Our Intensive Training plans use the TAR training method
TAR training
(Train – Adjust – Repeat)
The key ingredient to successful dog training is not a golden solution that only a dog trainer knows, but it is in the repetition.
The repetition of training protocols at a suitable distance for a timed duration with below threshold distractions is more likely to succeed than an ad-hoc approach to an issue. Repeat – treat – Repeat – treat – Adjust and then – Repeat. Sometimes, it is also known as creating a
conditioned emotional response.
Our Intensive Training Plans feature TAR training and consist of well-planned and structured sessions, five days a week, for issues such as – lead walking, recall, pull training and limited anxiety-related issues, carried out by a member of our staff. TAR is only effective against no more than two issues at a time but is available to adult dogs and puppies.
How our Intensive Training plans work
1
Contact us
Contact us by phone, email, or via the contact form. Tell us your needs by describing your dog's struggles and tell us your aim.
2
Approve estimate
We'll prepare a plan for you to review and approve.
3
Training begins
Once we've agreed on all the details, we'll get started!
How does it help?
Knowing when to stop
We break the training into shorter sessions, where we focus on one key behaviour at a time. It’s better to do multiple short sessions with breaks than one long one to keep your dog on task and focused. It’s not about how long a session is, it’s about how effective it is.
Consistency
We make sure every dog handler uses the same cues, gestures, timing, and tones and a number of trainers take turns in leading a training session to ensure that your dog responds equally to all.
Exposure to places
We train in different environments, so your dog knows that cues mean the same thing no matter where they are.
Working our way up
We gradually increase distractions throughout training sessions to get your dog used to doing their behaviour even when more exciting things are going on. We reward consistently with high-value training treats.
Pricing
Intensive Puppy Training
£1200 for 1 month's training
• New puppy learning
• Half day school included
• Available to local puppies aged 2 months and over
Intensive Dog Training
£1600 for 2 months' training
+£300 for large dogs
• Counter-conditioning
• Full day school included
• Available to local dogs
Some of our doggy clients in training
Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)
What exactly Is CER and what effect does it have on your dog?
You may not have heard of the phrase "Conditioned Emotional Response," abbreviated as CER, but if you own a dog, you have most definitely observed this phenomenon. If your dog pricks his ears and comes racing joyfully in anticipation of a walk every time you grasp the leash, he has formed a CER, but let's take a deeper look at this and how it unfolds from a scientific standpoint.
Animals, like humans, are born with a biological system that allows them to experience pleasure and pain, eliciting emotional reactions. In humans, the sound of a drill may create goose bumps if you had a bad dental experience, or the sound of the phone ringing may make your heart to race if you link it with the voice of a loved one. These emotional responses occur swiftly and automatically, with little rational thought involved.
Similar reactions occur in dogs. Your dog's eyes may light up when he hears the click of a clicker because he has learnt to link its sounds with rewards, or he may come to fear the beeping noise that warns him that if he moves ahead, he will be shocked for breaching the border of an electronic fence.
Pleasure-related reactions (appetitive) stimulate approach and contact, but fear-related responses (aversive) urge retreat and avoidance, according to James O' Heare. From an evolutionary standpoint, this all makes sense since in order to survive, humans should seek life-sustaining reinforcers and avoid life-threatening events.
The Construction of a Conditioned Emotional Response
Conditioning emotional reactions are based on associative learning (classical conditioning). In the instance of Pavlov's dogs, a dog learns that a leash = a walk, a clicker equals a treat, and a white coat equals food through connections.
A dog also learns via connections that a skunk may discharge a nasty odour that hurts the eyes.
The brain, neurological system, and endocrine system are all implicated in a conditioned emotional response.
Neuronal activity: Several electrical and chemical communications occur in the brain via neurons, and these transmissions influence how the dog learns, memorises, feels emotions, and eventually acts. Dogs may recall prior events and behave (without cognitive engagement) in a reflex-like manner that has proven advantageous in the past because neurons make such connections.
Amygdala activity: The amygdala is involved in the processing of memories and emotional reactions. The amygdala, often known as the "smoke detector of the brain," is in charge of signalling the adrenal cortex to release hormones (cortisol, adrenaline) that prepare for the fight or flight response, which is critical for life.
The dog's brain is thought to operate in a "hardwired" reflex-like manner in reaction to each individual event based on earlier learning via association. This explains why standard training approaches aren't very effective in changing behaviour. We are functioning on an emotional rather than a cognitive level.
Instead, behaviour modification works because we change emotions through counterconditioning, and therefore one conditioned response to the same conditioned stimulus is replaced by another conditioned response. The good emotional response eventually clashes with terror.
During counterconditioning, neurons are rejoined in such a way that the nervous system's adaptability improves. When we have a conditioned emotional reaction, we are essentially changing past connections between neurons and transforming a frightened response into a pleasant, pleasurable one.
