November update

Lots of lessons learnt this month. Not such a good month for Kez and Ernie, but a huge learning curve with Indi. First month in ages we havent been competing, but we have got Crufts to prepare for!

I’ll start with Kez and Ernie. Kez has been very reactive recently, barking a lot when she sees other dogs. It seems there has been an increase in the amount of dogs with no recall and there have been so many dogs come running over to us. So can’t really blame her. BUT Ernie has also played a part. He thinks its great fun when he sees another dog to go running over and try and play. Where im focusing on getting Kez to stop her being chased and to distract her, I sort of forget about Ernie and he’s off being annoying. This winds Kez up even more, causing more barking. Ernie can sometimes be a bit growly too, hes only playing but to others it can sound a bit aggressive. So, from now on everytime we see another dog hes on the long line. And what im going to start doing is diverging right away (when I can) and just playing with the dogs or treating while the dog passes. Obviously theres not a lot we can do if a dog decides to come over, but my plan is to diverge as far away as possible to avoid this happening. I do tend to take more risks with Kez than Indi because Kez is less reactive, but time to be more on edge. And stop the annoying little white dog being well an annoying little white dog!

With Indi its been a very interesting month. Obviously we changed our method to make it more fun and play games instead of focusing on getting his focus back after he gets distracted. At first we played quite upbeat games with a ball, but he was getting very over-excited by it. We also saw a few dogs that appeared out of nowhere, he reacted so I decided to calm things down a bit to get his stress levels down. It then occured to me that making him get excited for his ball was going to make his reactions worst, so I decided to just cut the ball altogether. I then decided to shorten the walks to just going up to the end of our road and back again, working on pure focus and tricks the entire time, sending to go sniff and do his business on a patch of grass and then tricks and focus on the way home again. This is currently our method, and I have to say is working the best out of all the methods Ive tried.

We’ve been doing lots of ‘lets go’ work just outside our house doing lots of about turns and saying ‘lets go’ and then rewarding when he follows. This has been very good too, and generally hes been responding a lot better to ‘lets go’ when hes distracted. Ive also been sticking to working outside my house and venturing not too far, other than to the end of the road and back. That way, if I see another dog across the road I quickly stick him in the porch, close the door and wait for the dog to pass. A couple of times we’ve done this I’ve let him look at the dog and then quickly said ‘lets go’ and put him in the porch. He hasnt reacted and hasn’t resisted either. The porch is a safe place for him.

We’ve also been waiting a while before actually leaving the front part of our house. We have an entryway to our house with walls on either side, meaning if I sit him in the entryway and I stand in front its blocking him from anything behind me. I get him doing this before we go anywhere and just reward lots of focus. Also, if theres a person walking by I put him like this and then reward him for watching me as they walk behind me. He does still try and look, but he does focus on me a lot better when were like this than when were just walking. Then when we do start walking, for now, I make sure he’s entirely focused on me for the short distance and do random tricks all the way long. If he chooses to sniff over playing with me, then I let him but then I do my hardest to make me more interesting. Generally, he chooses to sniff over me about once a walk, but this is a huge improvement from the dog who used to get distracted by everything and drag me everywhere.

Tonight we did just walk with no commands from the end of the road to a poo bin about 40 metres away and his tail was up, he was sniffing and pulling but happy to go in my direction when I said ‘lets go’. Absolutely huge improvement. Even though its only short distance im not pushing it and am getting him 100% solid on the short distances before we start properly walking. I think thats where we went wrong before. At home im doing lots of short training sessions too. Sometimes were doing a bit of work on a skateboard for confidence building, or on an exercise ball for more confidence building or just some tricks. At the moment this is working well so we will stick to this for a bit, and then slowly introduce longer distances.

So thats the behaviour side. Obedience-wise with Kez its interesting. Were working on a foot target with Kez for heelwork, but this is slow progress as Ive never taught it before so am learning as she is. At obedience class on Thursday her heelwork wasn’t very good at all and she came right off my leg in one of the about turns. So seriously got some work to do there. Ive gone back to the circling on a bowl for turns for a bit, and also moving my foot in a right turn for the foot target training too. Ive also noticed that she lacks a bit of motivation for heelwork when doing it in class, so ive also been working on doing more toy playing in training. Her stays are getting very good though, she’s up to a full 2 minute sit stay and to around 4 minutes in the down stay outdoors. We’ve done longer indoors but outdoors is the important one! I’ve also been doing very long distance ones and going out of sight. Brilliant . Her waits are fab too and her retrieve is almost perfect. Just need to get her heelwork sorted now . We’ll get there!

Were very busy at the moment, even though were not competing were doing lots of training and playing. Its not easy having 3 such different dogs with all different problems, but they’re teaching me so much and its so rewarding when we do get the progress. I am loving the beautiful Autumn walks too, and as December draws nearer Im hoping for some snow too .

October update

Well we sure have had an interesting month what with Indi’s new training and Kez’s win. Its been a good month with lots of lessons learnt and lots of success too. Autumn has also officially arrived, which makes me very happy as I very much prefer Autumn and Winter to Summer. I love the Autumn colours and the cooler walks. Snow is amazing too, if we are lucky enough to have another year of it. We are the most unlikely place in the UK to get snow being right on the coast in the South East so it sure is extra special when we get deep snow here .

First I’ll start with Indi. He’s been training leadwork for 3 weeks now. Overall there is clear improvement. He can now walk along with his tail up just sniffing. Before, he would be constantly on the look out with his tail tucked very low and rarely did it come up while he was on the lead. He’s still pulling me about, but thats definantly decreased too. He does still have moments when hes walking with his tail low like after something stresses him out such as a dog barking or when I have to suddenly walk fast to dodge a dog. Hes also still doing quite a bit of stopping and looking, I just have to keep him moving and sometimes that does mean walking in circles with me dragging him behind. But the fact he can now do some walking with his tail up is more than before.

When we were at the show on Saturday, my mum took Indi for an off-lead walk, his first real one since starting this. It didnt actually really affect our training, he didnt go back or forwards from it and was still at the same level I left him at. Which is interesting. So, today I decided to take him for a real run this afternoon in the fields. It was only maybe 40 minutes long, but he certainly enjoyed it! His recall wasnt actually too bad either, he had a couple of slow recalls but other than that is was very good. He did run his heart out chasing birds and just being a Spaniel, even moreso than usual where hes missed it. On the way back on the lead there was very clear improvement. His tail did go down, but nowhere near as tucked as it was and he wasnt darting his head about anywhere near as much. Which showed that all our training is working.

So for a couple of days I think im going to give him a run on our first walk and then lead train the 2nd one. If it makes him worst, then we’ll go back but if it either makes it easier for him to focus on the 2nd walk or doesnt have any affect at all then were stick with it. His lead training hasnt had any miraculous improvement since my last blog post on it so we might as well give it a shot. Im still learning, so it still is trial and error for what works best for him. The best method when lead walking is clearly when he stops, get his focus, reward and then send back off to sniff. But now we have that and have made progress, all we really need to do now is increase lead walking distance and go to new places. I tried a new road the other day and it was clear he wasn’t comfortable, so that is something we have to get working on. But, now we do have that its time to add off-lead I think and see what affect it has. As I said, if it makes him worst then we will go back but it might make it easier as he will have already had a good run in the fields so will focus better. He walked well to the field today, and was clearly very happy to be back there! But not over-excited and we started the walk just by doing a couple of waits and recalls before I sent him off to run. So we’ll just have to see what happens .

Next up is Ernie. This month I realised that actually his recall is practically non-existent! Even when calling his name when he was sniffing near me he completely ignored. So, we’ve done some serious work on his recall which is continuous. Hes already made some improvement, which is great! But, today Kez found a lovely dead decaying animal and she picked it up. Quick little note about her, usually she will run off with it and eat it but today she dropped it for a game of tug with me instead! How good is that! Ernie however, was not so good. He took over, and decided he didnt need a recall and just ate it all up as I walked away. I got so far away, all I saw was a little white dot in the distance! When he realised I was so far away he did come bombing back, would have been nice if he’d been as good as Kez though . Still got some work to do on his recall clearly!

And finally my rather incredible little Kez. Well, shes had a very up and down month. Generally, its been very good. She has been acting a bit strange though in training. In agility she was doing fantastic weave entries, even really hard ones. Suddenly, a week later she was going out of her way to get the wrong weave entry! What a silly girl. Then she decided to forget how to do a down stay. We were training in the field and all of a sudden she started breaking all over the place. She was holding the sit, but kept either sniffing or getting up and nibbling grass in the down. No idea what happened there. Then in training class she decided to break the sit stay and hold down stay instead. And then at the show on Saturday she held both! What a funny little girl she is.

We did have a few issues at the beginning of the month and she did some circling after chasing Ernie. Whether or not that affected it I dont know, but highly likely. She very rarely chases now, but this day she did and I got all stressed, she sensed and off she went. So that was not helpful. But it seems shes back to normal now so its all good. She is being quite reactive towards other dogs though at the moment. Up the fields where we walk there is a woman who walks regularly up there with a Leonberger and 2 collies. The Leonberger has absolutely no recall whatsoever and always comes running over. Leonbergers are huge dogs, so they are very unwelcome. Even Ernie absolutely hates it. Well, the other day the woman was out walking with someone else and between them they had 2 Leonbergers. We turned a corner, and there they were well ahead of us. I had just enough time to grab Kez before they got to us, poor Kez was very barky and snappy but they still didnt leave! So since then she’s been quite reactive so we need to some work on that. But she still managed to hold a stay in a ring with 26 other dogs so didnt affect her that much .

All in all, a very good month. My main focus next month is to get her pulling on that dumbell. At the moment I’m holding the dumbell and clicking and treating for her getting a good hold and really pulling on it. She’s already getting stronger, so hopefully by the end of Winter it’ll be great! Im also working on targetting her shoulder to my leg for heelwork, but this is going to take a bit longer as im still working out how to train it best. Its much harder because Kez’s basic heelwork was taught with no targetting, if I do hand targetting and then bring her in she automatically stops touching and goes into heel position. If that makes sense, im sure obedience handlers will understand. Anyway, this means teaching her to target her shoulder to my leg is a lot harder. So if anyone has any thoughts on this it would be great. At the moment were doing very slow pace and just clicking and treating constantly when shes got her shoulder on my leg. Its very tiring for her though, and hard for her to know what shes actually getting clicked for because there is so much going on in heelwork. Its a tough one.

Well we have a month off next month with no shows, our first one since June. I say I don’t compete a lot, but I still seem to have managed at least one a month so its not all bad. Our focus now is to work on winter training and get everything perfect for the next season. Oh and enjoying the gorgeous Autumn weather too .

September update

Septembers been a good month. Lots of lessons learnt, lots of improvements and of course paws in the park was a huge success and tonnes of fun . I wont talk about paws in the park though, you’ve heard that story .

First I’ll start with Indi as he has made some huge progress. For one thing, he is out of his ‘freeze-mode’ phase, thank goodness! We spent about 2 weeks walking where its very quiet and not many other people walk, so he saw very few other dogs, if any at all. He was also getting more exercise than he was because he could just run and run. Before we were doing a lot of training on his ‘freeze-mode’ which meant he wasnt doing as much running which may have made the ‘freeze-mode’ even worst. But hes out of it now and thats the main thing, and has been a lot better generally around other dogs since. Obviously, there was the incident at paws in the park, but Im not going to dwell on that. He’s been hugely improved on walks, especially since coming back from paws. We’ve been able to do some BAT and some focus work. The other day we had a very good day. We saw a few dogs today on our walk as we went to the beach, on the way to the beach we saw quite a few especially. We did BAT and focus work with all but one of them. He was so good and handled it all brilliantly. He did get a bit stressed by a Chow Chow that was a bit closer than would have liked just before we got to the beach. I threw some treats out when he was watching it, but he wasnt that interested. He had a bit of a whine too and was clearly uncomfortable so I just got him away and went onto the beach. I cant expect him to be perfect everytime at this stage in our training, we still have a long way to go. He has had a few rough days since, but seeing as its been so hot and everything was just against us im not going to dwell. We’ll keep going, we’ve come through the ‘freeze-mode’ which was a real challenge and something completely new to me, so im happy .

Kez has been interesting this month. At the beginning she started doing her whole ‘circling’ thing again. We had a couple of really bad incidents that really got me panicked that she was back to that again. But, im glad to say she hasnt done it since. Looking back, there were a few things that may have led to it. One of the times she did it at her worst, it was when we were looking for a ball and I was getting stressed as I was sick of losing balls! She sensed and started circling. I was also getting a bit stressy with her as she was rolling in every disgusting thing she could find, covering her lovely xtradog harness in it. I just have to grin and bear it now, id rather have a dirty harness than a dog scared of me.

Agility-wise, well she has been brilliant. She ran so well at paws in the park, even though she did have a few hiccups (flying off see-saw, missing last weave…) she was fast, focused and completely loving every second. That made me happy more than anything. And she got her first clear round, and first agility rosette. Both my first times too . Obedience-wise she’s been great too. Obviously at paws in the park she got a 2nd place, which was brilliant. Her heelwork has been a bit iffish since then, and ive realised her turns could do with some serious improvement. So thats our focus now, get her turns as tight and perfect as possible. Her finishes are tightening up a lot better, we still need to work on her halts though and getting them perfect everytime. After all the trouble with waits and stays, since Ditton show its like its suddenly clicked. Her stays are fantastic and I can even go out of sight now. We did a practice one in class, a long one and she broke to scratch and then stayed in sit, so I had to go back and put her back in down but other than that she is holding brilliantly. I think I can let her off though as the dog next to her (a Crufts YKC winner) also broke to scratch after her. I got to work this dog too the other night at training, and it really showed me how much work Kez’s turns need. His turns were absolutely perfect. Kez isnt far off! This dogs been training for 7 years… Kez has been training for 7 months lol!

And Ernie? Well we need to work on him not trying to run out the door everytime I go for a walk, whether im taking him or not! Even after he’s been for a 2.5 hour walk and is fast asleep, as soon as I go to take another dog out hes there. Got to admire his enthusiasm, but it can be rather annoying with this little white thing running around your feet.

All in all, a very good month. Now the nights are drawing im going jogging with Kez at least once a week. I have also decided that at least once a week I will take each of my dogs out on there own. At the moment im taking Kez out on her own on a Friday night for a jog and at the weekend walking Kez and Indi together (as Indi is just teaching her some very good manners on how to not chase and nip other dogs) and Ernie on his own. Although, Ernie doesnt really enjoy walks on his own as much as he used to anymore. He finds it rather boring having no one else around!

It is good though, Ive found quite a few things we need to work on. For one thing, Indi and Ernie need to be calmer when walking together. If hyped up too much Indi does start on Ernie and be a bit, well not very nice. So need to do some work with that. And, while out jogging with Kez, compared to last year she is a lot slower. She is very wary when gangs of people are about, and when I start wiggling about my arms after Ive ran through a cobweb. Not helpful, as she slows down while I try and speed up to get away faster! So need to do some work on that too as we will definantly be doing more jogging now.

Its all learning curves though, and im enjoying the journey. Exciting month next month. Kez and Ernie’s birthday on 5th October (yes, they were born on the same date), Ernie will be 5 and Kez 3. It goes so fast! Ernie was my first dog and its amazing to think he’ll be 5! Kez has come so far, and shes now no longer a puppy at all. Ill definantly be doing a special blog post so stay tuned .