An accurate assessment of your dog’s behavior is an essential piece of an effective behavior plan. In some cases, it may not be possible to assess your dog in real-time during a session. Instead, videos can be invaluable resources when it comes to assessing and addressing your dog’s behaviors!
There are a wide variety of reasons we may choose not to reproduce a behavior during a session. For some dogs, triggers are downright traumatic and it wouldn’t be kind or fair to expose them to their trigger. For other dogs, their behaviors may not be safe to reproduce. Dogs who are sensitive to the presence of strangers may not behave the same around your trainer as they would if you were alone together. In any case, videos of your dog’s behavior can be a valuable tool in assessing and resolving their behavior.
When getting videos of your dog’s behavior to share with your trainer, keep the following in mind:
- Safety is our first priority. Do not put you, your dog, or anyone else’s safety at risk for the purpose of getting it on video. It’s just not worth it!
- Practice makes permanent. If you catch your dog doing an undesirable behavior, choosing to record it on video rather than immediately interrupt it could make the problem worse. If your dog has already practiced the behavior 5000 times, then doing it one more time isn’t a big deal. But if it’s only happened a handful of times – your choice could make a bigger impact.
- Try to record the events leading up to the behavior, as well as your dog’s behavior after the event. These can be very valuable to your trainer – often times dogs will show subtle behaviors leading up to and following a behavior we are trying to change that can be helpful in the training process. Identifying signs that your dog is about to do a behavior can make a huge difference in preventing them from practicing it.
- Dogs communicate with their entire bodies – so try to have their whole body visible in the video! Especially important pieces are their eyes, ears, and tails.
- Keep it short & sweet. Try to keep videos to one minute or less for most behaviors. If there is a long lead-up or cool-down, feel free to show that as well. Remember, practice makes permanent – after you get a short video of the behavior you’re concerned about, step in and help your dog out if you can!
Videos can be uploaded to YouTube as unlisted, shared via iCloud, Google Drive, or Google Photos, or sent via email or text.
If you have any questions about getting videos for your trainer, don’t hesitate to reach out for clarification! We are here to help 🙂
