Have you ever wanted to be able to show off how good a dog you really have but find as soon as you get outside, it all goes to crap?

Obedience Training is essentially anything where you issue a “command” and the dog complies. This is anything from sit, drop, stay, come, and the list is endless. You can even teach them tricks like how to ride skateboards and to pull you on rollerblades while telling them which direction you want to go. How cool would that be?

Here at Thumping Tails, we like to take an approach that makes training fun, both for the dog, and for you.

We use whatever the individual dog values, usually to teach educational games wherever possible. The number of games you can play with your dog is only limited by your imagination and how you apply what you want them to learn to it.

Each game is most effective when you really engage in the moment with them. Focus on them. Make that game of tug the best game of their life! Tug is an extremely powerful game to play. It empowers the dog each time they win the toy, so you need to let them win. It also allows them to connect with you while having a calming, pacifier effect. You can teach commands such as “leave it” with tug, as well as “stay” and “come”, the list goes on. When you are shown how to, training can be easy, and fun.

In a nutshell, Behaviour Modification is to change the behaviour of the dog. Sounds simple right? Nope!

Behaviour Modification is used to treat situations like jumping, reactivity, fearfulness, nuisance barking and aggression, just to list a few. These are complex issues and have many layers so it can take time to find the correct adjustments to make. It would be so much easier if we could just sit down and have a heart to heart. However, as there is a language barrier, it makes it a little slower to figure things out.

Dogs are a product of their environment. By making small realistically achievable adjustments to the environment to encourage them to adapt and change. We encourage your dog to still be who they are, but teach them about mutual respect between person and dog in a way they understand clearly.

Every situation is assessed and we provide you with some clarity on where the communication breakdown is happening. We focus on teaching you how to communicate clearly so your dog understands exactly what behaviour you like, and what behaviour you don’t.