So sorry, access to the free Masterclass is closed.

I’ll probably offer something similar in the future, though, so don’t despair. Meanwhile, as consolation, here are some of my blog posts that my readers have found the most interesting on this topic.

Four ways counterconditioning can go wrong
Dogs and fireworks (30+ proven techniques to eliminate noise phobia)
The five Ps: the advantages of considering emotions

92 replies on “”

You create the best Masterclasses! I hope to take this course next fall. I took your Emotions and Advanced Training courses this year, and will budget for Resolving Challenging Behavior next year. The way you frame concepts, such as separating perspectives toward changing behavior into moods, emotions, and functions, makes these concepts so clear. I shared these videos with friends and clients, because the content is so clear and useful. In particular, a horse owner friend was curious why I didn’t believe “sacking out” to be the best method for getting horses over their fears. I’m afraid I didn’t do the best job explaining it, and your second video was custom made for her. Thank you for your hard work creating and teaching courses that are both in-depth and of broad scope. They are the best bang for the buck out there.

Awwww, thanks Nancy – so glad to hear that! until next year, then! πŸ™‚

how unfortunate! hmm… have you tried using different browsers (chrome, explorer, safari etc), or different devices (laptop, phone, tablet)? Since no one else has had this problem I should think that the issue is not with the course page per se but at your side somehow.

Really enjoyed all 3 videos, and found the information super helpful. Our rescued 41kg dog of indeterminate age (2?5?) is a real challenge because he has a really strong prey drive and our neighbourhood is full of hares and squirrels that he wants to chase. He is also reactive to other big dogs but seems to ignore smaller dogs. Unfortunately we have no idea of his past history. He may have had to survive on his own for awhile since he seems so hunting oriented. He was picked up as a stray. He is however incredibly affectionate with people and thinks he’s a lap dog! He also loves to eat. Would love sometimes to be able to read his mind. Even though I won’t be able to take your whole close, these three videos have provided some ideas for how to change some of his behaviours. Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge!

Once again Thank You for a very interesting and informative master class. I wish I had the time to go deeper by taking your complete class but sadly I don’t. But I am always excited to hear from you and to learn what I am able! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insights so willingly.

Thank you so much. I thoroughly enjoyed the Masterclass. My JR runs out whenever I open the drawer where I keep the digital thermometer. This was happening frequently when I was caring for my very ill husband. It has a high frequency beep when switched on and off. Took me awhile to figure what was happening as the sound is out of my range of hearing. I think it is reminisce of a stay in the vet hospital. So I began rewarding every time I approached the drawer, then touching the the handle, then opening… I can now take out the thermometer and switch it on. Recently the sound off that drawer opening is better that my, mostly rock solid whistle recall! So rewarding for me too.
I regularly toss the dogs’ raw chicken neck breakfast on the lawn and have grown the game to ‘decorating’ the rocks, trees or sensory garden with pieces too. Not only do they go dilly when it’s ‘Hunt’ day but it has taught them a strong focus and ability to persevere for long periods.

lovely when the “monster” becomes the predictor of fabulous stuff! Thanks for sharing! πŸ™‚

Changing mood; singing,playing, feeling the heart,running,watching ducks squirrels crows,letting dog observe me clicker train a crow.
Changing it negatively…giving an injection without showing it to her first and telling her about it,learnt my lesson on that one. She needs to feel she’s a participant with any procedure.
Smell, ,and changing the mood of another dog, sending a sock with my dogs smell on it to her brother

Thanks for sharing, Jenny! Interesting with the scent exchange! I see that done during introductions, but not with animals who know one another (I’m assuming…?) πŸ™‚

Facetime bark meet was interesting too. He ran to the front door when he heard her bark whereas she understood he was connecting through that thing in my hand. But after my son had arrived and we didn’t watch the plane land or greet his arrival she ran to the door when she heard her brother bark as well. Something I’m realising about these Egyptian dogs is they are apparently different in their social behaviours. The shelter videos show many dogs together and they apparently don’t have issues that we would see here if we shoved a load of dogs together, and just like humans might do the first time my dog encountered me on facetime she walked around to the back of the screen to see where I was hiding. There was an article (scientific American) about people’s reactions to visual screen images who were naieve to film where they had shown similar behaviour. You could talk to my other dog and my cat on the phone but nit to the extent you can with Lucy.

A thought I have played with when it comes to barking. Expecially the one that is selfreinforcing. Is it a good solution to actually teach the dog to bark – and to stop barking on cue? So the alternative behaviour is actually stop barking on cue?

“not do a behaviour” is typically difficult to teach; it’s typically easier to teach an incompatible behaviour (DRI). In this case I’d say that it’s better to put barking on cue, and then only give the cue in situations where barking isn’t annoying to the humans. I’d be mindful though of the *type* of barking I’d reinforce..! – and also think twice about what the animal is trying to communicate/which needs aren’t met.

The behaviour to teach is ‘sniff’. That is incompatible. I find when I ask for bark it’s got a different energy and I’m shaping a quiet woof just as much as she’s shaping a louder bark in me except I’ve gone to signing
I have sniff on cue. I am teaching her what smells are what.
I also have lick on cue. That’s quite easy to teach. I also do sniff thevtreat,lick the treat, munch it from the left molars or crunch it from the left molars so she is used to things going into the mouth from left and right corners which should help potentially if that’s needed egvsyringing fluids. Good luck. Barking is complex. So many reasons. Each needs a different approach in my opinion. Some are like us nit picking up the phone so I use leave for those. Shish if we are watching something. Good luck.

Hej Karolina! If I understood correctly in video 2, you said that the persons emotional state is altso important? I think this is very relevant. I think the dog t.ex is very aware of our emotional state. Beeing tens walking your dog give a tens dog. I would very much like your comments on this!

I’ve been working with my cats to get their appetites in sync. Two of them are getting picky and will snub their food. I’ve been trying different times of day and more often as I know cats generally eat 8-20 small meals a day. They seem to keep wanting the dry food more than the wet food though, I have puzzle feeders for the dry food but not sure how I can make the wet food more engaging for them. I rotate different flavors and brands already but even after a play session they still don’t seem interested as much.

Perhaps you can find some inspiration here! http://foodpuzzlesforcats.com/

I would also be mindful, if you have two cats, of not feeding them next to one another. Cats are solitary hunters, they are more at ease when not eating next to another cat. Best of luck! πŸ™‚

I dont have a Β«reactiveΒ» dog in the negative sense. But of course she react. What I have been doing all the time is that when I see she might react to something we meet, I just start talking in a friendly voice to her. (The Words probably dont mean anything to her). I can see that the signals she had is gone and her mood shifts. If I still see some tension, I just hold her back in the leash or sit with her talking calmly until the situation is over.

She’s probably doing social referencing: taking cues from you as to whether or not that “something” is scary..! πŸ™‚

And we shouldn’t underestimate the need for mental processing! Just sitting there and watching the thing..!

A great master class and way to refresh learning from some of your more in-depth courses..
How have I managed to change emotions of the animal s in my care.
Holly (dog) did not like my other dog Roo coming up to our bedroom in the morning and would do a low warning growl ” I sleep here, this is my mum …Stay away”
I now take a couple of small snacks up to bed with me ready for the morning …. when roo enters the room, both are given a snack .
Result …. Holly now listens for Roo coming upstairs and is happy for her to enter the room as it predicts a snack … if Roo is slow to come up in a morning , Holly will now go to the top of the stairs ” get up here Roo ”
Holly now feels differently about Roo being there and her emotional state has shifted … Roo never gave a hoot anyway as she is very laid back . Punishing the low growl would only have increased tension and proved Holly right … IE ” that Roo is trouble bad things happen when she is around ” grrrrr

Wow, such a fabulous example! The “intruder” being a predictor of great things! Thanks so much for sharing, Claire! πŸ™‚

I have been taking my very sensitive dog to our local vet every week for 18 months for Confidence Clinics. The Confidence Clinics are held during the lunch hour when the vet is closed to other visitors. We see the same nurse, Sarra, every time and she has the BEST treats. We started outside just walking round and the nurse throwing treats on the ground for Gale. It took months before she was ready to approach Sarra. Eventually after almost a year Gale was brave enough to enter the waiting room where she found one of her favourite chews. Gale now happily goes in to the consult room and even takes treats from the vet if she happens to be there. We continue to go almost every week to reinforce it as a good place with lovely people. It has really been worth persevering and taking everything at Gale’s pace, not forcing her to do anything.

That’s wonderful to hear! She’s lucky to have such a dedicated guardian!

Hi Karolina from South Africa. I always enjoy and benefit from your Masterclasses. Lots of food for thought, as usual. I have just finished the first instalment and looking forward to the second one.

My current dog is born on the right sid of the cas and we try to keep her there. BUT she has somethings that she find scary. She was afraid of water outside (a little creek, a lake and so on). By slowly letting her know it is safe, she actually finally drank from it at one year of age. Now she can even dip her feet in it, but not to far. By letting he explore at her own pace she have managed that.
I see that it is very important to keep her on the right side of the CAS as a general mood state. But she easily get aroused in different situations. It is very easy to get strict then even if we know it does not help. We use PLAY a lot.

Oh, the value of letting the animal explore at their own pace! And just giving them time to process, too! I have a feeling that many people rush in such situations – but finding the animal’s pace is really important! πŸ™‚

I enjoyed your presentation & insight. New neighbor is a stock car racer & gun enthusiast. A LOT of loud noise! I have GRs & ESS. The 3-yo Springer was startled, shaking afraid of the shots & exploding engine sounds. Not much option since we weren’t moving. At first, multiple times, I held him on my lap, caressing, some TT, laughing & singing with every shot & overall acting like an idiot until he relaxed & took treats. Eventually he got off my lap & would jump back up when noise again, until he finally just looked at me with noises & kept walking in the yard. Phew! After that, he would notice the noises, but didn’t care enough to change what he was doing. Yay! The Goldens notice but don’t care either.

Glad to hear things have gone so well! We shouldn’t underestimate the power of acting like an idiot! πŸ™‚

Thank you for the inspiring masterclass. I bought a challenging Silken Windsprite puppy (longhaired whippet). It was not very well socialised. And it was a challenging eater. But I was able to take him outside while running….First I did not know if this was the way to go, but he was simply feeling happy while running. It was a kind of everything or nothing. I figured out I could give direction to his running with a lure on a rope. I started to stand still in between running (chasing), tugging. And just lifted him in my arms when he was stopping to calm him, putting him back on the ground so he could sit between my feet and going a couple of meters without running. I also started to train him in a walkingcoach indoors and when he felt happy about it, walk outside small bits. Taking him out for a little run and then walk next to it. So we went on. He is pretty normal dog now, I can take him everywhere.

Thank you Karolina, so love the master classes, learn something new every time… one day I will have the time set aside to actually engage in a full course..
I share the links as much as I can, but that sometimes gets me into a bit of a pickle . I KNOW the commenter is twisting the logic to continue to justify his use of aversives…. but I am stuck to offer the most robust reply….. here is the most recent challenge:

HE SAYS:
and the funny part is, Karolina Westlund refuted Jenny’s claims about aversive stimuli with her explanation of the five emotional reactions. And she also says that “we also need to put some aspects of R+ in the dark side.” As I said before, Jenny doesn’t quite get it.

AND A REPLY TO MY CHALLENGE
Jenny i’m just stating facts, something you still struggle it seems. If you listened carefully, she clearly stated that aversives are inevitable and that a living being even learns to cope with them positively (5th emotional reaction). Why don’t you ask Dr. Westlund if an aversive stimulus always causes chronic stress or trauma? Let us know if you have the answer

I promised I would share the question with you and post on the public discussion with him your reply to the challenge…
Would love to know how to respond to this intelligently?

I need a bit more context, Jenny! I’ll email you (and once I know a bit more I can get back to this comment thread and post here too..!)

What a completely exhausting conversation – and it’s all over the place, too! I agree that they’re unlikely to ever change their stance, and I don’t want to be dragged into a conversation with someone who’s so derogatory in their overall commenting and uninterested in hearing other perspectives – we’ll only trigger the backfire effect and reactance. Besides, those types of FB comment threads don’t lend themselves to a nuanced discussion – it’s not the right forum I think.

As to my thoughts on using aversive stimuli in training, here are some blog posts:

https://illis.se/en/punishment-problems/

https://illis.se/en/shock-collar-critique/

https://illis.se/en/sheep-proofing-dogs-in-norway/

Hi Karolina, and thank you for this opportunity. Your first video helped me put a few pieces together about one of my dogs, Bella – a sweet and gentle Romanian rescue.

When I adopted her, almost 4 years ago, Bella was scared of many things and all people and dogs. Now, she’s usually OK with most things, even thunder and fireworks (as long as they aren’t too loud), but the vacuum cleaner is still her number one enemy!

She’s still unsure of humans, but sometimes she surprises me and has an instant connection with random people.

The major change has been her behaviour towards dogs. She used to be scared of all of them: big or small, loud or quiet. On our walks, she used to sit and wait for them to leave. She started off making friends with small dogs and is gradually becoming braver going up to medium and larger dogs for a sniff. In the last year, she has started playing with some of them.

Beside offering her a good diet, a safe place to sleep and rest, and love – while giving her space, my approach has been to allow her to observe people and dogs from a distance. Slowly allowing some short and positive interaction. I gave her protection and allowed her to β€˜lead’ if she wanted to move away from the situation.

Because of her past, Bella doesn’t play with toys, but she’s definitely a big fan of sniffing and orienting and she loves chasing squirrels and pigeons. I break big treat in small pieces and wrap each piece in some paper then scrunch all the paper in one ball and she has to break it all to get to the treats.

Sorry about the long message, I wanted to share my experience with my very first dog.

Thank you.

So glad to hear that Bella’s doing so much better! I think giving her control over potentially situations – so that she can leave if she wants to – can be really powerful! πŸ™‚

I just watched video 1.
It’s great!
To your question, – I have moved my pessimistic, cautious and reactive dog by merging seeking into high/low arousal through play. Catching games with food, hunting games, touch games where she physically uses her body, body exercises like zigzag, power pose, squeezing through exercises, search exercises and catch and other games where she get the feeling of come/leave me. So she gets the feeling of choosing for herself. I individually train her optimism, independence, calm, power, focus, self-control, flexibility, closeness and grit. And make them stong one by one. With different games for the different abilities. It has made a huge difference. And we have done all the games at home in quiet safe surroundings. And only when they felt good and easy for her, have we taken them out into the world. And make the world our playground Here she had games and exercises that made her safe and happy and I could choose games based on the arousal she could be in and feel safe in.
Sorry for my bad english. Hope it make sense.
Thank you for your always good videos Karolina!! I love them

Hi Karolina
Among other things, Two frontpaws up which raises the front. At first just on a wash tub with the bottom up or a low box for the purpose. Later on tree stumps in the forest or other places. On boxes, stones, steps or benches in the park. Or anywhere you can. I think it gives both a feeling of power in the body, but maybe also a kind of feeling of security. My dog often seeks it if she is in doubt. She has gone from being nervous about it to seeking it as a safe feeling.
( I think because who knows )

Well, if that position makes her feel better it will be self-reinforcing, so I would assume she’d start using it!

Power posing in humans is a documented thing (even though it’s controversial) – didn’t realize that it might also be true for dogs! πŸ™‚

I wrote a blog post discussing how we (the humans) might use power posing in our interactions with dogs (or rather, before interacting with dogs): https://illis.se/en/cesar-millan/

By Post Author

Thanks for that link.
I think I read that a long time ago and it’s a very interesting topic.
I’ll have to watch the videos tonight.

I don’t know if it applies to dogs either, but why not. Low-ranking horses that are trained in piaff, (maybe it’s the horses’ power pose?) – they move up in the group and get higher status the better they get at it. In everything I do with my dogs and horses, I try to keep the focus on the feeling behind what we’re doing.
What are they feeling.
And of course we go for the good, nice feelings.
If the cautious dog can elevate his feelings to a fantastic feeling by doing something ala power pose…then that’s only good?? don’t you think so?
And I wonder if it can also be used for a powerful dog with dominant behavior, who, via a “2 paws up” exercise, plays with the idea that it might be nice to jump down and is rewarded for the feeling. Hmmm…Does that make sense?
Do you think so?
Oh my…it’s a big topic.
I hope I live to be 200 years old because it might take me some time to delve into all these interesting topics

Interesting observations about piaff and hierarchies in horses…

About an assertive dog becoming less assertive if they were taught to jump down (if that’s what you meant; the equivalent of the low-power pose in humans) – I don’t know. I would probably try other strategies to improve the social dynamics between dogs. As Claire described in her comment, perhaps using counterconditioning could be one such approach. Ensuring that resources aren’t clumped and monopolizable (is that even a word..?) And also of course monitoring health: grumpiness can often have some type of underlying medical condition.

By Post Author

Thanks Karolina for your answers.
Of course health comes first and should be checked first.
I don’t know if it should be to make it less confident, but more as an entrance and part of changing a perhaps stuck behavior.
If a dog takes that position as the first response to others. Then the exercise can be learned without triggers and the dog is moved down and “taken out of the feeling” without being done wrong / being corrected. And when it sits in the dog as a positive exercise / feeling it can be used outside where triggers appear. As part of several exercises of course. Being able to look at the trigger without high arousal and having a pattern learned to leave the trigger that must of course also be learned. As separate patterns. So the whole chain works.
So two paws down was intended as a neutral conversation starter if i can call it that. Just to work on the feeling.
The thing with piaff is only out of my own experiences and what you see and hear. There is nothing scientific in it.
Thank you very much for your answers. I look forward to the next video. I always learn something when I watch them. Thanks! ❀️

Hej Karolina!

A great and very informative first video !

We have a three year old Rottweiler/Rhodesian Ridgeback female, Rosie.
She was a lovely well balanced young pup, till at 10 months old a teenager threw 2 fireworks in front of her.

I have been doing your little Master classes and getting tips to help Rosie.
One specific ‘problem’ Rosie has is that any loud noise will trigger her,
a wheelie bin lid, garage door, fireworks , motorbikes, loud cars etc…
So the next day Rosie is reactive on walks and will bark and lunge at other dogs.
We try to calm her down but mostly we to wait till she has ‘shook it off’ shaking her head and back with us.

Rosie is , i think a little down too, due to changes, one year ago we moved in with our daughter and almost three year old grand daughther.
We have a garden to run in and play.
Because of Rosie our daughter has become a dog lover and granddaughter loves Rosie too.
Great friends in the making πŸ™‚
I got two 5 month old kittens for Christmas, who adore Rosie.
After investigations from vets we have found out that Rosie is allergic to dairy, protein and something else i can ‘t remember, so she is only allowed Purina Hypoallergenic dog food.

I have tried Rosie on vegetarian treats but unfortunately she is allergic to most i have tried, so she is left with no treats and a tasteless food.
She needs some food in a tub with Pro-Fibre and we scatter the for her to seek out and Rosie was spayed too.

So i hope your videos will help us to understand and help our adored Rosie πŸ™‚

Hi Sarah, hopefully you’ll get some insights from video 2 that might help with Rosie! πŸ™‚

Hi Sarah,

I just wanted to say my Bella is also allergic to animal protein! I feed her hypoallergenic dry food (Royal Canin), which she loves, and Purina hypoallergenic wet food, she prefers it to Royal Canin’s. I also give her only veg treats – even denta sticks are 100% veg.

It can be difficult with such a strict diet. Good luck to you and Rosie.

I find I can change my dog’s mood state by using a massage technique, Tellington Touch. Very simple and he often starts to relax right away. Timing is important off course. You need to intervene before things escalate, but the more you practice it, you will find they start to look to you for the touch. One of the core touches is using the tips of your fingers and making a circle and a quarter. It can be very light or more pressure. It does not matter where he do it on the body. Linda Tellington is amazing.

I find it especially interesting that the animal starts to look to the human for the touch – they learn that it makes them feel better! <3

I’m finding this video helpful in managing my high drive, high energy Terrier, especially the part about the seeking stage of feeding. I’ve been training my Bull Terrier for AKC FETCH. The challenge has been to provide the structure so he will watch, mark, retrieve and give to hand without him loosing focus or reaching high arrousal. Following along in your Video 1, I can see that the timing of my cues and praise enhances his work to continue in a calm /happy state. When I miss timely opportunities to do this, his rate of failure increases as his focus is diverted to other things or people in his environment. As we have explored, learned and repeated this game, he has being more willing to work not just for treats after the task but for his own enjoyment upon success with praise.

Hi Susan – so glad that this video brought some clarity to your situation! πŸ™‚

I thoroughly enjoyed this masterclass, and it resonated with me and my past and present experiences with my 3 current dogs, which are all foster fail rescues. Not to mention dogs i am currently working with helping their owners.
I eagerly await part 2

Play for my 15 month old dog is key for shifting his emotional state, but it has to be done quickly before he gets over-aroused…. so it is a matter of being very observant of the environment. at home he is very happy, although having a terrier trait (mixed breed) he likes to chase birds, but if i have a toy/ball his preference is the ball.
the key, which i have to work on is to keep him under-threshold in different environments, which can be very challenging.
thank you for your insights Karolina – always appreciated.

Great point – over-arousal can certainly be just as challenging as under-arousal! You may want to explore some conditioned relaxation techniques, or the Take-a-breath protocol developed by Karen Overall. Best of luck! πŸ™‚

Thought provoking video. I have a rescue border collie with high anxiety. She has improved since I have had her but following what you have said I have only tackled sleeping and nutrition. I now need to look at the other 3. That is going to challenge my creativity.

Great to hear that you got inspired to try something new! Best of luck! πŸ™‚

Great first video! πŸ˜€ I managed to change my previous dogs behaviour by changing his emotions in pressured situations (not his general mood, unfortunately), so his very intense and years long reacitivity towards other dogs lessened significantly. I did it by thinking about what his favorite thing in the world was (me.. And interacting with me), and then using this. So I started prasing him more on walks, and having more fun on walks with him, especially when there were other dogs visible. It seemed so simple, but it was very effective.

Many of the most effective approaches are actually quite simple! Great to hear that he’s doing so much better! πŸ™‚

Thank you so much for this great video! You really hit the nail on the head (and you are a great singer, too).
My first approach to changing the mood is to engage in play and work with the seeking system, i.e., letting the dogs do something to work for food in a natural way (e.g., scent detection) instead of just putting the food bowl in front of them.

Excellent masterclass! Thank you so much.
I have owned, bred and trained Siberian Huskies for 15 years with a lot of succes. My youngest (bought from another breeder) turned out to be a mixed breed (dispite of her FCI pedigree), and she was completely different from the others. I really struggled to understand her and keep her happy in the beginning. We began doing nosework and I took classes in playing with dogs/rewarding with toys. It absolutely changed everything! Now we work as a great team and she is happy.
After this first video I can see that there are details about feeding her, that I can consider changing too. She is a picky eater and is fed raw food primarily, but maybe I can spice it up somehow, making her find it herself. She is a chaser for sure! Thank you so much for sharing with us Karolina!

You’re welcome Malene – so glad you got inspired to try some new approaches! πŸ™‚

Can’t wait to see what you got. My 4.5 yr old Labrador Mix Floyd and my 8 yr old MaltiPom Betsy. Definitely need some work. Otherwise mostly Good Dogs.

I know you have a huge knowledge about animal behaviors because I have taken som of your certified and free classes before and I am a fan of you, smile.
Looking really forward to this master class
Vibeke Schellerup Reese

Thank you for offering this opportunity. I look forward to learning how to better understand my pets’ interactions with the world as they experience it — and how to help them, if needed.

Very Excited for this Masterclass. I am currently taking the Getting Behavior Course which is fantastic!

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