Montessaurus Puppy School
4424 Victoria Road South, R.R. #1 N0B 2J0 Guelph, ON, Canada

Using clicker training to teach a tiger how to relax while having its blood taken. No animal needs a heavy hand.

101 Things To Do With A Box - An excellent game for teaching puppies how to learn by shaping, for building confidence in nervous dogs, and for making adult dogs think! All you need is a box, some treats and your dog.

How to Train a "Place" Cue: Teaching your dog to go to their place like a mat, dog bed or raised platform is a super handy behaviour for puppies and dogs alike! If you have a dog that tends to be overly excited, learning place is a great way to teach your dog that they can lay down calmly and do nothing. Place is also great for keeping your dog out of the way while you cook dinner or answer the door. One of my clients had a dog who always stole their laundry - a solid place c...ue allowed them to fold the laundry in peace, without needing to retrieve stolen socks. Protip: Teaching your dog place on an easily portable mat means you can have your dog settle down anywhere - on a patio for drinks, next to the soccer field, on the dock at the cottage. Think of it like a crate without walls. Happy Training!

Change your frame of mind - dogs don't do things to be "bad", they are just being dogs. It is up to us to teach our dogs how to appropriately and confidently navigate in the human world. If your dog is consistently getting the "wrong" answer, rather than using punishment take a step back and ask yourself what you can do to help your dog succeed (and if you aren't sure, we can help with that!). And this doesn't just apply to dogs either - you can use this with humans, with horses, with cats, whatever!

A few technical difficulties have delayed our Puppy 101 video (which I have decided to turn into a series!) so here is a video on teaching your dog leash manners. Leash walking is an important skill. Remember that teaching your dog to walk politely on leash is something that doesn't happen over night, especially when working with puppies. Slow and steady wins the race!

Halt, sit and congratulate our Rally-O graduates! Great job dogs and owners - we hope you had as much fun as we did!

How cute is this!? Bruno celebrating his graduation from Kinderpuppy!

Thanks to all who entered our Tricks for Treats giveaway. It was great seeing all your amazing dogs! Our winners are Camille Camille Steffler and Tanya Maria! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Montessaurus Puppy School! Here are a few tips to keep your dog happy and safe this evening: - Keep your dog away from the door when trick-...or-treaters arrive. Your dog may become frightened when witches and ghouls arrive at their house. - Keep halloween candy away from pets. Chocolate, raisins (grapes) and treats containing xylitol (sugar free gum, lollipops, ect.) can be deadly for your pet - Dressing up your pet can be fun, but be sure to monitor your pet for signs of stress while they are in their costume. - Keep your dog on leash outside. Your dog may become easily frightened by all the spooky sights and sounds, and may run away if they become spooked. Happy Haunting! Please share this to help keep all dogs safe this Halloween. (Pictured is Montessaurus trainer Katie's dog 'Maizy', showing off her hold trick and stay.)

Look at those sad eyes Odin LOVED having his human siblings home through the COVID school closures and the summer. Unfortunately, now that everyone has gone b...ack to school and work, he's feeling pretty lonely. Odin hasn't complained too much, but his family noticed that he was following them around WAY more than normal and just wasn't settling lazily on his couch as he always did. He was also reacting more to people walking by and getting more excitable than usual. He was just .... tense. Odin's family knows he has anxiety and they recognized this was Odin's way of asking for help. Shortly after noticing his behaviour change, they added Zylkeine to Odin's food, which is an herbal supplement designed to help take the edge off puppy dog blues. That, along with a few extra pats and an extra walk outside, have helped Odin return to the lazy, happy dog his family knows him to be. If you have noticed that your dog is acting off since school started, ask us what you can do to help. Your pup may not need it forever, but it can definitely make a world of difference as they get used to a quieter lifestyle again. See more

Still time to enter! Let's see those photos of your dog performing their best trick OR in costume.

Freya visited the barn to help feed the horses. This is a new environment for Freya and she doesn't yet know how to safely be around horses. We used our place cue to keep her and the horses safe. Place or mat training is a great way to teach your dog to hang out and relax, even in distracting settings. Freya also got to ride in the golf cart too and from the field!

"The behaviour or misbehaviour of our dog is only a reflection of the lessons we have taught him. Have we gone from enjoying the water in a kiddie pool, straight to the high dive board at Olympic tryouts, with no layers of learning in between?"

Great fun at our play classes this morning! Here are a few of our big dogs off for a run.

Dogs are like fairies, you need to believe in them! If you've ever seen Peter Pan, you might remember that if you don't believe in fairies, the fairies cease to exist. How does this apply to dog training? You have to believe in your dog! If you have already written your dog off - they're too stubborn, they're not smart enough, whatever - you have already set yourself and your dog up for failure. Your dog training journey may not always be easy, but you have to be in your dog's corner every step of the way. When you believe in your dog, you will be amazed at what you can achieve together.

Heads up! You may need to leave a few minutes early for your classes.

Happy international dog day! For all our dogs, big and small, young and old, past and present, thanks for the lessons you have taught us and for always making us smile. Extra treats for every one! We would LOVE to see your favourite dog photos in the comments.

Recalls on the trail with Freya. Note how after she comes to me, she is released to go back to doing what she was doing. If your recall always signals your dog losing access to what they want (like the backyard, another dog, sniffing) they will quickly learn it isn't in their best interest to listen. So call them, reward them, and release them. Freya doesn't do a lot of trail walking (this is maybe her 5th time ever!) but because we have built value using food rewards into th...e cue AND because she knows recalls don't stop the party, she is happy to disengage from sniffing in this new, distracting setting. Freya has a long history of reinforcement with recalls, so I did not need to use food rewards here. If you are just starting to work on this behaviour with your dog, keep them on a long line and reward with high value food. Remember, behaviours that are reinforced are repeated, so be sure to reward this one heavily in the beginning! See more

Great fun at our medium dog play class this morning! What makes good play? Relaxed, loose body language, lots of elbow bending (play bows!) and a good back and forth between the dogs. Stiff body language and a lack of give and take, such as one dog constantly standing over other dogs, can be indicative of problems. Play can look rough but dogs will often use meta-communication (which is communication about communication), like a play bow before tackling another dog, to communicate that they are just playing around. Humans use meta-communication as well, such as smiling or winking while you tease a friend. And thanks again to our owners for continuing to practice great social distancing. We appreciate it!

It is important to desensitize your puppies to wearing things on their feet. Freya has a cut on her paw pad and needs to wear a bandage to keep it clean. Because she learned this skill as a puppy she is not bothered by the bandage, and therefore leaves it alone.

Katie talked with the Weather Network about keeping your dog safe in the summer heat. With temperatures soaring again in Southern Ontario, delicate paw pads can easily be burned. We have sadly already seen a few cases of burned paws this summer, so be sure to take precautions.

Pippi the wolfhound joined us as helper dog today with one of our reactive dog clients. At 130lbs Pippi can be very imposing for other dogs but both dogs were well behaved super stars - no barking, lunging, or other nastiness! Reactive dogs often lack confidence so it is important to start by exposing them to calm dogs in a controlled setting. This allows them to build positive associations. If we punish reactivity, we don't fix the problem, we just suppress the symptoms. Successful, relaxed sessions like today make for one happy dog trainer! Good job dogs!

Agility at 4:30 tonight will be inside if there are thunderstorms. Agility at 4:30 tonight will be inside if there are thunderstorms.