SpiritDog training

Whilst I think it's always better to work with an in-person trainer if possible, I was at the end of my tether and throwing everything possible at the issue.

I found the course useful.

There are a lot of lessons on managing the environment to reduce your dog's exposure to triggers and therefore reduce their stress.

This was particularly useful for me at the time as it was something I hadn't implemented particularly well yet. We were still going on two walks a day and George's stress levels were through the roof.

Without reducing George's exposure to triggers and encouraging calm time, I don't think we'd have made much progress.

The management ideas given in the course (particularly for getting in and out of the house) were really useful.

There were also useful tips around tackling noise sensitivity.

The rest of the course is focused on reintroducing triggers at a controlled distance and encouraging sniffing as a natural calming mechanism.

I've used this technique 'in the wild' with success, as long as the distance from the trigger is far enough.

During George's peak struggles, the trigger could be a tiny speck in the distance. I think medication has helped. It has given us enough space to make progress with the training. Although we are still working with fairly large distances.

All in all, it was a useful course. I liked that it is at your own pace and that you can revisit the lessons as often as you like.

The reasoning behind the method aligns with other information I have found useful, particularly around management of the environment, keeping your dog under threshold, and controlled exposure to triggers at a distance.