I use Anti-Avoidance techniques more than I do anything else nowadays!! Undoing untold damage to dogs who are not allowed to experience anything anymore…it’s pretty much the majority of my work now! This gorgeous young lab has been following a programme of avoidance due to her lead reactive behaviour which, as you can see at the start is pretty awful for her and her owners who have previously been to 2 other behaviourists. Follow the assessment through as I introduce my dogs and a slight change

Knowing how a dog uses avoidance as one of its coping mechanisms enhances your training. This dog wants nothing to do with being petted and unfortunately videos like this teach people that this behavior is from a dog that’s mad. When actually it’s in response to some accidental pain and the humans reaction to that pain. Have I ever clipped a dog’s nail too short? Yup! What did I do after? I refocused my energy to being neutral, made sure the dog was okay, and then continued to cut its nails. The