Another winter agility show

We had another winter agility show today. It was much bigger than the previous one with 3 rings and lots more dogs entered. All 3 dogs came with me, Ernie and Kez entered and Indi came along for the ride. It wasn’t the best show ive done, but it was very interesting and we all enjoyed it.

First up for both dogs was steeplechase. Got Ernie’s filmed however Kez was the first one in and forgot to take camera with me for her run. She was eliminated due to my handling and she jumped a jump the wrong way. She also got freaked by a dog barking at the side of the ring and stopped to look, quickly recovered but shows a gap in my training.

Ernie, however really surprised me! To most of you he still probably looks really slow but for him that is really good! Usually he either walks the course or suddenly gets a spurt on, misses the jump and then goes back to walking it! He’s definantly not a fan of the competition environment, he loves agility just not all the noise and atmosphere that comes with it. So the fact he ran today and looked like he generally enjoyed some of it was great! He actually did the last part of the course better than Kez (thats where we got eliminated). What a good boy!

Ernie steeplechase

Then we had jumping. This was a very strange course for Kez. First she went round a jump that looked (to me) to be completely obvious! Then she ran past weaves, my fault as I used no hand signals and as we havent done any agility training in class with weaves since last year I was expecting way too much. She also got spooked though and darted her head in the judges direction (which was also the direction out of the hall) so no idea what happened there. Never mind, she went back and did them perfectly. My fault entirely. However she then knocked a bar . Not our brightest course!

Kez’s jumping run

Ernie however shocked everyone by getting a clear round! It wasn’t very flowing, he kept starting to go round jumps and was very slow going in and out of the tunnels. Part of the reason for that was there was a load of fluff on the ground and he didn’t like running on it. Actually, in general the surface wasnt great for running on, but Ernie especially wasnt a fan. But he still ran clear and that is pretty impressive! His weaves look dreadful on the video, he can actually do them much faster but not in competition. He also looked at the judge and was worried by him and started sniffing out of stress. Didn’t get a rossette, and to be honest im not too sad about it. Hopefully when we do get another clear round he will be more confident and the course more flowing . Still, shows a huge improvement and that we still can get there!

Ernie jumping

Then we had agility. Only Kez was entered in this as Ernie has an issue with A-frames (can’t run up them and gets halfway up before sliding back down again!). This was my favourite course of the day. It was a very simple course and gave us the opportunity to go all out. She only got 5 faults! Again for running past the weaves and again my fault for expecting too much. But she got all her contacts perfect, even A-frame which is definantly saying something! By far her best agility round yet, maybe next time we can go for a clear?!

Kez’s agility run

And lastly we entered a fun pairs match with our training friend and YKC elementary obedience winner at Crufts. She was also my camera woman so didn’t get this one filmed . She ran her Japanese Spitz who, unfortunately, got 5 faults for running round a jump. Kez went clear and we certainly ended on a high!

Behaviour-wise things werent as good. Kez has started going all sniffing up to dogs but then suddenly snapping at them if they try to sniff her face or eyeball her. She was quite snappy throughout the day, so will have to do some work on that. She was also quite stressy generally throughout the day, im wondering if its because we travelled with my nan who she used to live with. Maybe she finds this quite stressful which makes her more snappy and stressed? Hmmmm. Will have to watch that one.

Indi had a very interesting day. Unfortunately, he reacted to a few dogs. Interestingly the dogs he reacted at most were black dogs. This is because he can’t read black dogs facial expressions as easily so finds them much more scary. However most of the dogs he was absolutely perfect with. Of course, I didn’t let him greet any dogs he doesnt know but walking past and around he was much improved. I curved around when walking past almost every dog and tried to reward when he looked at every dog we passed. It wasn’t easy and definantly wasn’t perfect, but showed a general improvement and thats enough for me. The venue had lots of tight squeezes which wasn’t ideal and meant when passing these places I had to hold Indi’s collar to stop him snapping at any of the dogs. Very bad handling technique and looking back I shouldn’t have put him in that situation. It probably has set us back, but thats okay as I do know how to get us back on track and ive learnt a lesson. Next time we go to a show I will be much more careful with how I handle the situation and where I take him.

He also reacted to one woman. He is generally curious by people and will go up to them and sniff, but if they show threatening body language such as bending over, eyeballing or going to stroke over the head he will react to them. He went up to this woman when I wasnt paying attention (bad trainer) and she went to stroke him… and he reacted. Luckily she was a lovely woman and was very understanding saying ‘spaniels are so sensitive’ and so I gave her some treat to give him and then let him have a good sniff of her. While he was sniffing she suddenly gave him some sausage, which is the way I wish we’d done it to start of with to avoid the reaction in the first place. And after that he was fine . No jerking, no shouting just some treats and patience. As well as this he also met my nans newest terrier and our training friends collie cross for the first time. He saw my nan walking the dog and was absolutely completely confident and friendly with him straight away. Same with friends collie cross.

All in all it was a very interesting day. We are definantly making progress with Indi and this has shown me exactily where we are and what we still need to work on. Our main focus with him now is counter conditioning around people and dogs as well as focusing on me on walks. After a few more walks of good, positive focus I will start to get him walking normally and work on loose-lead walking skills. Thats our next stage.

With Kez, our main focus now is preparing for Crufts which is only 2 weeks and 5 days away! I put Kez in a stay while I went to walk one of the courses… and she broke. Grrr! In all fairness she was looking for me as I’d obviously got lost in the crowd, so it may have been too much. Afterwards I did a stay with my back to her and my training friend even threw a toy in front of her, she held perfectly. I also did some heelwork training. The flyball people were watching (I may have been showing off a little bit) and I could hear them going ‘wow’ and ‘love her footwork’. Always a nice feeling to be noticed. Now we just have to get that standard for Crufts and work on tightening her right turns as thats her main pitful. Of course, stays are the most important and hardest exercise in my opinion so thats something else were going to be working on. Whatever happens, we did qualify with the highest score so at least we will always have that! Oh and we got to Crufts in the first place, thats an achievment in itself .

Indi’s lead walking training update 4 months

Its now been 4 months since we started retraining Indi’s lead walking skills. I have learnt a lot in that time, and we have certainly made a lot of progress. It has been very up and down with phases where he’s been absolutely perfect and also phases where he just cant focus at all and loses all joy in working with me. Its been tough, but we are getting there.

We are now at the point where we are doing 1 or 2 off-lead walks a week and the other days lead walking training. When doing off-lead walks where we walk there are usually a lot of dogs walking along the road by the field at the beginning or end of our walk. So we are now doing some training with those dogs. Sometimes I throw treats over his head, this works well and he looks away from the dog to get the treat which is very good. Sometimes I use my voice and say ‘yes’ then treat. Sometimes I do some BAT or let him look then say ‘lets go’ and reward when he turns and walks with me. I’m not doing any formal training where im expecting improvement yet, its just so we can start doing a little bit. He is now going off on his own on off-lead walks and just running and playing. His focus on me generally has improved hugely, before he would barely glance at me on runs and just be off well hunting and sniffing. Now hes constantly stopping, seeing if Im going to play and then off he goes again. It doesnt matter what he’s doing, 70% of the time he will respond to an instand ‘down’ which is very useful. His recalls are much improved and hes more focused on me. Okay, so its not perfect, but definantly improved.

His lead walking itself has been very up and down. We had quite a few bad days and was just not getting anywhere for a good few weeks. I felt at a bit of a loss and was very disappointed and frustrated. So we had to go right back to basics, waiting for him to choose to work with me and then building up. I have also had to do a lot of training on myself, I was getting very frustrated when he kept leaving focus and it just wasnt helping anything. I also wasn’t handling people walking past very well at all, I was asking for focus and getting frustrated when he wouldn’t focus. He wasn’t ready for that yet, so we went back a step to counter conditioning. And then we started getting somewhere…

…and then the snow came! For 2 days there was NO WAY I was doing lead walking training in the snow. Not only is Indi extremely reinforced by eating the snow (and standing in basically treats is not a good way to train) but I wasn’t passing up the opportunity of a long run in the snow . So, for 2 days I had to forget lead walking training and just let him do his thing. I asked for small bits of focus, but I couldnt ask for much as it was slippery and there were quite a few people and dogs about. He didn’t react to any dogs though… he reacted to a man and child pulling a sledge. No idea what happened there! We had fun those 2 days though… other than the huge snowballs that got caught on his fur. They were a pain.

The snow wasn’t budging very fast though, in fact as I type its still out there! But, on the pavements it went pretty quick and left behind a lot of lethal ice. I couldn’t walk Indi to the field as it was too lethal and if he’d seen a dog that would have been me on my bum and Indi running at the dog barking. He has never ever gone for another dog, he just barks but owners dont know that and to be honest, by a road I dont really fancy taking that risk! Even walking Kez and Ernie where I thought it was safe I almost hit the floor slipping on black ice. Nope, no way was I risking that with Indi. So, we went really late at night and just did lead walking training. And it went really well! Where I had to walk really slowly and reward every small step it did him the world of good and we really progressed in leaps and bounds. So, next time we go backwards like that we have to go right back to basics and I need to learn to not expect too much. Thats where I went wrong.

So now we are at a pretty good point. He’s going off-lead 1 or 2 times a week, usually training there and back asking for focus. We are starting small bits of training on his reactivity around other dogs, and he is definantly doing well on that. People-wise we are doing lots of counter conditioning and he is now at the point that when I say ‘yes’ he is starting to turn his head in hope of a treat. This is extremely good as he trusts me enough to be able to turn away from what worries him. His focus is there now, we are now just working on his trust and confidence as it is that which is causing him to leave focus. We are up to hour runs in the field, sometimes longer and 30 mins-45 mins of lead walking.

I have no idea when I’ll be able to attempt a walk to the beach or even the park. But we’ll keep going and one day I’ll know when hes ready. The only person stopping our progress is me. I need to learn to keep my calm in all situations and not get frustrated, to not expect too much and to enjoy the journey and stop focusing on the end result.

And as you can see, Indi had great fun in the snow! As did we all .

‘Your dog must respect you…’

‘Your dog must respect you…’ is a phrase I am just constantly hearing at the moment from dog trainers, especially in the obedience world. Ive heard a number of trainers say it and then when I was looking at a blog post about a seminar with a top obedience ticket handler the phrase came up again. So what does it mean? Well it is basically another way of saying ‘you must be the dominant pack leader’.

One trainer I saw using it said ‘my dogs just pulling me about here, he needs to learn some respect’ and another trainer said it when the dog was running around the agility ring in one of the runs ‘that dog just has no respect’. Now if they were positive dog trainers they would say ‘that dog has no interest in the owner at all’ or ‘that dog has no motivation to work with the owner’ or ‘that dog clearly has never been trained to walk on a loose lead’. Hmm… bit of a pattern appearing. Dogs are being blamed so they need to learn respect from non-positive trainers, while the positive trainers are blaming the owner.

We all know about the dominance theory and how we must be the pack leader. But this clearly shows a contrast in the way the 2 types of trainers think. On the one hand the dog is being blamed and as a result the dog must be punished. However on the other it is the owners fault and the dog needs to be taught and shown the right way. I know which way I prefer, yet why do so many people still keep going with the ‘respect’ way?

Lets look at a human relationship, a daughter and father. As a child if the daughter did anything wrong the father would punish her say not let her on the computer that night or ground her from playing with her friends. But did he ever hit her? Ever push her to the ground and force her on her back until she surrenders? No. He took away what she enjoyed because she did something wrong. If he had hit her or forced her to the ground would there have been a different outcome? If that had been me I would have become scared of my father, scared to put even a foot wrong. I would not have respected him, I would have been scared and as soon as the chance arose I would have tried to get out of there. Yet he didnt do that, he just took the fun thing away. The next time the chances are the child wont do it because she is motivated not to, if she doesnt do it she gets to keep the good thing.

Now how about when she’s older? She is much more understanding of the world around her, she doesn’t live with her father anymore and therefore doesn’t need him really anymore. If everytime she was naughty as a child and he hit her or forced her to the ground what do you think there relationship would be like now? Well if it was me, I would never speak to my father again! He made me fear him for all of my childhood, so why on earth would I want to keep in touch when I now have the chance to be free? However what if he’d done the other option of just taking away something I love, I wanted that thing so stopped doing the naughty thing and we spent more time being positive and happy than anything else. Well, I would love to stay in contact and would go visit every week!

Now lets look at the dictionary definition of the word ‘respect’. From the online dictionary it says ‘A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements’ and ‘polite or kind regard; consideration:’ plus others but these are the main 2. Would you respect the father that hurt you all the time? Or the father who took away the good, but then rewarded with the good. Who would you feel ‘admiration’ for? Of course, the father who took away the good, but then rewarded the good. That is respect. There is no fear, just mutual respect.

It is exactily the same principle in the dog world. Who will the dog respect more? The trainer who is shoving him to the ground when the dog is reacting out of fear or the trainer who is training with positive reinforcement and rewarding the dog for the right choice and never letting the dog get so scared he feels the need to react. So why are these dog trainers keep going on about teaching the dog respect when they are shoving the dog to the ground shouting ‘you need to learn some respect!’ Urm, how on earth is that teaching the dog to admire you and show kind consideration for you? Its teaching the dog to be scared of you, and at any chance they get they will try to get away. They could even become aggressive and start fighting back.

We are humans. We do not think like animals. We get very hurt by the simplest things and take everything to heart. Heck when Kez starts circling me and acting like the worlds ending when all I did was go to grab her harness I almost feel like crying! And yes that does make me feel angry and want to take my anger out on her. I start saying things like ‘your so silly’ and ‘this is ridiculous, Im not going to hurt you’ when actually she can’t hear me or understand me and all she senses is my anger and frustration so actually its completely justified why shes circling me, yet me being human takes it to heart and doesnt see that part of it. What about if a dog is dragging you about? Well let me tell you, im very experienced in that, the amount of times ive almost been dragged over by Indi and actually all the way pulled over a few times! In fact he once dragged me through a bush and my eye swelled up for a week! I was pretty upset, and was telling him ‘for gods sake, im the one walking you!’ Yet I hadn’t trained him to walk on a loose lead properly, and he is extremely reinforced by the environment, this I also hadn’t addressed. So actually the response he showed was completely natural. I personally didnt do any ‘respect’ exercises afterwards lol! But, how about the trainer whos dog wasnt even being as bad as Indi and yet she said ‘needs to learn respect?’ I know for a fact that that dog had had no formal lead walking training and was just trying to enjoy himself. Whats also interesting is she didn’t correct him then. So is she going to do the exercises at home (dread to think what they are) and then because the dog loses trust in the owner he stops having the confidence to freely wander about? Is the dog learning respect? Nope, fear.

So what is respect? Well with every relationship we have to earn that respect. I have had to earn the right to have Kez trust me enough to not run off and start doing circles. If I’d just hit her or shoved her to the ground then she would have hated coming back to me even more and it could have been quite dangerous. A few times I did get annoyed with her when she got back, not rewarding but just putting on the lead and having a clear aura of frustration around me. Bad thing to do, and yes it did make it worse. I had to bite my tongue, smile and act as if I was the happiest person in the world when she came back. She admired me and showed kind consideration by being waggy and happy to see me because I was being kind to her and showing her that Im not going to hurt her. Mutual respect. It wasn’t something she had to do, it was something she did because I earned it.

When you look at it like that, respect is a completely new thing. There is no ‘must have’ it is completely earned on both sides. It is about having mutual respect, and a joy to be with one another. Next time you hear a trainer say ‘that dog needs to learn some respect’ run a mile in the opposite direction! However if you hear a trainer talking about mutual respect and the wonderful relationship well thats who to listen to . Respect is a privelege, its no wonder both dog and owner look so much happier when working together with mutual respect!

How to train your dog to walk on a loose lead

Well my first question asked for my dog training Q&A was how to walk on a loose lead. You already know how I am training Indi’s lead walking but I thought I’d put a post out there on the basics for dogs who arent quite as bad as Indi . These are just my ideas remember, it is entirely your choice as to whether or not you use them .

Okay the first thing to do is look at how you walk your dog. Are they on a collar, a corrective collar (eg choke chain) or a harness? Are they on a retractable lead? In general are they a stressful dog? Do they sometimes react to there surroundings? All of this is of huge importance.

If your dog is walked on a collar and pulls I would take the lead of the collar straight away and put them on a harness. Pulling against a collar is hugely painful for the dog, and the more they pull the more they will want to get away so its a very counterproductive exercise. Same with jerking the lead, it just makes them want to get away even more. So the first thing I would do is put the dog on a harness. If the dog is large and pulls quite a lot then I would use a double ended lead and clip one end to the front of the harness and the other to the back. This just gives more control and also helps the dog to feel more balanced. You can use this method with small dogs too. If you want to see the best harnesses on the market (in my opinion) check out xtradog.com. These are brilliant, and I actually use one of there harnesses for Kez. If you want a slightly cheaper option then check out dog-games.co.uk however the only downside to them ones is they dont have a front clip. However, you can just clip it by attaching it to the material, but having the metal clip is safer and more effective. Also do not use retractable leads under ANY circumstances as they are constantly tight so there is constant tension, and this doesnt help teaching the dog to walk on a loose lead at all. The photo taken of Kez walked on a retractable lead was taken when she lived with my nan and as you can see she is pulling ahead, on a collar and there is no loose lead there at all. Now she walks on a harness and normal lead and is much better .

I would then start off doing some basic exercises in the garden. If you have a number of dogs do this with one dog at a time. Put your dog on the lead, and stand in the garden. Reward any focus the dogs give you with a ‘yes’ or a clicker and treat. Some dogs may be over-excited just standing on a lead so I would just stand still and reward any calm behaviours and focus. It could take a while but once they’ve done it once every next time will be easier. A calm dog is much easier to train than an over-excited dog who can’t think.

Once you have a calm dog try walking. Make sure you do this at first in a place with little to no distractions, set your dog up to succeed. If your dog pulls stand still and as soon as the lead goes loose start walking in the opposite direction and reward when your dog is by your side. Keep everything positive and calm. If your dog does start getting over-excited again just end the session and try again later. Don’t do sessions for too long, once your dog is calm walk around the garden following the above exercise for maybe 5 minutes, then end the session. If the sessions are too long the dog may lose the fun of the game.

Once your dog is happily walking around the garden, relaxed, calm and able to focus if you ask you can then move to outside. I would first start in a place with low distractions and then gradually increase. For example maybe go to a quiet field and train there. If you have a car all the better as you can leave the door open with maybe a gate across and wait for your dog to calm down and only then can they come out. If they get over-excited, back in the car. This is a similar technique to what I used with Indi, only I used my porch instead. It does take some patience, but as I said before, it is extremely difficult to teach an over-excited dog to think. Instead they need to be calm and only then can you progress.

When your dog can walk for a bit with a completely loose lead you can then start adding distractions. If they get over-excited by it all and start pulling you about again just either put them back in the car or get away from the distraction in anyway possible and go back a step. Add distractions very slowly such as a person walking by, then to them having a calm dog, then to barking dogs etc. Make sure your dog feels comfortable at every step and never push them above what they can do. Don’t expect too much either, if you have one fantastic walk and then the next day add distractions the chances are they will go backwards. You need consistency.

If you have a household with more than one dog you must train this one at a time. Just being with eachother can cause them to get over-excited, for example I can’t walk Indi and Ernie together at the moment because I know if Ernie joins Indi on a walk he will go backwards in his training. Once you can walk for a good distance with one dog without any problems add another. But, do this slowly. First let the dog come in the garden, maybe with someone else holding them and reward both dogs for showing calm behaviour. If either dog gets over-excited take one of them indoors and go back a step to working on there again. This step could be the hardest as once dogs are walking together they usually follow eachother so it makes it hard trying to watch more than one dog at once and in the end you just give up. So take it slow .

Keep building this up until you can go outside, following the same technique constantly and never letting the dog get over-excited by it all. If your walking multiple dogs and it all falls apart just end the session and walk home. Never keep going with something that isnt working, it will just mean going backwards. And have fun! Enjoy bonding with your dog, this is a valuable skill so enjoy teaching it because once you’ve taught it once… your’ll have the skill to teach every next dog!

Of course, like with all dog training there are a number of methods so this one may not even work for you. This is the method I would try first, but if it doesn’t work there are others. One of the most common ones is the ‘be a tree’ method. Stop and stand still when the dogs pulling, wait for them to turn and then walk backwards until there with you again, once there with you reward and start forward again. You have to do this method right though as dogs can get smart and just creep forward slowly, which means constant stopping and starting during the walk. If they start doing that, as soon as they turn to you run backwards making you the funnest place to be. Walk along a few steps asking for tricks before walking again. You can do this even if they dont do the creeping as it just reinforces it!

Another method could be targetting, using a target stick teach the dog to touch the end. Do it lots at home first, and then bring it outside and teach the dog where it needs to be by getting them to target the stick. Eventually fade the target (very slowly) and there you go.

And another method could also be using movement as a reward. This is one I do with Indi when we walk to the fields and it does work. Make sure you walk to somewhere where the end is of huge reinforcement such as a park or even just a grassy area to sniff/do there business. You could even use this method by placing treats on the floor, walking to the trats and rewarding by sending the dog to eat them. It works by only walking forward when your dog is by your side, calm and relaxed. I ask for focus with Indi, but if you have a dog that is calm and relaxed already you don’t need to. Walk forwards when your dog is where you want, as soon as they start going ahead start walking backwards. As soon as your dog clicks and walks to you start going forward again. The idea is they can only get to the reinforcement when there by your side. Seeing as the only reason most dogs pull is because they want to get to the field/park or wherever there going this method is great! And you can use it along with other methods, use the other methods when your just lead walking and use this method when your on your way for an off-lead walk or even just from the car to the field.

There are other methods to so if these dont work for you, then let me know and I can give you links to other trainers methods. Turid Rugaas does a brilliant book on loose lead walking as one example.

The absolute basic rule to remember that is what almost all lead walking methods rely on is that from the moment you start training the dog is not allowed to walk on a tight lead. Even if you feel lazy one day dont walk your dog as if your dog knows they can get away with it once they will get confused and then it will make your job harder. Consistency is key, and also make sure you are being clear to your dog, dont confuse them. I did this with Indi, I wasnt consistent enough at all and as a result most of our walks were just stop-start-stop-start and let me tell you, it is frustrating! Being lazy that one day just isnt worth it.

I hope this helps. Remember, it is completely your choice if you use these methods or not and I cannot be held responsible for any unforeseen outcomes. It is all just about having fun with your dog! Don’t rush and enjoy every second, even if it takes weeks, the best outcomes usually take the longest time .

Dog training Q&A

Ages ago after I gave @KirstyFromTheUK via twitter some advice on dog training she suggested I do a Q&A thing on my blog for anyone with dog training issues. I wasn’t sure whether to do it or not as there are many much better trainers who give free advice via twitter, but I decided I might as well give it a go and see what happens. If I get no response, well I tried. If I get some response, then I’d be happy to give advice to anyone!

This is purely for fun. I cannot be made responsible for any unforeseen outcome. This is only what I would suggest, it is entirely your choice as to whether or not you take the suggestions or not.

I don’t want aggression issues or any issues that need a full face-to-face assessment. Examples of what im looking for would be obedience/agility training issues (or even flyball), playing issues and even tricks you want to know how to teach. All my methods are completely positive and fun, so if you want methods that involve dominance-based correction techniques well you probably wouldnt be reading this blog if you do!

So get asking. Remember I am only giving suggestions as to what I would do and it is entirely your choice as to whether you go ahead and use it or not. It is just fun!

Kez’s 1st indoor agility show!

Today we had an agility show. It was Kez’s first time competing indoors at agility, her first time competing on sand and she did absolutely amazing. This was actually the place I did my first ever agility show with Indi less than a year ago! It’s a lovely venue right on the beach so tonnes of walking space too. Oh and Ernie came along too .

1st we had an agility run. It was a simple course which was good for our first run of the day! She missed her A-frame contact, skipped a weave and although the see-saw wasn’t marked it looked a bit dodgy to me so I did it again. Didn’t want another repeat of Paws in the park where she was flying off the end on almost every run! And Im very glad I made that decision as she got her see-saw absolutely perfect on the 2nd agility run!

Our 2nd agility run was hugely better, but clearly still not our time for our first ever agility clear round. She missed her A-frame contact again and after the tunnel ran past the weaves. I think I gave the command way too late and should have said it louder. Oh and stayed closer to her too. Lesson learnt though! Other than that she did great! Perfect dog walk, first time she’s done a perfect contact on dog walk in competition, and a perfect see-saw! Oh and after she ran past the weaves we went back and she did them perfect with a hard entry! Best weaves she’s ever done in competition, they were fast, focused and she didn’t miss any! Good girlie!

Next was jumping. This is when things got interesting. It wasnt the easiest course, but not too hard either. Well my little Kezzy didn’t put a foot wrong and got her 2nd clear round ever! She won best medium dog (and there were some good medium dogs) and came 5th out of all the dogs in large, medium and small! How amazing is that! Our first time being placed at an agility show, I’m so proud of my girlie!

Last we had helter skelter. This was a horrible course with lots of hard turns. We were on track for a clear round… until Kez knocked the only bar she has ever knocked in competition. I was a little confused by it and sort of lost my handling a bit. When I looked back at the video I actually glanced away from Kez, lol! As a result she didn’t jump the jump. Never mind, the rest of the course was brilliant.

All in all, it was a brilliant day! We had some lovely long walks along the beach and exploring the grassy areas too. Kez was so relaxed and comfortable the whole day. She only reacted at one dog (which is incredible for her) and this dog is actually one of the dogs from our agility class that by the end of the day she was licking his face and wiggling her bum! She was greeting dogs that before she would have run a mile from. She’s usually fine with collies at shows, but any non-collies and she’s extremely wary and will react if they come in her face. Today she was greeting everyone! It was incredible, everything from the terriers, to the Kelpie to the Bullmastiff! At training last week she greeted a Husky nose-to-nose and that too just blew my mind. Where did my dog that used to react to almost every dog or run in the opposite direction go?! The only negative we did have was she was very chasy when walking on a group dog walk with Ernie and 5 other dogs. Come to think of it, about the same amount as she used to live with when living with my nan. But it shows we still have some work to do on getting her to be more focused on me on walks with lots of dogs.

She was very relaxed and confident when actually running the agility too. She wasn’t over-excited like at Paws in the park where she almost started doing zoomies around the ring! Her speed was perfect too, it fitted me perfectly and we run really smoothly together. Okay so we have minor things to work on like contacts and driving forward into weaves from tunnel, but it does seem with every show we go to the number of faults are decreasing everytime! Our next show is in February, Ernie’s entered too in the jumping classes. I’m looking forward to it already .

And as you can see we also got 3/4 of the runs filmed! My trainer offered to film them with her camera, so she filmed the first one then I got mine out and realised I might as well just get them on mine! Its great watching back and noticing things you didn’t before, like how in the helter skelter Im repeating ‘go go go’ a bit too much, needed to be a couple of long ‘goooooo’s’ to get the best effect . Oh and some photo’s too. It was absolutely beautiful there, and the dogs loved it!

Training the roll over trick

Roll over is one of the most commonly known tricks and its actually very easy to teach. It is sure to get a smile anywhere you go and, like all tricks, is great fun to teach. So, as someone requested I do a tutorial on it here is how you teach it .

There are a few ways you can teach it. Depending on the dog, some dogs will find it very easy and others may find it a little harder. But, with a little time and patience all dogs can learn it!

With a puppy it is extremely easy to teach. Some puppies you can lure straight away and they will go right over. Others may do it in play and you can capture it by clicking and treating when they do it, and then when they start to offer it you can add a command. But, you can also train it the other ways too, it really does depend on the dog.

Like all tricks, you can either lure it or shape it. I suppose you could use targetting too, but personally I don’t see any need. With shaping you can put them in a down and then click for them shifting there weight to lie on there side. You can then build this up to lying on there back and then eventually all the way over. It is quite a tough one to shape as it is a sequence rather than a specific trick, but not impossible. Some dogs may offer a roll over straight away when clicking for shifting weight, like Kez did! But some may take a little longer. It takes a lot more time with this method so if your a beginner here’s the luring method.

First of all your dog should be clicker trained. If you don’t know how to do this then read my ‘tricks’ blog post as its in there. You don’t need a clicker, alternatively you can use a marker word such as ‘yes’. For this though I shall be saying click and treat, if your using a marker word this basically means say your marker word and treat.  So lets get started!

1. Your dog should know a down command. If your dog doesn’t, this is the first command to teach! There are a number of
ways to teach a down, luring is the easiest one though. Just lure your dog into a down and then build up. If your dog is finding it hard to go into a down then sit on the floor with your legs in front and then lift your knees and lure your dog under. This will force them into a down position, then gradually fade the legs and you have a down.

2. Lure your dog onto there side from the down position and then click and treat. If you put the treat on the dogs nose and lure them to the floor most dogs get this pretty quickly. However if your are having trouble, first lure your dog to lean on one side instead of doing a straight down and then lure them onto there side from there. Build it up until they are consistently going onto there side either with just a hande signal or a command. This is a useful trick in itself so I actually have this on command by itself as ‘flat’. Its a great trick to use when brushing or examining them. But, you can just use a hand signal.

3. Once they are going onto there side consistently with either a hand signal or a command you can start to lure them onto there backs. Some dogs may panic at this as its a very vulnerable position, so take this part very slow. Click and treat in the beginning for even the slightest move onto there back and build it up. If your dog panics just go back a step and click for the smallest movement. Some dogs however may take to this really quickly and roll all the way over straight away! Just don’t expect too much, go at there pace and make sure they feel comfortable at every step.

4. Once your dog has gone onto there back and does so happily and confidently you can add a hand signal or a command. The hand signal could be a flick of the wrist (which is mine) in the direction they are rolling over or anything else. You could also add a command. This position is actually my play dead trick and as soon as I say ‘bang!’ Ernie goes into this position, so you could add a command and make this another trick in itself! But you don’t have to, as long as your dog is on lying on there back consistently to a command/hand signal and is confident and comfortable then your ready to move on.

5. This part is the easiest! Just lure your dog the rest of the way over! Huge reward at the end.

6. Once you have all 3 parts ask for all 3 in sequence. ‘Down’, ‘flat’, ‘bang!’ and all the way over! Once they are doing it in sequence and building speed add a overall command. And don’t stop there, then ask for them to do it from sit and then from stand! Don’t forget to give them a little help if they get confused doing it from a different start position, dogs dont generalise well so they may need a little reminder as to what they’re being asked to do.

7. Enjoy! Don’t rush it, it could take a few days to teach or a couple of weeks depending on the dog. Just enjoy sharing the time together. Don’t get frustrated if your dog gets it wrong, it just means they need a bit of extra help or your not being clear enough. Just have fun with your dog .

A lovely Spring day… oh wait its January!

Today was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was out, temperatures were high enough to be Spring and it was just absolutely great. I’ve had a few rough days so I decided I needed and deserved a lovely long walk with my dogs. Obviously, I couldn’t take Indi as it was too far for him with his lead walking training and we still have so much work to do, but he did get to go for his first off-lead walk where I let him go off on his own. So it was a good day all round!

So, after doing a short lead training walk with Indi I then took Kez and Ernie for a huge long walk which ended up lasting 3.5 hours! But, instead of talking about it I shall show you through pictures…

We did take a lot more picutres, but these are my favourites .

Enjoy!

See those fence posts in the background? To my dogs, they are weave poles!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Head for the light at the end of the tunnel…

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if theres no light have the confidence to go anyway…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Run like theres no tomorrow…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then run somemore…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the beauty of simple things…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Treasure every moment…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jump in wherever you can…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For life is too short…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…So enjoy every second!

Indi lead walking training update

Okay so Indi’s now been on his lead walking training for 3 months. Its sure been a heck of a 3 months and I have learnt so much. Its not over yet, but we are now really pushing forward and getting good progress.

The first thing to say is that Indi is able to go off-lead again and it hasn’t affected his lead walking one bit like it did before. Before, he’d been getting distracted hugely more after an off-lead walk as he’d been more on the alert for birds and things. So I stopped his off-lead walks and focused on getting his lead walking perfect before even attempting another off-lead walk. We did tonnes of trying to figure out the best way to stop him getting so distracted and teaching him to focus on me. There was lots of trial and error, good and bad days but we finally found a method that worked. We called it the ‘lets go’ game. The first sessions we literally went to the end of the road and back just going back and forth saying ‘lets go’ on every turn and rewarding for keeping focus. During it I did lots of tricks and changing pace so he was never bored. Once at the end of the road I told him ‘go sniff’ and let him do his business before doing the ‘lets go’ game on the way home. Once he was solid on that I increased distance. The next few sessions we crossed the road to a little car parking place that had cars we could hide behind if a dog came but also a bit of open space next to the pavement we could just train and be away from people. So we did the ‘lets go’ game here. This was a bit harder, being near the station there was always someone who walked by and on the opposite road there is a whole row of bushes that have lots of birds in, very distracting! But we trained through and he got it .

So then we started walking, still keeping focus but not constantly changing direction and sending him to sniff more frequently. The rules were that he was to keep focus while walking, no going off to sniff without my saying, no getting distracted, just keep walking watching mum. As soon as I said ‘go sniff’ he can go sniff, but only then. Transferring from the ‘lets go’ game to this was actually surprisingly easy. We had some good walks and some bad, but the good walks were extremely good. It was amazing to walk along with him happily focused on me and not worrying if theres a dog across the road or if that bird needs chasing (that’s my job!) And this is the stage were at now. He’s still not perfect, we need to start going to different places which we did start, but then had a bad walk and decided to leave it for a bit before going back. Im being very careful to not push it too much so still keeping walks short as I dont want to go for too long and then ruin a fab walk. But, were definantly getting there. He’s still getting easily distracted by people and in general, but that really is the only problem now. We are still avoiding dogs at all costs, but as he gets more relaxed walking by people this will help hugely in getting him more relaxed around other dogs.

Christmas Eve then came, and I had a red bull energy drink just before thinking about walking dogs. I had tonnes of energy (I dont usually drink energy drinks) and seeing as it was Christmas Eve I decided to just go for it and take Indi for a run up the field. Getting there wasn’t that easy as he knew we were going to the field and got a bit over-excited. But, he generally was focused and happy, there was no sign of his tail going down or him getting overly stressed the opposite end of excitement. I didn’t let him go off on his own as I want to set him up to succeed as much as possible, so I just played games with the ball and did tricks. He was off-lead in a field and didn’t get distracted or try to go off on his own once. I did some of the ‘lets go’ game with him off-lead too, and he was just as relaxed which is brilliant as the whole idea is for him to feel the same whether he be on the lead or off lead. I didn’t let him just go racing after the ball either. I told him to wait and threw the ball, then stepped away. I then called him, and sometimes did tricks before then sending him to the ball. He only broke off and ran to the ball by himself once, which is pretty impressive! Walking home wasn’t as good, he got a bit stressed walking by the farm that the evil rotties live and then he looked as if he was limping so I got worried and just walked home, and again tail went down. No idea if he was limping as he was fine when we got home, but it was a HUGE improvement from the last time.

I then did a lead walking training session that evening and he was fantastic. No problems whatsoever! So then I took him for another off-lead walk the next day (Christmas day!) He was improved from the day before, better focus on the way to the field with less excitement and more relaxed on the way home. And still fantastic off-lead. So, were getting there!

However, then we did have a few problems. He wasn’t focusing on me as much on lead walking and whining more. Where I’d been so excited to get him to the field I hadn’t been working on focus and calmness as well as I should have, so we had to go back and sort that out. Since then we havent done another off-lead walk as the last one we went on a dog appeared and he reacted hugely with lots of barking and lunging. This is when being able to drive would be a huge advantage!

His lead walking now is extremely good. He can now walk along just watching me entirely without getting distracted. His tail’s up, hes happy, hes relaxed and he’s not pulling. We’ve also added another game into the mix, if he does go ahead I suddenly say ‘reverse’ and get him backing up so he’s with me again. I wont start any formal loose lead walking, I might not even need too, but we have so much work to do still. Generally, im not doing much training on his lead walking anymore. Im still doing very short walks as Im scared to go too far and ruin a good walk.

We do have a few new challenges though, naturally! Our next major aim is to get him walking focused on me past people. His biggest distraction is people and other dogs. I wont start training around other dogs yet, but as we see people on every single walk its something we’ve got to start working on. I think I am going to have to go right back to basics and start jackpotting everytime a person walks by and then build up from there. Today we had a big setback on our walk, as soon as we walked out the house a family was getting out there car and Indi barked at them. Then, a woman appeared later on in the walk and he was very reluctant to turn away. The woman then started talking to us when we stopped so I could let the woman pass, and Indi reacted hugely barking and lunging. I was very tired and stressed too, so that all added up meant a very frustrating walk. He rarely does react to people quite that violently, but we have got to avoid a situation like that happening again so back to basics. And, once we have that challenge sorted we then have the biggest one of all, his reactivity around other dogs. Phew, I’ve got my work cut out.

On top of that, he has recently started doing something else a bit strange. He now gets very stressed when going home. When we were in our earlier stages of training doing the ‘lets go’ game outside the house the dogs indoors (mainly Kez) would bark at us. Its funny, its the only time Kez barks at someone out the front. Well, this stressed Indi out and since then he’s been walking very slowly, lacking focus, tail low and even sometimes not eating treats on the way home. It has improved slowly, but not really anything to jump for joy about. So definantly got to fix that one too.

We’ve definantly come a long way from that dog who couldn’t focus at all on a lead, would drag me everywhere and had his tail tucked as low as it could go the whole time. But, as you can see, we still have a way to go. On the plus side, we can now do more off-lead runs as long as we time it just right. It is frustrating, and extremely difficult. But, were getting there. I have accomplished my whole aim for this whole thing which was to have a dog walk happily along on a lead. We still need to build up to longer walks, walking in different places and eventually to not watching me the whole time but with every new challenge we overcome the more he trusts me. Our next challenge is for him to focus on me walking by other people. Never short of new challenges!

Trust your instincts…

I’ve just come back from our first obedience training class of the year. Kez did amazing and she was hugely improved compared to the last time she was there about a month ago. Her heelwork was much tighter and her about turns were the best they’ve ever been. Her recall was perfect, her stays solid and she was extremely confident with all the other dogs. My trainer however wasn’t happy. Bit strange right? She was perfect! Well in her retrieve and when calling her with a toy she was a bit slow and unenthusiastic. My trainer said that it looks as if I’ve been overtraining. I didn’t agree, but just smiled and nodded. I didn’t know the cause of the lack of motivation on those 2 things, but I knew it wasn’t that. Not when everything else was so good!

Anyway, it was getting to the end of the training session and she wasn’t really that enthusiastic about playing with her toy. The toy I was using was a hard ball on a rope, I don’t usually use them but because this was pink and purple (yes I’m a real girlie girl!) I wanted to use it for Kezzy. However, the ball kept bouncing off her head where she was tugging the rope, and everytime it did she flinched. My nan had a nice soft (purple!) plastic holey ball on a rope. So we tried that… well she ran down that hall after it! Nope, not the ‘overtraining theory’ at all! It was the toy I was using.

I’m not saying I have never overtrained a dog, I have. But, I know when the problem is overtraining and when its not. Also, the fact we’ve been doing less training recently backed up the whole thing! But I knew that something wasn’t right. Other people would not have even looked at there dog, they would have just listened to what the trainer said and done it. I see it all the time. For example, I once saw a trainer tell there student to do ‘silly heelwork’ which is basically grabbing the dogs collar, pulling there head up and forcing them forward then pushing them out of heelwork, running away and then playing with the toy. I personally, yes have tried the method, and absolutely do not like it. This person also didn’t like it, she was very wary, but did it anyway. Well the dog didn’t enjoy it one bit.

It is now natural to me to question every single training method I see used wherever and by whoever. If I like it, I use it. If I don’t, I don’t use it. But even when my trainer says ‘trust me’ I don’t! Even though some of her methods have been hugely helpful to us, some also haven’t. Same with all trainers no matter how good or bad. I question everything before I use it on my dogs. And actually, most of the methods I use are my own or adapted from others. Kez’s heelwork was trained completely differently to most obedience dogs, in fact I havent met one in the UK as of yet trained with the method I used! Indi’s lead walking skills, my own methods. My dogs sendaways, my own method. And the more I learn about dogs, the more methods I am inventing/adapting.

It never used to be this way. In fact, its only very recently, maybe the last few months that I’ve been having the confidence to do things my own way and trusting my own methods. When in flyball I trusted (stupidly) everything they told me. Flooding was there method of choice, they said it’ll work with Indi and so thats what I did. Even when training the actual sport of flyball some of the things they did were (and still are) ridiculous. Forcing an uncomfortable dog on a box for example. Or when with Kez and Indi in the early stages of training they’d randomly put a jump in front of the box to get them to jump. Of course they wouldn’t do it, they weren’t confident enough. Its okay for focused collies to do that, but not my timid Kez and Indi. Or how about when everyone was telling me Indi would be fine on tunnels and my instincts were telling me he wouldn’t. I agreed with everyone else, and paid for it by Indi being completely freaked by agility in general as a result of developing his tunnel phobia. Or when everyone was telling me he was noise sensitive at our first time competing in open flyball when actually it was lack of training, Indi’s not a noise sensitive dog! Or Ernie, when he was scared of dogs as a puppy and would attack I would pick him up and then get shouted at by flyball people. Apparently that makes him feel bigger and more the boss. He was only a puppy, and this was a huge Leonberger, a rude one at that. Even my trainers method for scent discrimination I don’t use. It involves food, and Kez can sniff food out fine already!

So from all that its now just natural for me to question everything. I know my dogs. I can usually tell why something is happening straight away, and if I can’t well I find out pretty damn quick so I can fix it. And I always trust my instincts and my methods because so far they haven’t let me down once. The only time I have failed in my dog training is when I have listened to someone else and not questioned it when my gut instincts were telling me this was wrong. So, lesson to take away. Believe in yourself and trust yourself, no one knows your dog better than you!