Speaker 1: 0:09

Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex in a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most exciting part of their world. Bonnie's top three games. Now, alice, I've challenged you to bonnie's best three games club games. How are you doing this? How are you even gonna handle giving us just three?

Speaker 2: 0:43

Outrageously mean I can't believe you're limiting me to three, but I'm going to try. I'm going to try and I can say, for the start, her top three concepts will start there. For her it's always been calmness, disengagement and optimism. These are the three main concepts that she really did not come with and that we've grown and we've built over time and her transformation has been remarkable and continues to be. But these are the three main areas that we keep topping up and keep sort of focusing on.

Speaker 1: 1:14

So can I pause you there. Tell everybody who's listening our amazing listeners I know they're sharing this, loving this. They want to hear from real owners like you and your gorgeous dog, bonnie. Tell us, alice, what does that actually mean? Practically like, when someone says disengagement, you're like, yeah, that sounds like a good word, but what does that actually mean? So what does it mean to you, what does it mean to Bonnie, and why is it important for you going forward before we dive into the games yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:39

So when we got Bonnie, she definitely saw that there was there, that there was value and there was importance in paying attention to just about anything and everything in her environment. So being able to teach her some skills of disengagement actually the value is in coming away from it, the value is in ignoring it was hugely important. I also mentioned optimism, and that's because not only did she pay attention to a lot of what was in her environment and I think that there was a lot of importance in distractions in the environment but she tended to be on the pessimistic side, so she would tend to think that something novel, something ambiguous if in doubt, shout at it, make a big noise, make a big scene, hope it goes away, sort of thing. So she wasn't sort of very happy about seeing things and things moving around her environment. So actually working on optimism games has helped us to turn that around.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Just to give everyone the picture, when you say she might like bark at it or she might notice it, or she might notice it in a pessimistic way, how big is Bonnie and what does that look like to someone else? And maybe even give us the color and how she looks like. Just run us through that, because I think with the little miniature dash hound they get away with stuff. Bonnie ain't getting away with it, right?

Speaker 2: 2:55

no, we we referred to it affectionately as as her going full baskerville whenever she'd have an outburst like this and and luckily this this hardly ever happens these days and hasn't for quite a long time now. But yeah, this, this she's, uh, she's sort of a giant breed mix of we call her the sort of the Mastiff Megamot Canicorso mix, but she might as well be half grizzly bear, half donkey. This, you know there's some she's, she's, she's, she stands out, she's sort of a big brindle pony and she's big and she's on a on a on a lead and and she's under control.

Speaker 1: 3:31

But she could actually almost tow you if she so like, if she chooses to, right, and you've, you've worked on that and you've got the relationship with her now that you can handle it. But actually for most people, if they see a dog like bonnie and someone like you, you are. For those that don't know alice, she's super tiny, super slim, really neat, prim and proper. And then she's got this massive mastiff mutt, as she just describes as like a donkey cross, grizzly bear, and she could look almost like penelope pitstop trying to hold on to her, like you can just imagine that that moment, that look, and so so for me it's important that we we acknowledge that yes, she needs disengagement and yes, she needs optimism, because actually a dog like this will not get away with it.

Speaker 1: 4:08

And I'm not saying a dash hound should get away with it. What I am saying is that a cute little fluffy bichon or a super like long little sausage dog, if they sort of act up, people kind of acknowledge them and go ha ha, funny, little like, like, like small, like small dog with a chip on its shoulder. Actually, with her she fits into. The dangerous dogs act quite quickly in most people's minds and they will go much. They will escalate it much, much quicker. On a dog like Bonnie, would you say that is correct and what you've seen on the whole.

Speaker 2: 4:37

Definitely yeah, because, yeah, when if a smaller dog is very upset and very pessimistic about something in its environment you know, notice the noise, you might notice you know that it's it's sort of pulling on lead or something. But when as humans we're not sort of on the whole feeling inherently threatened by that, but when a dog of bonnie's size and and appearance sort of has that same emotional response to something as humans, we're more likely to think, oh my gosh, it's going to eat me. So yeah, for for any dog that's sort of struggling with things in its environment, these concepts of calmness and disengagement, of optimism are so crucial. But particularly we found, as bonnie's owners, that not only to advocate for her well-being and and her sort of health and happiness and her ability to sort of go through life in a much, much nicer way, but also to advocate for anybody else we might see. You know we really needed to have these concepts locked down, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 5:35

So we've got the concepts and we can definitely see why they're relevant to you and to our donkey cross grizzly bear, and she's definitely I'm going to, I'm not going to forget that one. Now, what about the games? Which games are you choosing?

Speaker 2: 5:49

All right, yeah, I think I think I've got my shortlist, so I'm kind of going to go like start a main course dessert with this, because I think it's actually.

Speaker 2: 5:58

Yeah, yeah, we might have some honorable mentions as well. So one of the I think one of the most maybe underrated games club games, but one that has really moved the needle for us properly is figure of eights. So this is just a nice sort of activation game, just kind of getting started, just getting some smooth, calm movement with your dog. There's no cueing behavior, there's no, you know, not even really any sort of marking, it's just moving together. It's just getting into a nice smooth pattern where you know you've seen sort of reactive dogs out and about. Maybe you have a reactive dog yourself and you've seen that their movements can be quite sticky, quite jerky, quite stiff, and this is not the movement of a happy, relaxed, calm dog.

Speaker 2: 6:47

So if we can help them to just ease into some calmer movement, it's almost kind of meditative, if I've said that right, and I definitely found that with Bonnie. And we could do that inside in the house, we could do that in the yard, in the alley behind our the terrace house where we live, where we live. We could do that in the park, we could take this behavior and sort of just start to grow that in different environments where actually it was just a hey, we're just moving together nice and smooth, nice and calm, and you know that, you know that it was a nice gentle start to some interaction and of course we could then utilize it in figure of eight, moving towards and away from a distraction at a distance that she was comfortable with, or moving parallel in that nice smooth motion to something, so that we could actually start to reduce the importance and reduce the sort of her even being aware or kind of noticing those sort of distractions that had once got us the full basketball response.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Now I love this, Alice, because selfishly, I was the one that brought figure of eight to Games Club. It was my game and, of course, there is no original thought. I always think that someone else will have had that thought at some point. However, that was my game and, of course, no, there is no original thought. I always think that someone else will have had that thought at some point. However, that was my game to bring to games club.

Speaker 1: 8:03

And what I particularly like and love about figure of eight is I really really really enjoy the idea that it almost feels a bit meditative, that you're almost in meditation. When you're in it you like I go a bit trance, like I get walking and I just sort of walk the mile, walk the mile and I don't really think about anything else. And it's a bit like for me feeding the fish, or I'm currently watching the goat out my window with two feet in her bucket eating, munching away, or maybe I'm watching the chickens eat, like it's quite a meditative state. So you're doing something very rhythmical and it feels very rhythmical and it feels very steady. I really love that you picked figure of eight and it's one of those games. It's definitely a games club game. It's an absolute dog's game, but it's one of those games I think is, like you said, really underrated because it actually looks very simple, but it has really far-reaching results and I love that you picked it. Now we're up for game two. What is your second choice?

Speaker 2: 8:56

I have a quick story, actually about figure of eight, so I've just remembered. So when it was snowing over the winter, just sort of recently and it I mean we don't get huge amounts of snow up here, but like so, bonnie had never seen the amount of snow we had one of these days and we were like we went to down to the normal sort of field where we have a lot of our walks and of course it looked completely different and you know, the kids were off, there was lots of kids sort of sledging, there was people building, snowmen and all sorts of novelty that Bonnie had not seen before, not experienced before, even though this was an environment she comes to almost daily. And of course she was noticing this novelty. She was trying. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? No-transcript one.

Speaker 1: 10:08

I love it, I absolutely love it and I love, like you said, this is a place she goes every single day and yet suddenly it's a completely different place, because here I mean, looks so green today, but you pick it on a day of snow and it's going to be completely. It looks like a different country. So absolutely agree on that. Go on then, alice. What's your game two, all right game two.

Speaker 2: 10:26

So this is so. This is kind of. If figure of eights was my starter, then this is like our sort of main course and such a good optimistic engagement game. I'm going for orientation game. So this is so versatile and so, again, it's a low pressure game. There's no particular cueing, there's no nagging involved with it. There's no major criteria that we're putting on the dog to offer a certain behavior. It's very simple. We're just sort of marking, rewarding those little check-ins.

Speaker 2: 10:58

I feel that orientation game is a great conversation starter.

Speaker 2: 11:04

So sometimes, if you know we're kind of on the walk and we're thinking, okay, we've got some space, we could have some off-lead freedom, you know there's a kind of opportunity for that.

Speaker 2: 11:13

Perhaps Like, where's your brain at Bonnie? Let's just check that out before we unclip. Let's just kind of see where we're at, see what kind of engagement you're currently capable of today, in this moment, and so just by starting a bit of orientation game we can very quickly ascertain whereabouts her brain is, how engaged she is with us and how responsible she is in that particular moment. To maybe then and have some some playing off lead and it's so you can start playing orientation game on lead and then you can actually just unclip, carry on playing and it makes such a non-event of going off lead as well. So I love that one. And another reason why I love it for bonnie is that actually there can be a little bit of scent work involved, because if I throw a piece of food and she doesn't immediately see where it's gone, she can actually really enjoy just sort of snuffling that out in the grass and she enjoys that part just as much as she enjoys the movement part.

Speaker 1: 12:14

And then you can start kind of layering up into the weather games, you kind of thunder and a typhoon and all the rest of it what I love as well, though, alice, is that I feel safe, knowing that when you're going to let a grizzly bear off and I've got like a very tiny teddy bear blink like she really is diddy it makes me feel comfortable that you're doing your pulse checks before you're getting into an off-lead space. And all of our listeners are going to be saying this too. What a brilliant owner you are like. You are the owner I want to meet on a walk. You are, and yet dogs like bonnie typically aren't the dogs I want to meet on walks, but with you, as an owner, I do.

Speaker 1: 12:47

And yet my dog can be a real hassle with the wrong owner. Right like she's good as gold, but suddenly she's going up and saying hi to naughty but nice dogs and that's not appropriate. And she's so. She really doesn't hear if they growl at her and she's kind of going a little bit sort of cognitive declining. So she's a little bit doddery. You don't want to meet her either. You don't want her under your treats, snuffling out your best bakery, and she is that dog who's like almonds. So she's the dog who's underneath your feet, and I think it's really important we acknowledge that. The right dog with the wrong owner and wrong owner, right dog scenarios, that there are so many of those and I just think you're so well placed when you say things like orientation gives me a pulse check.

Speaker 2: 13:28

Yeah, and Games Club's full of this. This is why it's so hard to pick three, because you know we certainly went from a position of like not knowing what to do with Bonnie and it feels sort of helpless and you feel vulnerable and you feel out your depth when you're in that situation. But like with having access to the games club games, with having those little kind of snippet sort of videos, those a few minutes of your day, just to quickly learn something that can then be so applicable to your real life situation and to so quickly changing it. It's like if anyone listening is thinking well, you know, I'm not sure how responsible, whether I should be letting my dog off lead or not, or something like this, or kind of how can I tell, though they might be thinking I want to make progress, but are they ready? And second guessing themselves.

Speaker 2: 14:17

A game like orientation game is such a good kind of a good little check it. You can kind of you can start playing and you can just see because it changes from day to day. You know there'd be if we've had cold weather and then all of a sudden we've got a day when the sun's out. Bonnie can be a bit loopy, you know so. So sometimes it might be like, yeah, okay, no off lead for you today because you're not, you're not really checking in as much as I would like right now. Let's play some games where we just top that up instead and you can just change tactic, but only if you've got those tools in your toolbox, only if you've got those games in your head where you can just go. That's okay. I know what to do in this situation. That's okay. We're going to do this and you just know how to advocate for your dog and how to advocate for any other users of the space that you're in. You know.

Speaker 1: 15:01

You know, on any given day, I love that you say it's got to be at your fingertips. It's something you've already watched, rehearsed. It's a bit like dog training. You've done it at home before you go and take it out. So you, you do know what you're doing now, knowing that, alice, you're going to pick your third game. So what is your third game? I know there are more, but what is your third game for all of our listeners?

Speaker 2: 15:19

all right. So when we've looked at kind of a, something for calmness, something for kind of optimism. So my, my dessert game is disengagement pattern or maybe rewind. I've never been able to only pick one dessert, so but yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:34

So the disengagement pattern or or rewind, both really great games for you know, for kind of getting the attention sort of away from a distraction in the environment that's none of your dog's business, and getting that attention back on you, these are, they're just good maneuvers that become almost kind of muscle memory. A to b is another really good one as well, like kind of all they're all kind of in the same sort of family and and again, just such a great thing to have in mind to just know what to do. So it's it's muscle memory for you as much as it is for your dog in terms of just being able to go okay, right, there's something up ahead. She's noticed that you know we've got a six kilo spaniel off lead or something like that.

Speaker 2: 16:18

Bonnie's going to be interested in that. We don't need to be any of its business. Let's do something more fun in the other direction. Let's actually turn the value back this way, and and and disengagement pattern, rewind, are both fantastic for that. You know, there's like, say, game games club is just full of these really fun but really practical games that are there to help you with your dog training struggle, whether that's reactivity or whether it's something else. You know these are not just kind of fun games, they are fun games with a real life purpose.

Speaker 1: 16:49

I love that, alice, and I'm just thinking if there were to be a thumb war between disengagement pattern and rewind, sam is disengagement pattern. If those of you listening know Sam, she's amazing green eggs and ham and I would be rewind. I really love rewind about sports sort of events and I'm kind of pulling, being pulled forward into something and I'm like rewind and it just gives me a bit of a moment of like, regaining a level of connection. And then I know Sam for disengagement pattern with their naughty little terriers. They are just fantastic dogs, they're hooligans and I again love, love, love, love the concept and the game.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Ultimately, what we're looking at is can we get our dogs to reorient to us when the going gets tough? And for some dogs the answer is no, and actually that's where we need to assess the environment and are we even capable of being in that environment right now? And sometimes the answer to that is no. Ultimately, what I love is, as owners, we are given these tools to almost test where we're at and effectively do a bit of a temperature check. Now, I know you're you're a baker and so you've got some of your amazing bakery opportunities behind you. Do you ever test your cakes? Do you like test them by eating them? Do you test them with temperature, like thermometers, or what do you do? Are there various tests that you have for cakes?

Speaker 2: 18:05

If we're doing like a new recipe or something like that, where we're kind of thinking, is this quite right? Or you know we'll kind of we might be. You know, yeah, testing for sort of flavour texture. Does it slice neatly? Is it going to be good for the cafes? How long will it keep for All of these things? Yeah, we'll definitely sort of test for something and put it through its paces before it goes on sale, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 18:21

And so it's exactly the same. We're effectively going into environment, we're putting it out to test and we're seeing where we are with it and it's a bit of a temperature check. So I love the games you chose. I think they're all really valid. I love that you picked your sort of starter, your main and your desserts and I love that you managed to get an extra one in there and I also know that they've had real life and meaningful impact. Like you said, they're fun but equally. They're fun but equally. They've also kind of got a good bang for their buck. They've actually given you real life results. How do you feel now, owning a dog like Bonnie, compared to where you did when you started?

Speaker 2: 18:53

So much more kind of cool, calm and in control. Because now, you know, let's hypothesise a situation of we're kind of walking along and there's, you know, know, another dog walker in the environment. Without any of those games, we'd have been walking in with a bonnie who's moving very stiffly, very alert, certainly not paying attention to whoever's on the other end of the lead and is in debt, instead just scanning the environment, spotting something that's moving, something that's novel, deciding it's a bad thing, and getting into a kind of a full Baskerville moment about it and possibly dragging me across the field. Whereas when you then look at that same situation with these games, we've got a situation where we're taking a Bonnie into that situation where we can start off with some nice smooth movement, get so kind of working as a team and moving nicely together, and then, you know, we can sort of get her feeling good in that environment, you know, and sort of feeling kind of optimistic, feeling, rewarded in that environment where her focus actually is on, is on me or, you know, whoever is playing with her, that that's where the reward is coming from and that's where it's worth putting her focus.

Speaker 2: 20:07

And then if there is another dog owner kind of in the environment. Yeah, she might, she's still going to notice it, you know she's, you know, a very aware sort of dog. But I can say, oh well, spotted bonnie, let's go and play in this direction. And we've got that rewind, we've got that disengagement pattern where she actually knows that the guaranteed reward, the guaranteed result, the guaranteed fun is happening by coming away from that distraction. So it's a just polar opposite picture and that is like literally real world examples that we've experienced without the games, and then now what that feels like with the games and alice, how do you feel as an owner in terms of confidence and, probably most importantly, competent?

Speaker 2: 20:50

Far more competent, certainly Like, yeah, definitely. There was probably several months where Chris and I sort of felt like, can we do this? Can we sort of maintain a forever home for Bonnie? Can we handle her? Can we look after ourselves and her and everybody's? Sort of maintain a forever home for Bonnie? Can we handle her? Can we look after ourselves and her and everybody's sort of best interests and keep everybody sort of safe and healthy and happy and and certainly seriously question that? But it's it's so nice to know that we've sort of come through that and that we are able to be the very best home that she could have and that we are able to advocate for her and we are able to transform her sort of struggles. And to keep on going like we're not done. We'll just keep looking for other things that we can do, other things we can teach, other things we can play, because it's just, it's just it's fun now, it's enjoyable and it's just a way of life now.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Alice, I'm proud of you. I know that all of our listeners are listening, going yes, yes and yes, if and yes. If you want to find the games head over to the Absolute Dog Store, whether you purchase one of our courses, our mini courses, our 10 days to stop, or whether you dive into the games club like Alice has, I know that this makes a difference to dogs worldwide. If you want to share it like it, love it, we celebrate you for doing that, and you for doing that and Alice, most of all, I celebrate you.