Double Doodle trouble at class!
November 5, 2010
Phil and Hilary were the only ones at class this week, due to holidays and Nessa being spayed this week, They both have Labradoodles of similar ages, Phil’s Scruffs is slightly younger at 6 months with Hilary’s Truffle nearly 2 months older! Both puppies are making excellent progress, both live with 3 children in their families and are coping well with them:) as are Phil and Hilary! Phil and Hilary have worked hard and are both determined to have really well-behaved dogs for life! Many thanks to Phil’s wife Yuka for taking these photo’s!
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Me, Phil and Hilary with the double troubles!
Phil and Hilary with their Doodles Scruffs and Truffle!
Betty goes out to play!
September 24, 2010
Maggie and Dennis!
Betty, Pie and I had a fun time yesterday with our friends!! I met up with Maggie and Annie and their dogs for some fun training Maggie style, which meant Annie and I and our dogs learning some fun tricks!! Maggie and Annie are also dog trainers, we don’t often manage to get together to train our own dogs, though after yesterday I think we will be making more effort to get together!
Maggie has Dennis a brother of Betty’s by a previous litter and of course Smarty her full brother of the same age, Annie has Bronte, the long-awaited puppy of Buffy and a month younger than Smarty and Betty. Annie also brought along Mel (nearly all black) another relative to Betty, though a little more distant.
Maggie has a great set up for her training and loads of agility equipment and other toys for tricks! Betty showed off her skate boarding and Maggie gave me some tips to progress her on some. Bronte began her skateboarding experience and did jolly good, I think Annie will be buying her a skate board :)! Dennis showed us his tricks, old and new, he is such a great dog and Maggie is such a fun trainer, no wonder they both enjoy themselves so much!
It was so lovely to see the pups together. The big advantage of having Betty out with other dog trainers puppy’s was being able to practice recalling her when they were playing and as they all live with grown up dogs, who won’t let them be rude, the play was at a calm level where recalling was relatively easy, the puppy’s had a good lesson together all off lead and playing with their respective owners! Well most of the time:)
I have come home with a lot of new tricks to teach you at the trick training session in October:) give me a ring if you are interested!
I have been a bit slack with the blog for a week or two, I was just not in the mood to write after I heard that an old and dear friend had died suddenly! His name was Michael Sharply, better known in the horse world. Michael was my first mentor for horses from when I was 13, I worked my weekends and school holidays, through to leaving school and going full-time with him until I married. He was the greatest teacher and a complete encyclopedia on horses and their training. I know he will be much missed by all who knew him. There is memorial service for him in Bocking next week which I know will be attended by hundreds of people who had the good fortune to know him!
Betty goes out for the day!! Twice!
September 6, 2010
Scruffs!
Scruffs and family!
Sooo Cute!!
Betty has had a busy week with me:) bank holiday monday we had an outing to the Countess of Warwick show at Little Easton. A great place for a puppy, well one with a confidant approach to life at least! There was everything there from the morris dancers to animals of every shape and size and it seemed everyone took their dog too! I felt sorry for one or two dogs that were obviously a bit overwhelmed by the experience, mature dogs that havent been out in the world enough. I felt even more sorry for some of the people that must have thought it would be a great place to take their dog, and were suffering from the lack of dog training, these people were being towed round, the owners arms must have grown a foot by the time they went home!
I managed to lose my car in the car park! I had to leave my sister Lesley and niece Lottie to hold Betty (she was pooped!) while I searched the car park, of course it was at the furthest end, where I hadn’t looked the first time!
Betty did her first client training session with Phil and his Labradoodle Scruffs on Thursday, we both had puppies out of control from playing with each other at the start! By the end of the session we started to be able to recall them, reasonably successfully! Though tiredness was kicking in and they were showing their tiredness by getting grumpy with each other! A work in progress for both of us:)
Saturday and I took Betty with me to Burleigh horse trials near Stamford! Another busy event for Betty, again everyone seemed to have taken their dog with them! The dog creche sounded over subscribed, a great idea, though the noise from the tent was best missed by humans at least, and for owners who don’t want their dog to learn to bark more!
It was great to be in such a beautiful setting, if you haven’t been the grounds and house are worth the visit, even if you don’t like horses:)! The trade stands are just amazing, full of the most lavish clothing and furniture, dog and horse gear. I brought some new leads for my clients, I actually found some good four foot leads in a great range of colours!! If you want a preview click the link below!
Betty was a sweety the whole day, making a lot of new friends and making sure I did by making eyes at anyone who had the time to stop! She is inclined to follow the nearest pair of legs at the moment, she hasn’t learnt to work out which are mine, which meant she managed to trip a few people up when she was scooting away from some of the larger dogs :)! Luckily no bones broken! Though she was completely bowled over by one very important looking man in a suit, he was on the phone and in a hurry and barely noticed that he had bowled poor Betty over in the dust, she is used to being bowled over by the Pie and seemed to take it in her stride, more or less :)!
Betty was as grateful as me to find the car at the first attempt this time:) by the time we got home she had a new lease of life and roared round the garden, delighted to be back on home turf! Sadly I forgot the camera! I promise to do better next time:)
What I don’t like about having a puppy!
August 26, 2010
Betty in her favourite chew chair! See the whiskers?
Betty is 4 months old now, I don’t remember how many weeks she is any more so time to promote her to months old rather than weeks 🙂
I do love having a puppy in the house, there is one thing I don’t love about having a puppy, it is the mess they make! I am not a lover of house work, but I do like the house to be clean and tidy, a bit of a conflict for me :)! Betty is now at the age and height when she can reach the table, which means that when I leave things out she gets them off and chews them up, mostly magazines and paper, not a big problem, but when I have just cleaned up and 5 minutes later I have to clear it all up again:(, plus she brings in twigs and plants and scatters them on the floor! It drives me nuts!! I foolishly left my paper diary on the table (my back up to my electronic diary) and she ate most of August and September! I know I will learn to put my stuff out of reach!
What irritates you most about puppies?
Other than this issue I do love her, she is so funny, her sense of humour is infectious! She seems to be permanently laughing at me or life or both! I only have to look at her little hairy face and she makes me smile! If I look at her for more than a few seconds she starts trying out her tricks in case I want more, throwing herself to the ground or bringing me a toy or flying to my side to show off her new going to heel trick, how sweet is that? !
With the change in the weather the back door is shut more often and I have been good in checking if she needs the toilet, she has been brilliant and apart from one occasion when she bopped to wee in front of me and immediately realised I was not smiling any more, she ran outside to finish, she is a good girl really!
Update on Betty training!
August 16, 2010
Betty learning to skateboard!
Betty is getting hairy!!
Betty has the best sense of humour, I think she is constantly laughing at life! She certainly makes me smile a great deal of the time, she is just so funny! From the way she hurls her toys about, they often land on top of the work top, to the way she throws herself about! I can see how much she will love agility, not a trait she gets from Pie, but her Mum Gracie was bred very purposely for agility!
Training wise we have been doing a little of everything that she may need in life, recently she has been getting a little confused and offers up all her tricks to find the right one! So far I have taught her the baby beginning’s of sit, down, heel, come, high-five, stays, retrieve, roll over, and watch, plus she is starting to learn to ride a skate board! Confusion is a part of training progress and a very useful one too! Confusion means that the dog is trying hard to please and simply throwing everything in the pot to try to find the right one! I always praise whatever Betty gives me, it is all good and by encouraging her efforts she stays willing, the most precious gift any dog can give!
To iron out some confusion I am focussing on 2 exercises in any one training session, this is already paying off after one day of 3 training sessions. This morning when I asked for the down, Betty threw herself straight down, whereas yesterday she tried the sit, high-five and a bit of a spin to heel first:)!
You can see in the photo’s Betty is very leggy now and sprouting whiskers, you can see why she makes me smile! 🙂
Next time your dog sits when you asked for the down remember to praise the effort and then make yourself clearer, maybe use a hand signal for the down? It is a common mistake with beginner handlers not to recognise when the dog is trying to do what you want as opposed to being naughty, the best clue is if your dog is looking at you he is trying to do the right thing! When a dog is not interested in pleasing he is looking elsewhere if not further from you! Attention is the key here to knowing if the dog is trying!
Betty and wheels and being a sheepdog!
July 21, 2010
Betty is mostly Border Collie, which means the herding instinct is strong for her! The first signs of this with Betty, and a lot of puppies, is she is interested in small wheels, things like the wheelie bins, wheelbarrows, vacuum cleaner and the hose reel winding and unwinding!
This innocent behaviour can rapidly turn into larger machines like lawn mowers, bicycles, motor bikes and cars! A very dangerous hobby for any dog!And herding is only found in Collies, many breeds can display this behaviour.
Luckily I know my Collies and I take action as soon as the early signs show themselves. For those that read the blog regularly you already know that where ever possible I want Betty to learn from her environment, as opposed to me constantly nagging her and saying “no”! The action I take when Betty starts chasing the wheel barrow wheel is to keep walking, not go round her, she is small so I don’t want to squash her too much, I walk slowly and deliberately, keeping to my chosen path, it is her job to get out-of-the-way! Rather she gets bumped by the barrow wheel than by a car! I do the same with the wheelie bins and the vacuum cleaner, with the vacuum I do push it at her a bit more deliberately, as it is lighter and hurts less if she isn’t quick enough! I also push the vacuum at her if she goes for the cable, I want her to learn very quickly not to go for electric cable!
I must add I don’t move these tools in a playful way, not too fast, as that may be enticing, but a boring ploddy sort of way! plus when I sweeping or mopping I put her in crate, these tools are just too tempting and she would learn more chase from these, the odd bump would not deter her:)
I was delighted this morning when I vacuumed that Betty did not attempt to chase the vacuum nor attack the cable!! 🙂 A step closer to keeping her safe in life!
Betty
Betty watching and not chasing!
has more than enough outlets for her natural instincts when herding me on a walk :), playing retrieve and other toy based games!
Betty feeding, cupboards and bowls!
July 13, 2010
Betty catching up on a walk!
I am really chuckling as I think and write this one 🙂 I am constantly amazed by dogs, how quickly they learn whether it is the right of the wrong thing! The brighter and cleverer they are the more likely they are to learn the wrong things too! Really it is amazing that people don’t have worse problems than I see!
Not long after Betty arrived I remember chuckling to Anne (Betty’s breeder) that Betty was throwing her metal feed bowl round the kitchen because she wanted feeding, she does love her food! I do think there were a few occasions when on seeing her I thought “oh I am late feeding her” and did feed her. I was particularly impressed as metal is the hardest material to teach a dog to retrieve, I am not quite sure why anyone would want a dog to retrieve metal, but anyhow it is tricky! I think it was this that delighted me so much and made me respond to Betty’s antics 🙂 at least that is my excuse! Well anything a dog does that firstly we show pleases us, like smiling and laughing and secondly even gets food in return will soon grow! Betty obviously thought I can do better and by last week this behaviour had grown into throwing the bowl around with great gusto, in between throwing her whole body at the kitchen work cupboard doors, and I mean throwing herself too, it was very enthusiastic! I just stopped myself laughing, just, though I laughed inside! Wow I thought this has gone far enough now, this behaviour could become completely ridiculous and very embarrassing for a dog trainer, in fact it is already!! I turned my back and looked out of the window then made myself busy doing jobs, after about 20 minutes, yes 20 whole minutes, Betty gave up that game and laid down, I fed her! The next few meal times I saw similar attempts, though her efforts started to dwindle until today I noticed her sitting in the kitchen near feed time, just watching me:) she was waiting for her food and she had twigged that sitting or lying got the right result! Now I just have to stick to my side of the bargain:) and only feed her when she is giving me this sort of behaviour!
One or two of you have mentioned the mistakes you have made with your puppies, well I have to tell you I haven’t been so aware with my other puppies as I am with Betty, the process of learning is ongoing, Betty is teaching me so much! Each dog I have lived with has taught me more, pushing me to a new level each time.
How clever is she, how clever are all our dogs? They all do the same sort of thing, just start noticing your dogs attempts to train you:), becoming aware of how they train you or how you inadvertently train them!
I am waiting to hear! 🙂
What Betty taught the dog trainer!
July 6, 2010
Betty learning to sit
and down
High five!
Betty watching me!
Well this blog is really an exciting one for me to write, I am so excited by Betty and her training at just 11 weeks old!!!! As you won’t be able to guess what she did before I finish writing 🙂 I will just have to tell you :).
Betty went “down” on a word command only when she was 10 feet from me!!! yes she did! If you are not as amazed as me I want to know how come you are so clever:) ? And I will come to you for training!
It was just last Wednesday that she went down in front of me for the first time without my usual hand signal, and I think it only took that long because I have been teaching her sit, down and high-five! Normally I stick to 2 positions until a puppy gets them before introducing more, so she was slower than my other puppies have been to go down without a signal close by, but I think it has paid off! I obviously still have a lot to learn about dog training!
I haven’t ever asked a puppy of this age to go down at a distance from me before but 2 things happened earlier in the day that told me that Betty was cleverer than I was letting her be!
firstly the stuff we were doing in the kitchen and garden were so easy for her, I see it as easy for a puppy when they do the exercise really fast, and she was jet propelled!
But secondly it was when I was play retrieving with her in the garden. We had got into the habit when I threw a toy of her coming and lying behind me when I was sat on the grass, today I thought that is weird how I have let her do that, but like every dog owner I want success for her and I had continued to accept this as good enough, mmmm I thought, she is a Collie and I know her training genes, and she is well-bred for training, I wonder? The next time she laid behind me with the toy, I didn’t look round, I stayed looking forward and said, daftly I know:) “Where’s Betty, oh Betty puppy, Betty Boop” and she came to the front of me! Well that was it now I knew she was being a Collie!!!! Collies will always try to control the game, herd the person and toy together, and that is what she was doing, albeit in a small way, she was turning me, just as Collies turn sheep! So no more turning from me, I threw the toy a couple more times, both times she went behind and both times I said “where’s Betty” and she came back round even faster, the third time I threw the toy she came straight to me in front! What is great is that not only have I made a big step in her retrieve I know more about Betty now too a lot more!
I must add when I say throwing the toy, I do only throw the toy a few feet from us, it is hot and she is young, I don’t want her exhausted:)
Anyway that is why I was thinking I have to push this little girl a bit more, not in a pressured way but simply ask and see what happens, I did just that. Which is why we came to be walking around the paddock, me with Betty’s dinner in my pocket and having done a few of the normal sits and downs and comes and high fives all as we walked around the paddock, I waited for her to wander away from me a little and said “Betty down” and she did, so having given her 5 bits of food in my excitement:) I continued to wait for her to go a bit further and try again! And, as I said before, she did it!!
No holding us back now, I am going to have to rack my brains for this little one to see what more we can do, while of course keeping these bits going!! 🙂
I must add too that since that first time Betty went down without the hand signal I sense her listening to me more, I could a bit before, but it is like now she has one word she wants to understand more! She is certainly responding appropriately when I say things like “where is it” when playing and similar. She may not know the words completely yet, but she is trying too and the best dog to train is the willing one:)!
I look forward to hearing about the words and signals your dogs understand and/or how they have surprised you:)?
Avril Munson's Blog 