function open_new_window(windowText) { new_window = open("","displayWindow","width=300,height=500,left=10,top=10,scrollbars=1,resizable=1"); new_window.document.open(); new_window.document.write("The Alpha Canine Group"); new_window.document.write(""); switch (windowText) { case 'generalText': new_window.document.write("Welcome to the Alpha Canine Group's video brochure series, covering the unique training, boarding, behavioural rehabilitation and professional education services we offer dog owners and those working in, or wanting to work in dog related industries.

Positive Leadership starts at the beginner levels. It is here that owners learn to train their dogs how to listen under relevant distractions by using Alpha's Pattern Learning Training Method and Alpha developed learning principles such as Reinforcement Contrast Effect and Reset Learning.

Through progressive teaching strategies and class structures, Alpha has taken group obedience training to entirely new levels of practicality and relevance for dog owners to apply out in the real world. The way you train is the way you react and the skills learned in your classes are very handy when practicing under the distractions presented at home and elsewhere.

Back in 1996, Alpha Dog Training developed the concept of Interactive Tuition within group classes. Because there are no formal, straight line formations, or competition routines, our professional trainers and trainees can move freely and interact with individual customers during class, offering personal help when required.

There is also a twenty minute period at the end of each class for more personalised help with your obedience training or with behavioural problems occurring at home.

Dogs are trained on head halter until they reach the advanced levels where they then learn to work to off-lead standard – again, under distraction.

Alpha's methods are unique. The before and after footage for the 2 dogs that follow has been taken at their very first and second visits to Alpha. In one session we can help owners to achieve incredibly positive outcomes with their dog's anti-social, fearful, anxious or over-excitable behaviour.

This is just the start of the journey, but what a great way to begin your dog's behavioural rehabilitation.

The results with this dog shown here have been achieved in a single, introductory group session – In both before and after footage the dog is on flat collar.

The dog we are viewing now is at Alpha for the first time on a Wednesday evening and has arrived early for our first free session and guided tour. Her fear based aggression has made it difficult to take her out on walks because of her intense reaction to other dogs.

Incidentally, the trainer's dog being used here as 'bait' also started out at Alpha with a similar sort of problem and was quite vocal and uncontrollable around other dogs at his first session.

Alpha trainers are friendly, confident and competent when helping owners and will take the lead when possible to do so in order to demonstrate that the dog's behaviour has the potential for modification. They can do this because they have personally trained over 220 dogs other than their own of varying breed, age and disposition as part of their trainer education. They must also train their own dogs to demonstration standard during their course.

Although a little difficult to see due to the late hour, the owner is walking her dog out at the end of the first free session, through groups of other dogs without incident and in the dark.

Now here's the same dog four days later on the Sunday morning, already looking far more relaxed around dogs and we haven't even started official training yet.

All Alpha Dog Training classes are taught by instructors who have their own dogs with them when they teach, - Alpha set this important industry standard of method validation 15 years ago and we call it 'Leading by example'. When teaching we also fit our dogs with the same training equipment that our customers use whilst training their dogs, this keeps explanations and demonstrations as consistent as possible.

Choice of dog training equipment is probably one of the most debated topics within our industry. At Alpha we use and recommend head training halters as they are gentle, precise and make teaching dogs reliable obedience and good behaviour under distraction a reality. The correct type of Head halter also produces reliable off-lead standards far quicker than any other training equipment. We have the well-trained and well-behaved off-lead dogs belonging to customers, trainees and instructors to prove our point.

Part of our teaching process is to also demonstrate customer's dogs that are still learning the exercises rather than always relying on our own trained dogs. This way owners get to see how virtually all dogs can learn and improve very quickly when handled correctly. These demonstrations help owners to understand that it is their skill development that is every bit as important as their dog's.

By demonstrating with different dogs there is more opportunity to highlight important points relating to the consistency of the method. It's great to see different dogs responding in the same consistent manner.

This owner here is in her very first official class – level one first timers. Her dog has even been a little stubborn with its new halter, but still, the results are exciting to say the least. Look at the focus from her dog during the sit step-away exercise as it listens to her voice and remains in position until the pattern is finished with an exciting release command. The release command is a powerful and practical reward that works on all dogs when taught correctly as part of The Pattern Learning Training Method.

Just to show that it is not a fluke, second time around the dog is still as focussed as ever and showing genuine understanding of the new exercises being taught. The recognition of language and tone of voice are evident and can be seen in the dog's consistent responses. The owner is happy, the dog is happy and we're still at the beginning of the training journey.

At level one first timers we also introduce owners to Alpha's proven and effective Canine Good Behaviour Shaping and Reinforcement Crossover Consistency principle. Owners are taught how to apply Reinforcement Contrast Effect in a couple of common and important scenarios that help to teach their dogs manners that really matter. These exercises take the concept of consistency to whole new levels of understanding and are rewriting the rules of canine behavioural and learning theory from a practical perspective.

Here the dog is being taught a simple boundary setting exercise – not to cross the line on the ground, as an example of behaviour shaping that can be easily applied in real-life scenarios - don't run out the front door, the side gate or jump out of the car until invited to do so. Remember, this is still new to the dog, but look at the results!

Good Boy or Girl will become the most powerful tool in your canine communication kit and you will see your dogs differentiating between the different tones in your voice as you teach them how to listen when distracted.

Here is a level four class showing the hustle and bustle of distraction that Alpha dogs learn to comfortably handle as matter of course. You will see all the owners working as individuals in a group environment as the trainers and trainees in yellow move around creating more distractions for the exercise or offering help if required.

Dogs can learn under distraction and we take great pride in showing those who visit us just what can be achieved with modern, positive training methods. Dog training should be about preparing owners and their dogs for the common behavioural challenges that will confront them in the both the family home and out in the community.

At Alpha we have gone to great lengths to develop positive, effective and relevant methods that can be demonstrated to work in real-time. At our first free session and guided tour you will see all this and much more. You can take in the atmosphere and you can see first hand what makes our training services so special.

Please remember, teaching your dog how to listen and behave under distraction requires effort and understanding on your part, but more importantly, it requires methods that actually work.

As we say... SEEING IS BELIEVING! EXPERIENCE THE ALPHA DIFFERENCE!

The next video brochure in this series will contain some amazing first session success stories from Alpha Dog Training showing dramatic behavioural rehabilitation that defies the accepted theories on canine aggression."); break; case 'aggressionText': new_window.document.write("For the last 15 years Alpha Dog Training has prided itself on being able to safely accommodate and effectively rehabilitate dogs with various forms of aggression in group obedience classes.

These two owners and their dogs have arrived early on a Sunday morning before the first free session and guided tour and started barking aggressively the moment they saw trainers and their dogs off in the distance.

The two dogs are on flat collars and are indiscriminately aggressive to both people and dogs. As you can see, they are quite aggressive towards a couple of dogs from a distance of 40 metres or so.

As you can see, the story is pretty much the same when it comes to aggressive behaviour towards people. As one of our trainees approaches, the dogs are beside themselves and are lunging wildly and actively trying to twist out of their collars. There is no doubt here at all as to what their intentions are.

The red heeler is 2 years old and has progressively become aggressive to strangers and other dogs. The kelpie is six months old and has copied the older dog's behaviour.

When I asked the owners if we could film their dogs so we could show how much of a positive impact our methods would have on their behaviour, even by the end of their introductory session, I'm not so sure that they were as confident as I was as to what would be the outcome!

However, this is literally just another day at the office for Alpha Dog Training.

The first step towards rehabilitation is to fit the dogs with head halters. When head halters are combined with Alpha's communication and leadership principles, results are par for the course – even with aggressive dogs.

Already we can see a marked improvement in the dog's behaviour and the owners are starting to feel more at ease... and no doubt, a little less embarrassed. A trainer has given the owners personal instruction that is commonsense and effective. Pictured here, the owners haven't even yet started their free introductory lesson.

At the end of the free introductory session we have made genuine steps forward in the dog's social rehabilitation. Here two trainers are holding the dogs whilst the owners are joining up at Alpha.

As usual, the aggression, despite its intensity, was not all that it seemed. This is more often the case than not – positive leadership and canine understanding goes a long way when methods actually work.

Now it's time to have a look at the dogs back on flat collar again, no head halter, as they were when they first came in to Alpha Dog Training just three hours ago. What a difference. Look at both the owners and the dogs – there is a complete change after just one introductory session.

This is because the principles, methods and ideals we teach at Alpha are founded on years of dedicated, hands-on research into relevant canine behavioural and learning theory. We have put our methods to the test on thousands of dogs of varying breed, age and disposition and we have discovered many new and exciting concepts that challenge the accepted attitudes towards canine behaviours such as fear, anxiety, aggression and over-excitability.

Look at how much closer the trainer can get with her two dogs and see how the previously intense aggressive behaviour has now turned into calm curiosity.

To complete this footage we also have to recreate the common scenario of the dogs being approached by a stranger – you can imagine how often this would occur out on walks for instance.

Once again we have a complete change of attitude from the dogs and they are much, much more relaxed and safer to handle. Again, remember that this is the beginning of the rehabilitation journey, but it is an extremely positive place to start.

As you can imagine, Alpha members week in and week out are seeing these transformations take place in our first timer, introductory session. It's a great way to really educate owners about the realities of canine behaviour and the responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with dog ownership.

The female owner of these next two dogs came to see me half an hour before a Wednesday evening introductory session – she was holding back the tears – her husband was in the car with the dogs waiting to see if they could come out with so many other dogs around. She had been referred to Alpha by a behaviourist who thought that we would have a better chance at rehabilitating their dog-aggressive behaviour.

The dogs are on harnesses and are quite intense – you will see instructor's dogs just sitting there being of no threat what-so-ever. The black bitch is the mother of the red male – he seems to follow her lead, but then adds his own attitude on top.

When I see dogs carrying on like this it is blatantly clear that they don't see their owners as leaders. This is common and usually amounts to little more than misunderstanding, despite the apparent intensity.

Again we are at the end of the free introductory session and the dogs are once again in their harnesses. Harnesses are terrible for teaching and controlling dogs and if these two want to play up now as they did a couple of hours ago, there'd be nothing at all stopping them.

However, once again we see clear leadership overriding previous, unacceptable behaviour. The dogs are noticeably more relaxed, as are the owners. Like the last two dogs we fitted head halters before their introductory session and then they joined a group of other Alpha first timers and partook in a class that covers all the important fundamentals of our practical theory and effective methods.

I have a concept relating to canine behaviour that is based on the famous philosopher decar's saying that defines human thought and being – \"I think therefore I am\".

With canine behaviour however, I think it is better said – \"If I can, therefore I will... but if I can't, I won't\". More-often than not, behavioural rehabilitation is as simple as that!

In both cases seen in this video brochure the dogs were taught to listen and behave by applying the Alpha developed Pattern Learning Training Method, Reinforcement Contrast Effect and Reset Learning Principle.

The owners were taught how to use positive reinforcement, but they were also taught how to mark bad/unacceptable behaviour with \"NO\" and then how to give a specific and consistent physical correction. The \"NO\" and physical corrections are always contrasted to much more powerful positives and the results are there for all to see.

The dogs are not broken and trust is actually significantly increased within the relationship. A relationship that now see the owners as leaders with dogs happy to listen and follow – probably for the first time ever.

You'll notice the owners praising their dogs and the dogs relaxing further. There has not been the need for a single correction because the positive reinforcement now has genuine currency in the rehabilitation process.

Any dog can turn aggressive in the right circumstances. Even good dogs need leadership training and owners need to learn to recognise when their dog's behaviour is potentially going to lead them into trouble.

At Alpha dog Training we have many service initiatives that will help you to understand your dogs!"); break; } new_window.document.write(""); new_window.document.close(); }