‘Every dog owners nightmare’…

Today I had the worst walk with my dogs that I have ever had. It was a real ‘every dog owners nightmare’ situation and, to be honest, I should have seen it coming.

I took Kez and Ernie for a normal walk round the beach, starting at fields and then walking round along seafront. Started off a great walk, in fact there were no signs at all that anything bad was going to happen. While walking along the seafront Kez started munching on who knows what. I called her away… she ignored. I kept calling, frustration creeping in as she ignored me. Eventually she turned so I called her to me, but I was clearly frustrated with her. She avoided me and then went off entirely, starting her circling behaviour. I carried on walking, no point trying to get her back because I know her well enough now to know she wont come back unless I leave her be and let her do it in her own time.

Usually I can get her back eventually, but it has been getting progressively worse. A couple of weeks back she circled, I cant remember what the trigger was (I think it was also eating something), but she would not come near me. In the end I walked along an alley until Kez got close enough behind me I could at least do something. So I sat at the end of this alley, throwing treats gradually bringing them closer to me. This wasn’t working though, so then I asked for a down and surprisingly she went into down. This is the funny part. I then scooted along, a milicentimetre at a time on my bum getting closer to her. Eventually she realised I wasn’t angry with her and let me grab her. Lots of cuddles later, the rest of the walk had no problems whatsoever and it was like it never happened.

After that I kept her on the long line for a while, until I decided she was okay to be let off again. Yesterday we had a slight issue where we were training in a place she feels quite unsafe due to bad experiences there. I kept playfully grabbing her collar, something I do all the time and she usually is fine with it as long as I keep to a level shes comfortable with. She suddenly started showing signs she was uncomfortable; giving calming signals, avoiding my hand etc. And then, we did some heeling and she left focus so I walked away to get her back again and she started circling. I was able to quickly get her back by putting her in a quick instant down and then going to get her. But, I should have been more careful and noticed the signs earlier.

Today, she was having none of it. She would not come back at all. The closest I got was when I sat on the beach playing with Ernie and she came behind me. As soon as I put my hand out, not even to grab just to get her to sniff, she was off again. To make it worse my phone ran out of battery and so I couldnt even contact my parents telling them why I wasn’t home yet. Eventually, frustration got the better of me and I tried cornering her, driving her where she’d turn back to me and even full on chasing her. It literally was like I was the sheepdog and she was the sheep, only she was an extremely uncooperative sheep. She’s too smart, she outsmarted me on every try. Even just standing still, walking towards the road home or lying on the pebbles… she would not come near me.

The lucky part is that its a busy walking area, so there were lots of people about. A couple stopped to try and help me get her… with no luck. Others stopped too, it just got progressively worse. She barked at people going towards her, and as most of these had dogs there was no way she was going anywhere near them. Eventually, she forgot about me and started doing her own thing, running along the beach rolling about and basically walking herself. I was on the verge of leaving her and running home, my parents no doubt were worrying out of there mind where the hell I was. Then I decided that was out of the question, I couldn’t just leave her. Besides, she knows the route home, and there are a couple of main roads. Rather have parents worried than a dead/injured/stolen dog.

I then screamed her name and she turned and started heading my way. Still not coming near me though! So I started walking the route home, heading towards the road until I was literally on the edge of where the path leading to the beach meets the road. This is when things started getting really scary. She actually went around me and ended up on the road in front of me, by this time a woman had seen Kez and was asking if I needed help. I saw Kez then in the road with 2 cars stopping near her, and I literally thought that was it. The woman ran towards her and started trying to get her, telling the cars to slow down.

Soon, passersby, people in the houses… they all came out and helped. Cars were queing either side of Kez, and the ones that were coming past, Kez was then jumping up at the window to see if she knew the person inside. As soon as she realised she didnt she was off again. It was absolutely horrible. One of the passersby who stopped had a little girl, and the little girl then started crying because she was worried about Kez. Honestly, it was one of the worst experiences ive ever had.

With the help of all these people we drove Kez onto the front gardens (happened in an area of big houses). We cornered Kez into one of the front gardens and the woman living there came out with a box of biscuits. Kez, being the greedypants she is followed these biscuits right into the house. Door was closed, and Kez was grabbed. What a nightmare.  As soon as she was back with me and realised that actually, everyone was friendly, she was wagging and jumping about -_-. Walking home, she was ahead with her tail up and happily playing with me as if nothing had ever occured. Came home to find my dad out looking for me and my mum screaming where the hell I was. I had phoned the home phone on the womans mobile with no answer. We later found my brother had unplugged it. How unlucky is that.

But, at the end of the day, I came home with her and she is safe and sound. We then went to obedience training tonight and she was perfect, even better than last week with no indications whatsoever that anything bad had happened. Despite it all, she is safe and she was very very lucky.

Now, we need to sort this behaviour out once and for all. I know I have made it increasingly worse by getting frustrated with her and not rewarding everytime she comes back after circling. As a result, she lacks a lot of trust in me. That has got to change. I want her to be completely confident with me and not feel so scared that she cant come near me. Kez could have easily been hit by a car today and injured or worse. If this happened again, I doubt we would be as lucky. This cannot happen again, it is as simple as that. We have a 2nd chance to sort this out, and we are going to.

From now on we will not be taking risks. The long line will be on at all times on walks. Most of the time I can just drop it and if she does start circling I quickly run after and stand on it to get her back. It does get annoying having to avoid getting tangled in the long line constantly, but I have got to put her safety before being mildly annoyed! On top of this, I am going to retrain her entire recall. At the moment, she goes by voice and it is nowhere near 100%. If she’s eating, sniffing, rolling… she ignores me. Theres also the problem of my voice, she can tell instantly whether im annoyed or not and its actually usually in the recall she starts circling.

So, I’m going to train her recall to a whistle. Ironically, I actually started this today on our walk before everything went pear shaped! Ive trained whistle before but never properly. I am going to train it making it 100% reliable everytime. At first we will just do the basic whistle, walk back and then feed. Then I’ll build this up to doing a wait and recalling using the whistle. I’ll then wait until there doing something else in the house and recall away with the whistle, building it up slowly. Then go outside and build up distractions slowly out there too. Of course, Indi and Ernie will also learn this skill as there recalls are not 100% either, but Kez is my main focus.

I never ever want a repeat of today. Yes, theres the lesson learnt about having my phone charged but there is also the fact I could have easily come home without her. I am starting to believe everything happens for a reason more and more, especially now. This was the kick up the bum I needed to start training this properly and not take stupid risks like not putting her long line on all the time. We’ve trained her out of it before, obviously not entirely out of it, but to the point where she went a few months without circling. I know where I went wrong and where I need to build our trust, and now I need to do that. I am so grateful to the people who helped us, especially the woman who let Kez in her house in order to grab her. I say Indi’s the most difficult dog I’ve ever had but I think Kez has now topped it. But, its from our most difficult dogs we learn the most lessons. We will beat this!

[The video was taken last month, but you can see why I call it circling. Obviously, when were not in open fields she will run straight or just stop a distance away and stare]

Scent training

One of the exercises in obedience is scent. Its where 6-12 scent cloths are laid out, 1 of them having a scent on which is yours at the lower levels and then at the top its the judges. Its the dogs job to find the scent you want them to find and then bring the cloth back to you. We may never get to the classes that you need scent for, but its such a great exercise to teach I thought I’d give it a go.

Out of all the obedience exercises this was probably the one I was the most unsure about training. All the other exercises Ive needed no help in training the beginning stages and have usually done it in my own way. Heelwork, trained using an upside down bowl rather than the normal targetting method. Sendaway using a hoop rather than cones, square etc. mainly because a hoop was all I had! But with scent I generally had no idea where to start. Id read, seen and heard of a few methods but none of them seemed to fit. One of them was with clicker training and you basically set out the cloth with your scent on straight away amongst cloths with no scent on and click when your dog goes for the right cloth. The problem I had with this is it sets the dog up to fail as I want my dog getting the right cloth everytime they are faced with a set of cloths laid out, and with this they could pick up any cloth. Another method was using food, teaching them to sniff out the food and then once they’ve learnt to use there nose (because sniffing out food is much more natural to them than sniffing out your scent) they learn to sniff out your scent. The problem I had with this is Kez is very food motivated and can already sniff out food from miles away. I need to teach Kez to find people’s scents, not the scent of food.

So I asked on twitter. And I got a lovely response from @totleybrook who works ticket so knows what shes talking about. She told me her method and it seemed like just what we were looking for! The idea is to use a bit of fleece and first get the dog fetching it. Then put it behind something say a brick, bowl etc. Then put it in a different room and gradually increase the difficulty. At the hardest point I had it on a bed, on a chest of drawers, in little nooks… you get the idea. It doesnt take long for the dog to start using there nose to sniff it out. You know your dogs got it when they start air scenting and afterwards going straight to the place the fleece is.

After this, you introduce the tiles and scent cloths. We got a load of plain white tiles off my nan and put the fleece amongst them. We then started putting different objects amongst them with my scent on, say a sock. And then we got stuck, lol! For the next step we needed scent cloths, and we didnt have any. Well, at our last training class our lovely trainer gave us a couple to take home and practice with.

So the day after I started training scent with scent cloths! At first she got a bit confused, so we started with tissue. I set up  some tissue with no scent on and then put a tissue with my scent on amongst them. It didnt take long before she was getting the right one everytime! So we left it for a while waiting for one of the scent cloths to dry out after I’d washed it and removed all scent. That afternoon I then laid out the 2 scent cloths in a different room, one with my scent on and the other with no scent on. I sent Kez to ‘go find’ and she got it! And she’s got it everytime since .

I have to say, its very addictive watching Kez work her nose and find my scent. I think its because its one of the few things we havent actually taught the dog to do in obedience. With heelwork I had to teach Kez the position and then teach her to maintain it, if not she would never have done heelwork in her lifetime. But with scent, its completely natural for her to sniff things out I didnt have to show her how to do it, all I did was gradually hide the toy more and show her what I want her to sniff out. Whats more, its something thats completely beyond my capabilities. I could walk alongside someone head held high easily, but I could never sniff some cloths and work out who’s scent is who’s. But Kez can, and it is just the best thing ever to watch her doing what a dog does best .

Its not just Kez who loves it either, ive been starting it with Indi and Ernie too because its so much fun. Indi has the best out of all 3, scent games are now a regular on our walks! After just a few sessions of hiding his toy in another room he was air scenting and finding it successfully. On walks I will throw the toy with him turned the other way and then send him to find, and he now never fails. He used to run for ages looking for it the first few times but now its getting harder and harder to fool him! He even listens to where it drops and then heads in that direction. I say he’s the dumbest out of all my dogs, but hes just smarter in other apects . Ernie needs a bit more work though. He can do it, and when he puts his nose down he doesnt fail. But, he sort of tries to outsmart me and brings back the first thing he finds whether its got a scent or not! Typical Jack Russell .

So now with Kez we will keep increasing the difficulty until she can do a proper obedience scent . And just play around with the other 2 for now. But, I think everyone should give scent games a go because they are so much fun! This is just one scent game, there are so many and Im just beginning to learn about them all. For example, one thing im now doing is dropping my keys on our walks and then sending Kez back to find them. I tried sending Ernie once too, but he tried to chew my wooden keyring -_-. And Indi’s not interested in keys. But Kez thinks its a great game, and extremely handy in the event I do ever actually lose my keys. Actually, where I got the idea was when @totleybrook tweeted she dropped her keys and one of her dogs found it using scent! Kez isnt quite that good yet, but maybe eventually!

Anyway, if anyone has any other scent games id love to hear them. It sure is fun playing games that uses the dogs natural ability. And if anyone wants to give any of the games Ive mentioned a go please let us know how you get on . If you havent already, I think you should, they are so much fun!

Spring has arrived!

Spring has arrived and brought with it some gorgeous weather! Winter is officially over, and I welcome the arrival of longer, warmer days.

My biggest aim by Spring was to have Indi walking on a loose lead, happily and confidently. Indi can now focus on the lead and follow my body language a lot better. However, a couple of days ago I came to a realisation that we were going backwards instead of forwards again. He was creeping forward on the walk and this is the exact behaviour I was trying to train out! So after 6 months of training it sure was very frustrating to see him reverting back. After a few frustrating walks which werent fair on either of us I came to a realisation.

Indi now does understand the concept of where I want him to walk. And as long as we do it in the same place with no scary things he is absolutely fine. However, once we both start walking normally along streets where there is something different at every corner he changes. His tail goes down and he focuses on something while walking, could be anything. As he’s focused on this thing he forgets that actually he’s supposed to be by my side following my body language and so starts walking faster without realising. It doesnt matter how much training I do, this is not going to change. Yet anyway. For it to change we have to change his emotional response, and for that we need to work on his fears and confidence.

Of course all our training was definantly not for nothing. We have now stopped lead walking training and am using the lead walking skills we have and starting to go for longer, off-lead walks again. He is improved for sure and although we do lots of turning he is following my body language hugely better and is much happier on a lead. Our main focus now is working on his confidence. He has improved around other people, but this is a long process and we still have a lot of work to do. Same with other dogs. We’ll keep doing the counter conditioning and eventually build it up to BAT. We’ve also got to work on desensitising him to sound triggers, something I started and then got a bit lazy with. Bad trainer!

As well as this we have some new changes happening. We’ve moved from our old training classes to some new ones. Obedience was a bit of a kaffaffle as there arent many classes near me, but then we found one that was just down the road from me. Went to watch and was very pleased with the way they were run. It was all very relaxed, no forcing the dogs to do anything and all fun. Kez was a bit stressed what with all the new dogs and the new hall and was barking quite a lot at the scary dogs. But no one told her off, no one shouting ‘shut that dog up!’ and no corrections. They were all very understanding, which is exactily what I was looking for . Then she did some cracking obedience and everyone thought she was brilliant. So we’ll probably be starting there for real next week . Hopefully it wont take long for her to get to know the other dogs and relax.

Yesterday we went to a new agility class. It was held where me and Indi did our 2nd ever agility show and it was really nice to be back there. It was Kez’s first time training outdoors, and like in obedience, she blew everyone away . It was a small class, one of the other dogs there being Kez’s brother. Whats worried me a bit is that he actually measured into large and I always thought he was smaller than Kez! So thats a bit worrying seeing as Kez has to be measured again soon. Anyway, first we did an agility course. We got 2 tries at it, which was good as it wasnt the easiest course. She got her both her dog walk and A-frame contacts spot on but flew off the end of the see-saw! Went back and did it again, feeding lots of treats when she was at the end. On her 2nd try she got it perfect . Her weaves were the best part though, there were 12 weaves and she went on after a jump and completed them perfectly! They were the fastest weaves out of everyone there too. Pretty good huh?!

Our trainer then set up a really difficult jumping course with lots of turns. Everyone else took a few goes to get it right, from both dog and handler. Kez got it right first time, and then went ahead and got it perfect again! I was pretty pleased wtih that, her turns were just brilliant. Is there anything Kez can’t do?! Im looking forward to training there more, it was certainly a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, just as Spring arrives I fall ill… again. Its funny, I rarely get ill and now ive been ill twice within 3 months. No fun at all . So the dogs have had a few boring days and im hoping once im better we can really start to enjoy Spring! I love late evening walks, especially with Indi, as its usually quiet and everything is always so beautiful in an orange glow.

So for now, here are some photo’s taken last week before I got ill. I love my camera, and am now finding the best ways to get the best photo’s! Im pretty proud of these .

Okay so this one isnt a dog, but we meet him and 2 others on one of our favourite dog walking routes reguarly. There so friendly and always come over to say hello, there not even phased by my 2 running about either! I snapped this shot on our walk and I just think its absolutely brilliant . I hope you agree!

As you can see, Im working out how to get the best shots and blur out the background in the best way. Great fun experimenting!

Crufts 2012

Well we did it! We competed at Crufts 2012. It was an incredible day, one I wont forget and one of the best experiences Ive ever had.

We arrived at about 7am. I got lost finding my ring, had absolutely no clue where it was! But eventually found it, found our bench and relaxed. We had a lovely girl in the bench next to us, she was so sociable and chatty. She had a gorgeous little Cocker Spaniel who kept coming up and saying hello. I wasn’t really sure how to act at first, I didn’t know if everyone would be really competitive or if everyone was really sociable and friendly. At some of the shows the other YKC competitors were really snobbish and wouldnt talk to me. Well it was the complete opposite, this girl was from Wales and she was chatting to us all day. Then when we stopped at our bench at midday I had people who I didnt even know coming up to me asking how we did. One girl competing in the elementary obedience (next class up) started chatting to me too. It was a really friendly atmosphere, absolutely brilliant!

We were in the ring at 9.15, but had a briefing at 8.30 so we didnt have long to wait before everything got going. Before I had a chance to think we were waiting outside the collecting ring almost ready to work! While we were waiting I had a quick tweet up with Michelle (@k9htm) and Tamara (@born2runpetcare). They were both so lovely wishing me luck, I was so nervous at that point! Cant imagine what I must have looked like, its a bit of a blur in my head now, all I remember is being nervous!

Unfortunately our running order was 13. At least it wasnt last, but boy did the time drag on waiting for everyone else to work. I was getting so nervous, I didnt know how much to do with Kez to warm her up as I didnt want to do too little or too much. Finally they called my name, and oh my did the nerves reach a climax! I played some tug and then we went in.

I was so nervous walking in. Ive never been so nervous competing before, it was such a new experience for me! I was all shaky, it was so nerve-racking. First was the recall. So I set her up and we started our round! She was looking behind her a bit in the wait, and on the obedienceuk website the photographer snapped a shot of her at that precise moment facing them! But, she didn’t break and by the time I turned round her ears were perked up and she was ready to come into the present. So I called her, she came and flew into the present! I think its the tightest and fastest present she’s ever done, it was amazing! Absolutely superb . All the more amazing was the fact she had to run through the weird pink mushroom things used to mark out the circle for heelwork. If that had been Indi he would have avoided them entirely or refused to come and if it had been Ernie he would have probably either avoided them or cocked his leg up one of them! Kez was fantastic, she was a bit wary of them and looked at them as she was running, but they didn’t phase her and she was perfect. What a super girlie!

After that it was lead back on and into heelwork. Usually she picks up on my nerves and loses focus when waiting for the steward to tell us to go forward. Not this time! She was so focused it was absolutely amazing. She didn’t lose focus once, I could feel her losing motivation and confidence as we went round, but it doesnt show in the video hardly at all. Her tail is up and waggy and she is just having so much fun. Her halt was perfect, I honestly couldnt have asked anymore from her. There were lots of people watching, microphones going and of course the whole hall was just so noisy, yet she ignored it all and worked her socks off. I’m so proud of her!

Next was stays, the hardest part. We were all in the ring together, very close and all bunched together. She wasn’t as comfortable as she has been holding stays in previous shows, but she held! However, in the down stay one of the dogs (a Kooikerjonde) broke and was doing laps around the ring! I didnt realise how long the dog had been doing them, but it was only when I got back to Kez and the judge suddenly said ‘put your dogs on the lead because of the dog running about’ that I panicked and at that exact moment the dog came behind us. Too much for Kez what with me panicking and the dog running behind so she barked at it. That was the biggest worry for me as the judge hadn’t said ‘exercise finished’ yet. But he didn’t dock us anything for it thank goodness! Just hope it doesnt affect her stays in future competitions as we’ve never had anything like that before.

Anyway, we were all done and dusted by half 10. We met Randi (@randiSJohnson) afterwards who was so lovely, it was so fantastic to have people from twitter supporting me I cant thank them enough! They made it all the more special . Kez loved meeting everyone too, and of course getting tonnes of treats. Typical little Miss greedy-pants!

After half 10 we had a good wander around, the last time I’d been to Crufts I’d been a lot smaller and less interested in the doggy world, it certainly looked a lot different! I especially loved the Discover Dogs bit, last time I’d been all my nan wanted to do was wander around the stalls and all I wanted to do was do the Discover dogs bit, but because I was so young I couldnt be left to do it on my own. This year I had a good wander and met breeds Id been desperate to meet before! The Pyrenean Sheepdog was my highlight, one breed I would love to own in the future and extremely rare. The dog was an absolute sweetie, fell in love instantly! Only breeds I wish I’d had chance to meet were Australian Kelpie and Basenji. Never met Basenji properly before, met Australian Kelpie before though but would have loved to compare one straight up with Kez and see what an experienced Kelpie person thought of her. Bit disapppointed I couldnt find there stand anywhere. Never mind. Always next time!

By about 1pm though I was getting very snappy and tired! The crowds were getting a bit much with people just walking on top of you constantly, and then what with me having a dog the sales people were just bombarding me! ‘Does your dog want a drink’ one woman asked me shaking a special dog drinking bottle around. Another getting Kez to have a go on a doggy treadmill, it was very annoying! Oh and then there was the fact dogs were only allowed out of certain entrances, that was a bloomin’ nuisance as we had to keep hiking to a completely different hall just to let Kez outside to toilet! There were tiny litte fenced off areas with sand on the floor dotted about for the dogs to go to the loo, but no way would Kez toilet indoors even if its on sand! I think that was the most annoying part of the day for me.

It finally got round to half 2 so we started packing up all our stuff and headed over to our ring ready for the results. Waiting around for that seemed to drag on forever too! But then they ushered us all in the ring, both starters obedience and elementary. And then they did the whole ‘And the winner is…’, and it really was the most nervous ive ever been! There were so many people watching, and I knew we had a good chance. And it turned out… ‘and the winner is, with a perfect score… April…’ We WON!

I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing feelings in the world. We had a huge shield handed to us, we couldnt keep that but our name will be forever engraved into it. We got a lovely trophy though and a big rosette. Afterwards we had so many photo’s taken of us, I was so bored of smiling by the end of it! Kez stood on her first ever podium, and that in itself was just amazing! It was great to have so many people there supporting me too, the lovely Michelle (@k9htm) gave us a little card and tuggy for Kez afterwards and I got lots of hugs! My parents were there too along with my Auntie, Grandad and baby cousin. My trainer and her daughter were also there
along with Randi, Tamara and there OH’s. It was absolutely incredible. I cant thank everyone enough.

Its so strange to think this time last year we were just leaving the flyball world and starting to do things on our own. Id only just started obedience training with Kez but still wasnt even thinking of competing with her. She was still running on sight of another dog and just had so many issues. What a difference! She was so relaxed in the ring despite all those distractions and even held stays. She did get more snappier with dogs as the day went on, at one point we were going down stairs into hall 1 and she completely freaked out at a group of Vizslas coming up which usually wouldnt have panicked her. But it was an intense environment for her and despite everything she handled it so well. By the end of the day she was greeting the Cocker Spaniel in the bench next to us all happily. I’m also happy to report that she came 3rd . After we’d won the Welsh girl was going to us ‘I told you, you’d win!’ It was just amazing .

So somehow in less than a year of competing my little Kez has gone and won at Crufts. It has taken a long time to get here, its hard to imagine her when she used to freak out at just having a harness put on her, or be trying to get as far away as possible from every other dog. I really look forward to starting the competing season this year and having tonnes more fun with her. As of yet, when she’s held stays, she has either placed 2nd or 1st in every obedience class she’s competed in! She’s a star, I couldnt have asked anymore of her.

So heres her winning round .

Would like to say huge thankyou to Mike (@mike_meggiato) for most of the photo’s, they truly are amazing .

Indi lead walking training – 5 months

Well we’ve been working on Indi’s lead walking for 5 months now. My aim was to have him walking on a loose lead happily and confidently by Spring… so between end of this month and end of April. Can’t believe we’ve been doing it for so long, its certainly been a journey and I’ve learnt so much.

So 5 months ago Indi couldn’t walk on a loose lead at all without edging forward constantly and me keep stopping and starting. He couldn’t focus on the lead generally and would walk with his tail tucked extremely low and his head darting about. One of the biggest issues was when he saw something or heard something scary he would stop and stare and nothing I could say or do would get him out of it. In general, walking on a lead was a very frustrating and difficult experience.

So first I taught him to focus on a lead. We did tonnes of training sessions teaching him to walk along just watching me and not worrying about everything else. This has been the toughest part of our training as teaching him to not keep leaving focus and to trust me enough that he needn’t keep darting his head around for danger has been extremely difficult. But we did it, still not perfect but because he is so fearful I dont want perfect. We gradually built this up until he could do it for long periods of time.

Then I worked on teaching him not to forge ahead and to stay by my side. I did this by getting him to back up when he walked ahead and not walking forwards when he’s ahead of me. Because he was focused on me and happy it was much easier to train him to stay by my side than when I tried this method when walking normally. But, on turns he still forged ahead so I then applied my obedience heelwork training methodology to it and taught him a left turn. For a left turn a dog has to swing there bum round and it is used in teaching a dog in heelwork to stop forging so I trained him to do this. And it worked a treat! We did lots of sessions walking in a little car parking area just walking in left turn squares. He had this mastered quickly.

And now we are onto the next step. Switching from him walking along completely focused on me to walking along doing the same thing but not watching me the whole time. Basically, the idea is he still stays by my side and follows my body language for turns but there is no pulling and he doesnt have to focus on me. He can if he wants to, and I will reward that but if he decides to look ahead but still follow my body if I turn then he gets rewarded for that too. Because they are different behaviours they need different commands, so walking along focused on me is ‘watch’ and walking along normally is ‘loose’. At the moment I am at the stage where I am just training the difference between the 2 commands and working on the ‘loose’ in all situations.

I’m still counter conditioning whenever we see another person and another dog, and this is an ongoing process. He is improving, but this will take a lot longer and can carry on once we start going on long walks again. Im also working on him being more comfortable with the sound of dogs. Im playing youtube videos of dogs barking and then throwing treats around my room. At first he was very stressed and wouldnt eat the treats but eventually he relaxed and forgot about the dog barking in the background. Bit harder to do this on walks though as cant control when the dog barks and when it doesnt so just have to put treats on the ground when the dog barks and train as best I can. This is quite a new methodology so will take a while before we start seeing real progress.

He’s going for 1 or 2 off-lead runs a week just to give him a break and a bit of downtime from the training. His fitness levels are quite low so he’s only on hour walks but once his ‘loose’ command improves and we start going for longer lead walks we’ll go for longer off-lead walks too. I still do the ‘watch’ command on the way to the field as he knows exactily when we are going for an off-lead walk and where were not as I put his collar on. I dont bother when were lead training, but it has meant that he now knows a clear difference! On the way back depending on how tired I am, how tired he is or how busy it is we either just walk home normally with no commands or I ask for some focus if he starts pulling but not constant. He still pulls a bit on the way home if I tend to give no commands, but this is something Im going to have to work on more. I wont ask for the ‘loose’ command as I need that to mean no pulling whatsoever and if I use it in a situation where he’s more likely to pull its setting him up to fail and confusing him. The problem with the location of the field is that we have to pass a farm which a few rottweilers live. Most of the time, especially in winter, there not out but sometimes they are and they go mental at any passing dog. Kez and Ernie are fine with them and just ignore them, but Indi can’t cope. Because he knows the rotties are there he always pulls going past them and cannot focus, nor do I ask for focus or anything because it would set him up to fail. Which does make the walk to the field and back a difficult place to train. So I’ll have to have a think on how to handle that route once he starts understanding the ‘loose’ command more and using it on longer walks.

But all in all I am amazed at the progress he has made. Seeing him able to walk on a completely loose lead with his tail relaxed and wagging and able to follow my commands even when not watching me is absolutely incredible. He still stops and stares, but this is something that will come with time as we work more and more on his confidence around people and other dogs. I still don’t really believe myself that I will ever be able to walk to the beach and back with him on a loose lead relaxed and happy until I actually see it! But that is my aim.

So basically the plan now is work on differentiating the 2 commands of ‘watch’ and ‘loose’. Once he understands the ‘loose’ command and can do it in the car park bit really well I will start doing small bits of walking along the pavement with him working on the 2 commands and then eventually transferring to just ‘loose’. Once were at that stage I will start to do proper lead walks, taking it slow and going back a step every now and then to reinforce it. And then just keep building it up from there.

Hes certainly come a huge long way. He rarely walks with his tail tucked anymore and is just so much happier on walks in general. We’ve only just started the ‘loose’ command work and already he can walk along happily and relaxed without pulling, which is something I thought Id never see. And with all the frustration we’ve been through it certainly makes all the training worth it. As much as I am enjoying the journey, I also look forward to a time when I can walk with him on a lead for long distances without constant stopping and starting and with no frustration. And once we have his lead walking sorted we can focus on working on his reactivity on walks rather than his lead walking skills. Were getting there . Slowly, but surely!

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 .