Austin Agility Seminar

We are pleased to announce that Cyndy Douan is returning to Austin to instruct another agility seminar!!  After a great time last year (check out some pictures from last year’s event) we are excited to do it all again, but this time it’s going to be 100% focused around agility.

The hands-on seminar will start off by introducing your dogs to all of the agility equipment, so don’t worry if your dog doesn’t have any experience with agility, we will cover that!  It’s important that the dogs know how to safely maneuver over all of the obstacles because then the REAL fun begins – agility games!

Agility games are going to be a large focus for the weekend, and those of you who attended last year know exactly what I’m talking about.  Fun and challenging games like beat the clock, dare to double, and the box game are just some of the games you can expect to see.  Cyndy sets up these games with the intent of challenging you and your dog in a fun way, it’s a blast!

The Agility Seminar will be held at our Leander Training Center during the weekend of October 9th and 10th (don’t worry, it’s a bye weekend for the Longhorns!).  For more information about the Agility Seminar and to learn more about Cyndy Douan, check out our Austin Agility Seminar Page.

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Does Your Dog Window Bark?

We have been working with quite a few dogs that have some pretty serious window barking tendencies.  To some extent window barking is your dog’s natural role as a watchdog, but it’s not something that you want to encourage or allow to happen.  Many behavior issues result from this type of activity and it’s very difficult to fix when it has been practiced for an extended period of time.  Here are some common undesirable traits that can stem from window barking:

• Creates frustration which can easily be redirected onto other dogs and people
• Can create unwanted associations in social situations in and away from the home
• Can lead to territorial issues and other behavior problems

Just as with a lot of our dog’s behaviors, these dogs need to be interrupted and redirected in order to reduce the amounts of window barking incidents or prevent it from happening all together.  Here are some simple things that you can do to make sure window barking is not a problem for your dog:

• Don’t allow your dog to window bark when you are home, simply use a reliable recall to interrupt and redirect your dog
• Use reliable obedience to help change the dog’s state of mind
• Don’t allow your dog to window bark when you are not at home, kenneling your dog is always an option

Remember, it’s up to us to help shape our dogs and puppies, this is just another example of us molding our dogs into social and well adjusted animals.

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Using Agility to Build Confidence

We have been running into a lot of shy, nervous, and fearful dogs lately, a little more than usual.  In addition to strong leadership, a solid foundation of obedience, and socialization, these dogs need some confidence!

One of our favorite ways to build confidence in shy dogs is to teach them to maneuver over the agility equipment.  Not only does it help them feel a sense of accomplishment but you can see them start to become more outgoing and willing to participate after their initial exposure to the different obstacles.  These experiences absolutely start to carry over into other aspects of the dogs’ lives as well!

Agility is not only good at building some confidence in these shy and nervous dogs, but it’s a ton of fun too!  Whether you have a shy dog or an outgoing knuckle head who is just looking for a job, find out more about our obstacle training and confidence course by clicking here.

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Summer BBQ

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – We have THE BEST clients!  In order to show a small sign of our gratitude for all of your support, we will be breaking out some cold beverages and firing up the grill after group class on Sunday, July 18th.

We are inviting all current and past clients and their families to enjoy the afternoon with us, and of course well socialized dogs are welcome as well (no aggression cases)!

The small get together will be free of charge and will run from approximately 11am to 2 pm at our Leander dog training facility.  Food and drink will be provided and everyone is more then welcome to bring their own alcohol if desired.  Please send us an email or let us know if you plan on stopping by so that we can get an accurate count for food and drink.

Hope to see a lot of you out there!!

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New Placeboard Colors!

We all know how important and useful the place command can be, and if you’re not practicing it at home – you should be!  Either during dinner time, movie time, answering the doorbell, or just relaxing, a properly taught and proofed place command can make all of the difference managing your dog around the home.

For a limited time only, we are making our placeboards available in a variety of choices when it comes to fabric and leg colors!  We are still going to carry the small placeboards as well as the long placeboards (and even our trick training and placeboard combo) but now you can finally have a placeboard that has as much character as your dog!

These placeboards are only going to be available for a limited time, then we go back to the boring blue boards, so head over to our online store for a complete list of color options!

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Location Based Dog Training

Have you ever tried to have your dog lay down while at a friend’s house, or told your dog to come at a new park, or introduced your dog to a stranger in a place where your dog has never been before?    Whether it be a delay in response time, a display of fear or uncertainty, or the overwhelming urge to explore the new environment, many of us get a much different response from our dogs in new places.

We all know that our dogs can be very easily effected by environmental factors that you and I take for granted.  Simple things like new smells and sounds can have a big impact on our dog’s behavior, not to mention the other more obvious factors that are present in new locations. In order to advance our dogs’ training and overcome location specific training, it’s important to expose them to new locations and bring them out of their comfort zones.  Here are some tips to help your dog become used to working in new environments.

• Start by finding the right locations to work with your dog, instead of taking your dog for a walk along the same route everyday, explore new parts of your neighborhood.  If you are an Unleashed Unlimited client who usually comes to our Leander dog training location, try coming to one of our Austin dog training classes for a change of pace, and vice versa.  Meet up at a friends home or a park that they visit frequently and do a little training in their favorite locations.

• If your dog is having a hard time in a new environment, don’t get frustrated or mark the wrong behaviors, remember to stick to the core concepts of your training program, don’t panic!  Instead, take a step back and practice something a bit easier and let them be successful, then return to more challenging tasks.

• Remember to keep moving!  Movement is a great way to dissipate stress in dogs and it can help them regain their focus back on you.

By working our dogs in new environments we can constantly expand their comfort zone and increase the dog’s confidence and skill level.  The world is such a better place when we have confident, obedient, and well socialized dogs!

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Trick Training is Back!

Our next installment of Trick Training 101 will begin on Saturday, June 5th at our Leander dog training facility.  Check out some footage we took during our previous installment of Trick Training 101.

Your dog does not have to be very far along with their obedience to enjoy learning tricks; teaching your dogs new things actually makes them more receptive to learning!  Check out the Trick Training page for complete details and schedule of this great class.  If you don’t live in the Austin area and still want to teach your dogs some tricks, check out our Trick Training DVD!

When this installment of Trick Training 101 concludes, we will be starting the next level of trick training, so stay tuned!

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Blast from the Past

I was just looking through some of our old Youtube Videos and found one of our first (and my favorite) videos, Louie’s Video Highlights.  Enjoy!

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Fit Dog Fit Nation

As a part of National Pet Week, on Sunday, May 2, 2010, we will be kicking off Fit Dog Fit Nation Day by enjoying a hike with our dogs at Walnut Creek Park in Austin. Although Austin is known for having some of the fittest dogs around, the movement has a simple concept, it stresses the importance of fitness on both our dogs and ourselves as an entire nation.

Exercise is so important for our dogs and it’s great encouragement to get out and do something will benefit not only them, but ourselves too!  Fit Dog Fit Nation goes beyond only focusing on the importance of fitness for one day, but hopefully creating a chain of events that leads to more activities that benefit dogs and humans.  Stressing a the importance and benefits of a fit dog and a fit nation falls perfectly into this year’s National Pet Week theme, which is “Healthy Together”.

Please join us on May 2 for our Fit Dog Fit Nation event; the hike starts at 10:30 and we will be crossing the stream in a few places so please dress appropriately and bring a towel for your dog.  If you cannot make it to our event, please consider doing something else with your dog that promotes the very important message.  Hope to see everyone on May 2!

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