Chirag Patel

Chirag is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer and Pet Behaviour Counsellor working in the UK. He is the manager for The Training and Behaviour Centre at Dr Roger Mugfords Company of Animals. He also runs Domesticated Manners Pet Training and Behaviour. He holds a BSc (Hons) Degree in Veterinary Sciences from the Royal Veterinary College and is currently studying for a Masters in Clinical Animal Behaviour.

Chirag has and does work with a variety of animal species including dogs, cats, horses, parrots, rats, degus, tortoise and many more.

His website is http://www.domesticatedmanners.com

Chirag can be reached at cpatel@domesticatedmanners.com

Blog posts by Chirag Patel

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"Organised Chaos" aka Puppy Pre-School

Chirag Patel | Sat, 02/26/2011 - 17:09

Puppy education at Puppy Pre-school. Lots of fun and great social experiences getting the whole family involved.

An "Off" Switch - Blog to go along with the Vlog below.

Chirag Patel | Mon, 12/20/2010 - 16:03

This is a great skill to teach all dogs. You can teach it in many different ways; In this blog I discuss one way to start this very useful exercise which you can progress as shown in the Vlog below.

1. At the start set your dog up to succeed. I would suggest that you start at a time when your dog is not excited and already relatively calm.

2. I would also start with a leash on your dog, which I suggest you place under my foot, giving the dog about 2/3 foot of leash. This will also becomes a cue for your dog to settle and relax, so when you are out and about with your dog and need him to settle you can just drop the leash and step on it, this should cue your dog to chill.

3. Once the dog starts to relax you can drop a treat for them or provide the with an pre-stuffed chew toy.

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Don't forget the "Off" switch!

Chirag Patel | Mon, 12/20/2010 - 16:01

This is part of a training session with Cody, where we are working on practicing a settle from play. This is a great skill to teach all dogs. You can teach it in many different ways; In the blog above I discuss one way to start this very useful exercise.

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Teaching your Dog to "Drop"

Chirag Patel | Wed, 12/15/2010 - 13:45

This video takes a look at a slightly different approach to teaching your dog or puppy to drop something out of their mouth compared to the traditional swapping approach. Using a more classical conditioning based approach I believe you can get very effective results as I demonstrate with my Kelpie, Cody.

You may have another variation or preference, love to hear more ideas on teaching this behaviour.

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Lures & Rewards - Teaching Sit, Down and Stand

Chirag Patel | Mon, 12/13/2010 - 02:13

This is one way to teach these behaviours and others which allow you to work with your dog without any physical force.

Why does this chicken spin?

Chirag Patel | Sat, 10/02/2010 - 05:54

This video illustrates a few different points:

1. We can and do unintentionally teach our animals things all the time. In this video I teach this hen to spin, but only realise this after I watch back the training videos.

2. Watching yourself training, back on video is a great way to help yourself improve as a teacher and learn more about your self as a trainer.

Talking Dog: The "Guilty Dog"

Chirag Patel | Thu, 09/30/2010 - 17:02

Dogs “talk” to us all the time, we usually don’t understand them or are not even listening. If we stop whispering to them, dominating them and commanding them but try and look at things from the dogs point of view we maybe better able to “hear” them.

Below I discuss the "guilty look", some things that we may not see or even misinterpret.

Dangerous Smiles

Chirag Patel | Mon, 09/27/2010 - 16:20

A very interesting question: How do children view their relationship with the family pet dog?

Research in the 1980s suggested that children tend to treat their dogs as peers. As a result of this, their level and way of interacting with dogs, it is believed that young children are considered at the most risk of dog bites compared to any other age group. We also know, that the majority of dog bites that do occur and involve children, occur within the family home. Most of these bites occur towards to face and neck area. When bites do occur there can be very serious consequences both physical and psychological for both the child and the dog.

"Good Girl"

Chirag Patel | Mon, 09/20/2010 - 20:13

Do you say "Good Dog" or the like when you train your dog? Have you thought about what it might means to your dog? Many people say something like "Good Girl / Boy" to their dog to communicate that something the dog has just done was good, (liked by the owner). Most often we will give our dog some kind of reward (food, praise, fuss etc...) at the same time or after we say "good dog".