What else can we blame Disney for?
August 8, 2011
Wouldn’t it be great if our dogs could talk english, be the sort of characters that appear in the Disney films? 🙂 I know these stories influenced me as a child! I also remember the day I became disillusioned by my dog when I was about 20, it was a horrible shock to realise my dear little dog had not only killed but eaten one of my cats new-born kittens! That doesn’t happen in Disney films nor in the romantic world I had created for my pets. The experience did not stop me from idealizing my dogs completely, but now I have a more realistic view, shaped by even more life
Tallulah (Shar pei)
experience of reality.
The problem is not the Disney films, it is when we forget to remember that our dogs are real life animals.
When we leave the dog to decide, yes they do that in Disney movies, and guess what, the dog makes the best decision ever! What happens in real life if we leave it to the dog to decide:
- where and when we walk?
- when we feed?
- when we stroke?
- where they sleep?
we make the dog leader! And what do we get when the dog is in charge?
I await your answers on that:)?
The reality is though that most dogs do not want to be leader, they may want to be a Prefect, even head girl or boy but few are born to be headmaster/mistress and they really do not want that job! which is why dogs that are given too many choices are not happy!
Disney dogs are happy, at least they are by the end of the film, and live happy ever after too!
In real life we must be clear and make the important decisions for our dogs, to ensure our dogs live happy ever after lives!
Events and help please!
August 3, 2011
Lewis or is it Louis? 🙂
I haven’t been including events on the blog before, I am not sure why! Here are some dates for your diary, if you have attended one maybe you would like to add a comment and tell others about your experience please? And I would appreciate some dog photo’s please?
Recall Training sessions
These 2 and a half hour sessions focus on lead walking and recall. Foundation training takes place in the safety of the fenced garden at Barbary Cottage, once the building blocks are in place we take the training to the outside world, the paddocks and fields surrounding Barbary! There are a maximum of 5 dogs and handlers in a group.
Fee: includes Tea/coffee £50
Times: 10am – 12.30pm
August: Wednesday 10th and Saturday 20th
September Wednesday 14th and Saturday 24th
Fun Agility x 3
For anyone wanting to enjoy some fun agility with your dog, tiny jumps so suitable for the younger puppies, this is more about the mechanics and fun rather than difficulty!
3 Monday evening sessions August 8th -15th and 22nd
Times: 7pm – 8pm
Fee: £75 (for 3 sessions)
Tricks Workshop
Wednesday 21st September 10am to 12.30pm
For owners who have a sense of humour in their dog training!
This session is suitable for dogs of all ages and abilities!
Fee: £40
Training dayÂ
A full day devoted to training your dog, whether you are keen to improve your dogs general obedience or are interested in trying some obedience tests this promises to be a fun day out with other dog lovers!
Monday 19th September
Times: 10am – 4pm
Fee: £75 includes tea/coffee
Venue: Barbary Cottage
Ring craft
A day training show craft, for those that either do show their dogs in breed classes or want to! Come and learn the tricks of the trade!
Saturday  August 13th
Times: 10am – 4pm
Fee: £75 includes tea/coffee
Dog behaviour/psychology course
For those that want to know more about how the dogs mind works and what they are thinking!
Dates: Commencing Saturday 3rd September fortnightly for 6 Saturday’s
Walt Disney has a lot to answer for!
July 20, 2011
Sasha
Roy and Sasha
I love Walt Disney films, the more fantastic the better and always a happy ending, so I can relax and enjoy the film knowing everything will turn out okay! My first dog knowledge came from Disney, unconsciously my love of animals must have been fueled by the wonderful portrayal of talking (and much more!) animals! Dogs that rescued their owners or each other, travelled vast journeys to get to their masters side! Who wouldn’t want a dog after watching a Disney film? Disney has sold more puppies than I can begin to count!
Today I know that it is partly because of Disney that I have so much work to do with pet owners, unconsciously they too have been given this magical image of dogs. Just think about this for a few moments and tell me you haven’t been affected?
I think there is a huge amount we can all learn about our dog behaviour, through becoming aware of the influence of Disney and other media, maybe not in the way we would like :)! I am going to do a series of blogs from this perspective, starting today, I would be most grateful for your feedback?!
Take titbit training, I spend a lot of training time convincing owners that the use of food for dog training is a good thing and makes training fun. Why would anyone believe that a young puppy or dog would not respond better if there is a treat involved? Well Disney is the answer! Owners want dogs to do stuff for love! In the film love between the human and the animal is instant, even if time passing is implied, it isn’t always apparent because of the limitations of the media.
I am not immune to believing my dogs love me, but I am realistic, the love only comes over time, the bond deepens and grows, it takes 2 years to have a good bond with any dog. There may well be an instant bond of sorts at the start of a relationship, all dogs want to be in a pack, but it is only over time that trust and true partnership can develop. Feeding a dog treats as rewards for correct behaviour will encourage a feel good factor around dog and human and therefore increase the bond. Plus when we successfully communicate with our dogs in positive way we are deepening the understanding and therefore the love and bond between us, I know this through some wonderful experiences, both with my dogs and by watching my clients!
In time as the dog truly understands our commands, viewing our commands as a fun way of communicating (not being bossed around) the training becomes less dependant on food. But I have never out grown enjoying a treat, from a friend or stranger:) and my dog won’t either! The problems come if we expect this from our dogs before we have earnt” it” over time!
Even Nessa can't get this ball in her mouth!
Barking in the garden and jobs for dogs!
July 7, 2011
Freddie
My sister Lesley has this little dog Freddie, he is a Jack Russell cross Border Terrier, he is five this year. Being my sister Lesley has had to train her dog, strangely she didn’t learn through osmosis, she did need lessons :)! Freddie is a good little dog, with an excellent nature! However recently he had started to drive Lesley up the wall with barking in the garden! I went over to have a look, at five years old and having had a good amount of training it seemed to me that Freddie was now at a bit of a loose end! Not sure what to do with himself, even a trained dog needs direction and some constructive work to do, just as we do!
I left Lesley with the instruction to get Freddie working again, even a down stay is a job! Here is what she told me a few days later, I asked her to write it down for you.
“I took my dog Freddie to the vets yesterday. Now Freddie – a Jack Russell is not a lot of trouble and when we go to the vets he sits on my knee or wags his tail at others or makes friends with whoever is sitting next to us. After seeing the vet we came out of the consultation room only to take a step back as this huge German shepherd started barking and would like to have got to us – I wasn’t sure the woman could hold him. So instead of sitting down to wait for Freddie’s tablets we stood by the reception desk and I made Freddie lay down. He moved a couple of times but I just reminded him and he lay quietly – I didn’t want to aggravate that huge dog and have him coming at us.
It was at this point that I realised I don’t always give Freddie a job as Avril would say – because he isn’t any trouble for most of the time but I now realised that it’s important to reinforce the behaviour I want all the time – it’s good for Fred and it’s good for me. As a Child Behaviour Coach I am so good with my boundaries with children but that had slipped with Fred. Now I’m on the case!”
Lesley also told me that she is making a point of using a sit or down and stay when getting Freddie in and out of the car, what jobs do you give your dog?
Freddie
A busy week dog training!
June 27, 2011
Nessa learning retrieve!
What a good girl!
Last week was a really busy fun week! Wednesday saw the first of my walks in Highlands Park with a group, we were lucky with the weather, only a shower as we were drinking our coffee in the park café afterwards, in the afternoon there was torrential rain all over Essex for a good 2 hours! Five dogs and handlers came along, Fiona with her deaf Westie, Paddy was particular brave when in the bigger group! Paddy has problems in wide open spaces, I am sure he is overwhelmed and scared as he cannot hear approaching danger, it was interesting to see how being in a pack gave him confidence, it wasn’t until Fiona and I were walking back to the car park (we had managed to park in the wrong car park!) that we saw the very behaviour that Fiona had come to address, Paddy going into panic mode in an open space! It was lucky we had parked in the wrong place as we had time to address the behaviour on the way back to the car, how is he doing now Fiona?
The walk seemed a great success and the handlers and dogs had a great time! It was suggested I run the walks as a regular event so you will get a chance to come along, if you have a great park near you and would like me to run a walk there please let me know and I will do my best!
Friday was BBC Essex with Steve Scruton; if you missed the show you can still catch it on the iplayer on the BBC Essex Radio web site. As usual it was a fun session, with loads of telephone calls, texts and emailed questions!
Saturday was the behaviour course day; I broke with my usual format and had 2 dogs present, both suffering from inappropriate barking at home. I think this is a format I will use again; having dogs present for us to work on gave the day some real focus and a great learning opportunity for all present. So thank you to Debbie for bringing Louis Pomeranian and Fiona with Westie Molly! How are they doing at home now? Debbie had treated her friend Beverley as a birthday present and as a result the day had a festive atmosphere, which must have come from the birthday cake and candles!! George came all the way from Athens, currently working as a counsellor; George is looking to expand his current practice to helping people with dogs, starting off as a dog walker as he studies and gains experience. It was a great mix of dogs and people and I had a really good time! J
Feeding time!
May 22, 2011
I thought you may be interested in my favourite feeding regime for my dogs, I will be interested to hear your comments :)?
In a perfect world I prefer my dogs to have full-time access to their food, this is called ad lib feeding. Sometimes it is not possible to feed like this if you have multiple dogs, it may be that Pie and Betty will be too competitive over food and will not settle to my regime, I will let you know!I haven’t been able to try until now, but now that Betty is over 12 months and on the same food as Pie, I can start working toward leaving food out all the time, this is how I have started!
I had Betty on adult food for about a month, to allow time for her to get over the novelty of a new food, once that was achieved I started to increase their meals a little more each day, until both dogs were walking away and leaving some food. For Pie that took about 2 days, he has been fed ad lib before! For Betty, who is very greedy and competitive it took nearly a week! I thought she would pop :)! I would add here that the food I use is very low in salt, colours, sugar and additives, this is an essential part of the process, otherwise these ingredients increase appetite.
Yes, Betty has put on a little weight but I know she will soon lose this again once she settles into the new regime! That is what I love about feeding dogs in this manner, they do not stay fat! If fed on the correct diet and given full access, they soon become confidant that food is always available with no need to eat a store for later and keep a perfect figure, making life easy for me!
Betty is now leaving food at every mealtime, so far she finishes the food either before the next mealtime or around that time, 2 weeks on and this morning Betty finished last nights dinner at breakfast time this morning, not as soon as she got up, but at the very time I would have fed her, this tells me she is still programmed to eat at those times and it may take a week or 2 for her to find “her” best eating time. I have refilled the bowls and Betty has eaten a very small amount, overall eating a much smaller breakfast than before we started this process, therefore already her body weight is beginning to return to normal!
Regarding the best eating time, with any animal it is not good for them to eat a large amount just before exercising, it can cause health problems if they do, those of you with deep-chested dogs will be particularly aware of the problems. In the past I have found that my dogs naturally establish an eating routine around consuming the largest amount late in the day, when they are sure all activities have ceased. Strangely not a time of day I would advocate feeding a pet! Yet when allowed to choose it has been all of my dogs favourite time!
Another plus is the dog will be hungry for titbits when training! The regular food is obviously pretty useless for training, but a treat really is a treat!
Another hard day at the office!
April 11, 2011
Another hard day at the office for me!
Does anyone else have trouble losing I.D. tags? It was only this week when I again found Pie’s tag on the floor yet again, that I actually stopped and gave the problem some thought! I searched the house and found a really strong-looking “twisty thing” , (I don’t even know what to call the bit that attached the tag to the collar?) I am really hoping this one might stay on a bit longer! Anyone got any good ideas for this?
The photo is of Paddy, a 2 year old West Highland White Terrier who has been deaf from birth, with me and Fiona at one of the Thursday groups, at last we have the right weather for dog training!
Many thanks to Jan for the following link to a great dog story!
I have spoken to Sue this week, Millie’s owner, and she is working on writing up what happened to them and she will be posting soon.
I have a major accident waiting to happen not far from where I live, in the shape of 4Â Border Collies, they were going ballistic at their garden fence when I came past with a horse and carriage earlier in the week. The owner was out in the garden, in the process of replacing some fencing, fortunately they saw us coming, and wedged the panel in place and prevented the dogs escaping! The 4 dogs were barking and running the fence, in the dog’s heads they are chasing and attacking, there is no question this is the pack at work! The owner said, in an embarrassed way “they only make a noise”! well a noise they sure do make, but what the owner is not seeing is that if they did escape they will do far more!
I also know for a fact, if out on a lead these dogs will be aggressive to all the things they are barking and chasing in the comfort of their own gardens. 4 dogs racing up a down a fence, with the extra sound effects of them brushing and hitting the fence and bushes, is quite something for a horse to trust enough to pass or any other animal, I am glad I don’t need to walk past with my dogs. If these were your dogs would you want someone to point out the hazard?
Puppy news!
March 28, 2011
Betty dancing!
Thursday morning course of classes came to a fun end with a competition over a baby agility course! I spent most of the morning giggling as I watched my clients become competitive, obviously in the nicest possible way, but it did lead to some funny moments! We had a spare pair of hands for the older group for some action shots!
Harley and Rosie in the baby class are very much in love, sadly poor Lexie just got to look on as they didn’t seem to notice she was there! Harley played so gently with his little girlfriend!
I hope you appreciate Betty’s new trick, she dances round the kitchen now at feed time, sometimes it looks just like dancing, sometimes waving, on occasions she stays in a sit and waves her paws! I am hoping to get a command for all of those in timeJ it all started as a high five!
Marion and Sid
Georgie and Lara
Naomi and Nelly
Phil and Scruffs
Naomi and Nelly
Avril Munson's Blog 