You should start immediately. Every time you interact with your puppy (play with him or her, feed, cuddle, or just work around them) your puppy is learning. The more you understand about how your interactions create the adult dog you will have, the happier your relationship with your dog will be. And imagine if you could go through adolescence with your puppy without all the drama other people seem to have. Wouldn’t that be great?

To help you, our Puppy Primary Junior and Senior classes run all year round (with the exception of a few weeks around Christmas/New Years, and the Easter weekend), and you can start straight away with no need to wait for the new group to begin. With constant admissions your puppy doesn’t miss out on valuable learning time, and we have a constantly changing group of dogs and people for your puppy to meet and greet, allowing them more opportunity to socialise and grow their skills.

Our puppy classes are the best option for all dogs 6 months and under, as this also gives them the opportunity to interact with other people and dogs. For adult dogs 7 months and older they must complete either our lifestyle dog training course, or a personal one-on-one lesson before they can enter our group training. During this time we will help you and your dog understand the terminology and commands we will use, ensure neither you nor your dog will be overwhelmed in a group class and give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may not feel comfortable asking with other people around.

We will also ensure you and your dog understand rewards, figure out what is the best way to reward your dog’s good behaviour and offer advice on any training that needs some improvement. From here you will work with the same trainers, and others in our team to maintain focus, calm behaviour and have fun with other dogs and owners close by.

All dogs undertaking lifestyle training remain with us for the duration of their course. This allows our trainers and behaviourist to teach your dog new habits and skills without giving them the opportunity to continue to practice those bad habits you wish to change or rectify. We also find that taking the dog out of its normal environment can show us some underlying causes of their behaviour, like anxiety or lack of self-control, that they don’t show when at home, but that can have a huge influence on their ability to cope with visitors, going on walks, distractions, etc.

By keeping your dog in a controlled environment for the full course length, it allows the new behaviours we teach them to become engrained and “the new norm” so when they are reunited with you, they are more likely to continue displaying the newly taught good behaviours. This method gives them the best chance of long-term success, resulting in happier dogs and happier owners all round!

This is a common problem among dog owners, and one that is easily fixed IF you are able to be consistent. Ff consistency is a problem for you then seeking help from an experienced dog trainer may be your best bet as they will help keep you and your dog on track. The most important thing to remember is every time you allow your dog to pull you anywhere, you are teaching them that pulling is not only allowed, but it is a great way to get where you want to go quickly. The longer you leave it, the harder this problem will be to change. Remember, consistency is key!

This is also a common (and frustrating) problem and generally comes down to consistency; how often does your dog HAVE to listen to you? Let us set out a scenario for you: you’re a stickler for cleanliness and hate to see any mess in the kitchen. Every day your family members come in to grab a drink, make some food, and dump whatever they are carrying on the kitchen bench. This drives you to come in and clean up their mess and put their gear away. Not once do you leave their dirty dishes lying around, not once do you refuse to replenish what they have used, not once do you leave their gear lying around to get covered in mess.

So my question is .. why should they clean up at all? After all, if they ignore the yelling you will sort everything out with very little stress and no effort on their part. There is no benefit to them in cleaning up, no reason for them to expend energy or time, the kitchen is always clean at the end of the day (or earlier), there is always food and drink available, life is wonderful (for them, anyway!).

All living creatures will only do something if there is a benefit to them. In the above scenario, we do dishes so that we can continue to use them for our food and drinks. Your dogs are the same; what do they get for listening? What do they lose for not listening? If your dogs do not get anything for listening, or lose anything for ignoring you, why should they listen?

So how do we teach our dogs to listen to us? Work out what your dog loves, and what your dog doesn’t like. These are the keys to success. What your dog loves can be dinner, praise, play, walks, cuddles, and time on the sofa. What your dog doesn’t like can be going without treats, being ignored, losing play, cuddle or sofa privileges. Now we have a way to reward the behaviour we want (ie when our dog listens) and to punish what we don’t like without force (ie when our dog ignores us). When your dog does as asked, reward him or her; the reward should reflect the complexity of what was asked.

For instance if you ask your dog to sit when there are no distractions, praise is enough for most dogs. However if they are recalled away from another dog that wanted to play with, having you tell them they did well would probably not be enough, yet the opportunity to have a game and extra play-time with you along with that praise would be great.

If your dog doesn’t listen then they need to lose something they want; again the complexity must be taken into consideration. If your dog refuses to sit when he/she wants a cuddle, then all of your attention is taken away, however if your dog refuses to take his/her attention away from another dog when on a walk and is very social or afraid of other dogs, telling them off or punishing them is just going to ruin the bond you have.

If you find that you are struggling to find what your dog loves and doesn’t love you can organise a personal lesson with our trainers and they can help you with ideas as well as look at your interactions with your dog and give important advice and tips specific to you both. From there you can also attend our group classes to practice getting your dog to listen around distractions under the help and guidance of our trainers. Each dog is different and our trainers realise that. That’s why our courses are all personalised to your individual dog’s personality, behaviour and needs, and our lifestyle courses come with lifetime support!

Your dog not coming when you call is a complicated problem, and one that needs to be worked through in stages to ensure success each time. To start with, we’ll list the most important do’s and don’ts of recall training, then we will go through training of a recall. Many of this is common sense and you probably already know it, but unfortunately we tend to get a little emotional when it comes to our pets and “common sense” can often get thrown out the window. After all, how can we correctly discipline Fido when he looks at us with those adorable chocolate eyes?

As with a lot of training, this is easiest with a young puppy, but any dog regardless of age and previous experience/training can learn to do lightning fast recalls in all environments.

Do’s: Set you and your dog up for success. 

• Make sure you have your dogs’ attention before asking them to come.
• Always reward your dog for coming to you.
• Make the reward proportionate to the distractions your dog left to come to you.
• Practice often and in as many environments as you can.
• Make being with you more fun than elsewhere.

Don’ts: 

• Never ask for your dog to come when you know they are too distracted to come.
• Never punish your dog when it comes to you (if you need to tell your dog off, go to them. Don’t tell them to come and then yell at them as this will have the opposite effect to what you’re trying to do).
• Don’t lean forward when your dog approaches.
• Don’t grab your dog by the collar as if you are afraid you will never get near them again (this only frightens them and makes them less likely to come right up to you).

As with all training, start by practicing in an area free of major distractions and make sure you have your dog’s favourite rewards available. Be relaxed, and ready for some fun; recalls should be fun otherwise there’s no point. It is best to start with a lead on your dog, either a 6’ lead or a longline to enable you to guide your dog in if needed. We want to ensure they understand that coming towards you is what we want.

Make sure that you have your dog’s attention, hold your hands out wide (ensure you don’t tug on the lead if it is in your hand) and ask your dog to come in a happy, upbeat tone. As your dog moves toward you praise them, “good dog, that’s it, keep coming”, and when they get all the way to you ensure they come in really close, and give them a big reward including lots of praise, a cuddle or treat, etc.

Make sure that as your dog approaches, you have your back straight – this ensures your dog comes all the way in and doesn’t learn to stop an arm-length away to play “catch me if you can”, a fun game for all dogs and one that many people fall for.

As your dog gets better at coming to you, add more distance between you both. You can also start to ask for their attention (usually with the use of their name) before asking for the come, and you can start to add in more distractions over time.

Here is where things can get complicated! You need to work on each element of the recall (distance, attention, distraction) separately, then when you have good control individually then start to add them together. For instance, a 20m recall without distractions is a lot easier than with another dog running with your dog. So add distance without other people or dogs around, then add distance when your dog has low level distractions (eg smell, looking ahead instead of at you).

When you start to add major distractions, reduce the distance between you and your dog, starting close and on lead, then building up the distance, again ensuring your dog has to come each time (ie don’t remove the lead/longline until your dog is ready to recall away from distractions at a distance without any help from you).

When you feel ready to try off lead recalls, we recommend beginning with dropping the lead, rather than removing it altogether. That way if things go wrong you have the entire length of the lead to grab, instead of making a dive for your dog and spending the rest of the day running after them. At West-Coast, we also help many Perth families and their dogs with recall training, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us and see how we can help!

Some dogs are more social than others, just like humans. This doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with your dog however, it just means he or she is more particular about who they spend their time with. If your dog is perfectly relaxed around other dogs, but prefers your company consider yourself lucky. Many people have to work very hard to get their dog to focus on them and want to be around them when other dogs are around.

If your dog is worried or anxious when around other dogs, then they need some help from you, and possibly from a trainer or behaviourist, to help them relax around other dogs. This can be because your dog has low self-confidence, is traumatised after a scary event or because someone has inadvertently trained the dog this way by rewarding the scared behaviour (often without knowing it). This is where working with a trainer or behaviourist can help; the more complicated the problem, the more highly trained you want the person you are seeking help from. As the causes here can vary, the specific treatment required varies as well.

If you think your dog falls into this category and you want some help send us a message or call us and we can help and give advice suitable to your dog and situation.

We are happy to help you with your rescue dog. Many dogs that come from a rescue situation have specific needs that require the guidance and advice from an experienced and qualified trainer or behaviourist to help them settle into their new family quickly, easily and without too many problems occurring. By working with a qualified professional like those at West Coast Pet Care, you can ensure you are getting suitable advice for you and your new family member right from the start to help prevent avoidable issues arising, and to understand your newest friend so that you can build a strong bond quickly.

We find that visits from owners, or owner’s friends, can upset some dogs while they are with us. They see their owner (or someone they are close to) and think they are heading home, then you leave and they are still with us. Some dogs don’t cope well with this and it sets their training back, preventing us from getting the most out of your dog in the short time we have with them.

However we understand that you like to know how your furry family member is going, therefore we post weekly photos of all dogs in the first and second week of training and a weekly video of all dogs in their third or more week on our Facebook page for you to enjoy. Plus you can leave a message for a trainer to call you back when they are in the office, email us or leave a message on our Facebook page and we can give you a quick update. Just remember, the trainers will reply to all messages (or a staff member will ask for the update to reply for them) between training the dogs, therefore you may not get a response straight away.

Training dogs is our passion so you can rest-assured that your fur-baby is in the very best hands!

When it comes to aggression, there are varying degrees that can be displayed. From a small snarl when forced into an uncomfortable situation, through to physically attacking another animal or human. For dogs that show very high amounts of aggression, we can recommend trainers that specialise in helping deal with this.

If your dog is just beginning to show signs of aggression or you’re worried that certain situations may cause a negative reaction from your dog, please contact us and we can work with you to address and fix these issues. Click here for more information on dog aggression and what you can do to prevent a small problem from becoming a large one.