer this without a “because I said so” type answer.
Of course there are a couple of life saving commands that all dogs should know and respond to like “come” and a solid “wait” for safety around doorways that lead to the outdoors. However, this need to command our dogs “because we said so” is pointless and unnecessary. What it comes down to is that we are using control and commands based on our desire to be in charge and need to have our dogs listen to what we say.
3. The third being that when a dog is performing obedience commands they are not in free behaviour. What does that mean? If I have to tell my dog to go to “place’ because that is the only way he can handle certain situations then my dog is not making the choice on their own but rather only behaving because I have told them what to do. I don’t see the need to micromanage our dogs.
Not only is it exhausting for the human, can create conflict for the dog, but also we have to think about what our dogs would choose to do if we didn’t tell them what to do. Meaning if the human isn’t there to tell the dog to go to place, what would the dog do? What if someone else is watching your dog and they don’t know how to enforce the command? We want to teach the dog how to be well behaved and make good choices so they can live in our human world without having to be micromanaged all the time. Not only will you enjoy your dog more, but we will remove unnecessary conflict from your relationship.
When it comes to training, we should focus on relationship, teaching our dogs how to make good choices without being told what to do, work on how to be calm when they don’t necessarily want to be, and how to feel better about situations that make them uncomfortable. Let’s worry less about being in control and more about the animal in front of us that we consider family!
by The Crunchy Canine | Jan 19, 2016 | BLOG
When training your puppy or dog, the tool you use should be efficient and effective. The way you use the tool should be clear, consistent, and humane. While I am not going to discuss any one specific tool, know that we use a variety of training collars when training a dog. The only tools we do not use are harnesses (of any type), or regular flat buckle collars. Of course we do have our preferences, but that is not the point of this post.
When training your dog you should be using your leash and training collar to provide the dog with information. How clear the information is will depending on the tool, and your skills and timing. There are some people with many years of experience around dogs who can use a piece of fishing line to train a dog. However, they are few and far between. Now take for example if you were to try to build a wooden box. You have a table saw and a drill, or you have a dull hand saw, some nails and a rock. Now you can probably still get the job done with the dull hand saw, nails and rock. You can cut the wood with the hand saw, but it will be slow and a little messy. You can use the rock to pound the nails into the wood. Now, the job can get done, but it wasn’t efficient or effective and the end results aren’t as great as they could be. Next, let’s look at the table saw and drill. You can cut perfectly straight lines and you can put it together quickly with the drill. Both get the job done (kind of), but one is far better than the other.
Dog training tools can be viewed the same way. The wrong tool is the dull saw and the rock. The right tool, table saw and drill. Now, for those concerned with some of the tools that might look torture devices (prime example is the prong collar), note that a table saw and drill can be used incorrectly or even with intent to cause pain. BUT when used properly they can help you build beautiful works of art! Just like the saw and drill, dog training collars can be used incorrectly, or even with the intent to cause pain. However, that comes down to the person holding the leash not the tool itself.
So, if the tool you are using is giving you the results that a dull saw and rock would give you, you might want to reconsider and try something else!
Happy Training!
Katherine Vooys-McDonald
Canines In Balance
Hamilton, Ontario
Dog training Collars
