#12 Berni Black - From Gore Obsessions & Skatepark Shadowing, to Stress-Free Vet Visits

Give me three things, three things, put you on the spot here, that you know now that you wish you'd known when you started out your dog training journey.

You've got a nice perspective, haven't you? You've got to come coming from two different sort of angles, the vet perspective and the ATI perspective now.

So I'm interested to hear your answer to this one.

Okay, so top tip for me, and it's something that I try and remind myself because I forget it, is just slow down.

Just really slow down.

Don't rush into it and don't skip ahead.

Just take your time, slow down.

There's nothing to be gained from rushing.

And I have to remind myself that actually it's better to spend weeks building up this behavior than it is to trying to smash out a day session.

I work with dogs in the veterinary setting to try and build up their confidence in the clinics.

So that's one of the reasons I wanted to get my ATO qualifications so that I could lead them in a science-based way with ethical training and actually support their journey with these dogs that are really anxious and fearful.

And I think owners, they want to be able to obviously maximize their effects.

You know, let's get this done.

You know, we'll get the booster done today.

But actually I'm like, well, let's just slow it down, manage their expectations and sort of build on what it's going to look like.

And I think probably a few years ago, I'd have been like as keen as the owners to just get the appointment done.

Don't worry about building up the trust.

Don't worry about, you know, building up those exercises and having that bit of, ABC and expectations of the dog just gets the result bit and I don't chase the result now I chase the the thorough journey so just slow down

yeah How do you, out of interest, I couldn't agree more, by the way, I think that's a beautiful, beautiful answer there.

But how would you, out of interest, approach convincing a guardian, you know, to slow down, to like invest in the journey, you know, how would you advise to do that?

So I tend to show them how much confidence.

We have a half an hour clinic appointment and when the dog first comes in typically they're normally hiding, jumping up or they resist coming in.

By the time that 30 minutes is over they're normally either eating out my hand or I've got the owner doing some tricks and they can observe their body language.

So I usually talk through the beginning of the session and say We've got the tail tucked under, we've got some lip licking, we're looking at the door, like talk them through some of the behavior that perhaps has always been present, but they haven't acknowledged.

And then sort of then before the sessions ended, sort of encapsulate what they can see now, tails wagging, a lot more relaxed body language, taking treats.