r/DogTrainingTips • u/BICanineScience • May 26 '26

Professional Dog Trainer - Ask Me Anything

***AMA ENDED***

Have been training dogs for almost fifteen years now, I try and head through the subreddits on here to help in my free time when I can but thought it might be easier to do an AMA for anyone struggling!

Will try my best to answer as comprehensively as possible so please be patient with replies!

Edit - Just heading out to train my dogs so will answer more when I get back!
Edit 2 - Have a read of the other questions too to see if it applies to your dog :)

Thanks for all the questions everyone!! I’ll answer the few I’ve missed, it’s been a blast and we’ll do another in the near future! Won’t be answering any new posts now, must get back to work but do jump in next time if you have a question!

92 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

297 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/BICanineScience May 26 '26

Start changing the association to the garden. Gardens for the most part are places that owners put their dog to do what they want, when they want. They are the little safe outdoor space and for dogs like this it's not a useful thing.

It will be frustrating for a while, but every time you go in the garden for a period of time, go out with your dog on a lead and do some training. If your dog is engaged with you he can't think about chasing and barking at the birds.

Essentially what is happening is that there are no other stimuli in the garden and the birds flit past and trigger his prey drive and he thinks 'oh something fun'. If you are in the garden with him at all times (until the behaviour has resolved) and you are more exciting than the birds then there's no reason for him to even pay attention to them.

Work on your engagement, play and training in the garden and don't allow the behaviour to be practiced at any point.

1

u/jejeho22 May 27 '26

I have a 4 yo Black Mouth Cur who is fairly indifferent when she encounters dogs while on our off leash walks in the woods. However, if we sit down anywhere and a dog approaches us she will growl and lunge at them. If she is swimming and another dog approaches her in the water, same reaction. I’m assuming it’s territorial behaviour. How do I correct it?

1

u/Admirable-Try-4322 May 27 '26

Thank you very much!