Let's roll up our sleeves and talk about what concept training is..

Think of concepts as your dogs strengths and weaknesses.

Dogs can be hyper, skittish, frustrated, pessimistic, calm, optimistic or focused.

These concepts are the backbone to your dog’s personality.

You likely want certain personality traits more than others in your dog.

Think of an agility dog vs family pet. An agility dog needs drive, body awareness and focus. Your run of the mill family pet requires a great recall, loose leash walking and sometimes a retrieve.

Yet both dogs benefit with a foundation of;

Calmness - able to settle.

Optimism -ability to enjoy the unexpected.

Confidence -cojones to take on the world

Concept training allows you to work on multiple personality traits at a time.

Say you have a sheep dog who needs to herd all day; the focus would be on grit, building stamina before reward.

Or you need a phenomenal recall to go hiking. Here’s where proximity games are king. Ensuring your dog treasures being close to you without prompting.

Through concept games you can transform all kinds of struggles. From reactivity, barking, to separation anxiety.

Whatever the snafu you can tailor the games to you and your dog's needs.

How does a ‘game’ rewire my dogs brain?

Dog's like humans have a 'Bucket' that acts like a stress collector.

Throughout the day the bucket fills from negative or positive experiences.

Over time the bucket overflows from events. Think; noises, walks, people, other dogs, door knocking, trips in the car, grooming, alone time etc.

When your dog’s bucket overflows its a recipe for disaster.

Leading to stressful walks, obnoxious behaviour, jumping up, barking at everything and anything. Often we are rehearsing the behaviours we don’t want without realizing.

Your dog’s struggles give you clues to the real problem.

Where traditional dog training focuses on specific behaviours ex. sit, down, stay.

Concept training reshapes your dog's brain. Giving you the tools to deal with challenging situations.

Take; lunging, barking, biting, aggression, guarding and anxiety.

You can develop a dog who can chill while you're cooking.

Create an introvert who ignores everyone but you on the street.

Or craft a dog who doesn't bark even at a dog show.