Avril Munson's Blog

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The one advantage to summer ending is the glorious colour of the leaves changing! My favourite walk always includes going round the lake in front of Barbary Cottage, it is always a different picture every day, even every time, as the light changes and the reflections vary in the water. The leaves now sometimes lying on the top of the lake, fooled Betty into thinking she could walk on water earlier in the week :), I didn’t have my camera to hand of course, but I saw the way she was looking at the leaves and I could see what she was thinking 🙂 rather than call her away I waited, preferring for her to go in while I was watching and could help her out if she got into difficulties, and in she went! Betty swam straight to shore and hauled herself out unaided, her legs are so long now the bank was no challenge to her:)! She shook herself off and carried on as if she intended to go for a swim:). The next day, I did have the camera and you can see that she is keeping well away from the edge of the lake! It will be sometime before she is fooled again! Her coat very fluffy from her unexpected bath!

Pie is older and wiser and rarely even gets his toes wet, showing off walking along the wall at the edge! I practiced some new settings on the camera, some seemed to work better than others, though I am not sure now which settings produced the best shots 🙂 ! I have put them all in the slide show to demonstrate my camera skills, even though accidental!! Plus a not so good shot of a Muntjac deer, taken from inside my kitchen window, not so bad considering! Pie was barking at the deer in the paddock, who took no notice of him, so was either very young or very blase about dogs, and simply carried on eating the last of the blackberries!

I wonder how many of you have puppies at the stage where they are tall enough to reach the work tops and tables in the kitchen? I have been living with dogs all my life and have been fortunate to live a with a lot of puppies and still I forget how much damage they can do once tall enough to get up on surfaces! The first warning came when Betty started pulled magazines and papers off of the kitchen table, mostly they were of no real value and I didn’t take much notice, thinking I had left a chair out or left them too near the edge! One Monday I was busy going from appointment to appointment and had planned a visit home at lunch time that for one reason and another didn’t come off and poor Betty was in her crate most of the day, I felt bad, but she seemed to cope. The next day she was a complete demon, all that pent-up energy from the day before came out (easy to forget for us owners that the next day the puppy will have more energy than normal)! At one point on returning to the kitchen Betty was on top of the table, having thrown everything off on the floor, having first torn up anything tearable! The look of her face was so full of mischief I had to turn away before she saw my smile! The day went from bad to worse, she ate one DVD, a tea towel got shredded, anything she could move got moved and all this despite me training and walking her a lot that day!

The work tops have come in reach over the last week or two, at first it was just stuff near the edge but now it is anything and I have at last noticed and remembered to be a dog trainer! I am not the tidiest person on the planet, but now I must be or Betty will learn to explore work tops and high surfaces. The best way to stop this behaviour is not to leave the room with anything in reach! Betty has already realised that it isn’t a good idea to go up on the work tops when I am in the room, at least mostly, I wouldn’t test this theory by leaving delicious food near the edge :)! For those of you whose pups still jump at work tops when you are in the room here is the way to stop them:

Do

Those legs are getting longer!

not:

• speak or shout if they jump up
• do not use your hands to pull them off
• do not look at them directly

the above are all interpreted by the dog as attention and will encourage the behaviour!

Do:

• push them down with the side of your leg or hip
• do brush their back feet out from under them by sweeping your foot along the ground
• either of these without speaking or looking directly at them

I look forward to your comments and hearing your experiences and do send in photo’s of your puppy’s please?

What a difference a day makes! I have to tell you all about this, about how different my training was on Thursday after our victorious day Wednesday! I have been doing this job long enough to know now that if I have a big up with a dog or dogs there can only be a big crash fairly soon after! 🙂 Thankfully, though Sue and Alex were present from Wednesday with Nessa and Tilly neither of their dogs were involved!

Thursday morning is group class morning, a regular group generally, but this week we had two new members, Gill with Fergal and Matt and Bella, both Border Terriers. Our fifth class member is Tracey with Ella a Welsh Terrier. Tracey had brought Ella training as she has a big problem with Ella with two Border Terriers in her village, one of them bit Ella as a puppy, as a result Ella has never forgiven them and kicks off the minute she sees them on walks! Tracey and I have worked on her technique and now Tracey can get round the village and see these dogs and Tracey is able to keep Ella’s attention on her, so things have been going well!

But now we had two of the offending breed in her class, oh dear Ella was not pleased! She particularly took a dislike to Fergal, the boy Border, which is interesting as it was the boy Border in her village that had bitten her. Fergal was not to happy about being the focus of Ella’s dislike and was not afraid to answer her back. Over the first part of the class I had both Tracey and Gill working their dogs with some good heelwork at opposite ends of the garden and they appeared to be settling, Tracey disappeared round the corner of the patio for a moment when I heard her shouting “lead” or that is all I heard, I ran to get in front of Fergal, knowing that would be Ella’s first port of call, (I am quick at these moments 🙂 ) as Ella appeared, trailing her lead, minus Tracey, I threw myself at her and did my best impression of a scarey human, she was not detered for a second and rocketed toward Fergal!

Gill was great and as Ella ran in on Fergal, managed to grab her leg, I grabbed the lead and yanked Ella away, the dogs only made enough contact for us to hear the start of fighting noises, just enough to know their were not going to get along, which they had already made clear at a distance! It was all over very quickly, though I have to say all our hearts were racing and we were all very distressed! Poor Tracey most of all, she had tripped over which is how she had lost hold of Ella, and was now going to blame herself for scaring us all! Even though it was an accident that could have happened to anyone, what was great is that she had enough presence of mind to warn us all so that we were ready to take action! Ella is one brave dog, not many dogs are brave enough to come past me in full scarey mode!

I will let you into a secret I love my job:) ! especially on days like today! This morning  I was working with Sophie, Nessa, Leo, Herbie and Tilly, I have been working with all these dogs on and off over the spring and summer and today was our big

Nessa

Herbie

pay-day!!! So often with dog training I and my dogs owners work hard over some period of time, we see improvements which keep us all encouraged to keep going, even though the dogs are not quite where we want them to be. It then seems suddenly that everything starts to fit together, of course it is the hours of work that have been going on over many weeks that produce the result, but so often in dog training there is this moment in time when everything the dogs do seems to go up a gear, when they respond every time to all that we have been teaching them, when even difficult distractions do not put the dogs or handlers off and the thrill is just amazing! This morning was just such a occassion, and even better it was the same for all five of the participants, that is really incredible and unusual.

For Chris and Leo, the Jack Russell cross (chocolate coloured gorgeous boy), the miracle was that at the start of the morning Chris was so anxious about the training session, this was their first time in a group with me. Chris and I have been working one to one to get this little boys confidence with strangers, he had at last come to trust and be friends with me, today was his first big test to see if he could do the same with new people. Guess what, in no time at all he was best mates with Richard and Christine, two of our spectators! Chris really moved me when she explained to us all how she felt to see Leo being stroked by strangers, the first time in along while since she had seen this, and there was hardly a dry eye in the house, especially with me!

Sue and Nessa, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a beauty of a brindle as you can see in her photo’s. Sue started with me back in April with a young thug of a puppy, not sure where that dog went, as we now have a very lady like Staffie in her place!!! Today was the culmination of so much work from Sue, and what a result, Nessa was completely obsessive with toys, especially footballs, today you should have seen her, I was kicking the football around while Sue was doing stays with Nessa and long line recalls, and Sue stayed in charge with Nessa concentrating on Sue!!! I was so amazed it was only a few weeks ago I had to hide the football so that Sue could get Nessa’s attention! Nessa completed every exercise we put to her, weaving off lead in and out of the other dogs she did not falter once! I feel so privileged to have been a witness to their training progress, I am not sure who was proudest today me or Sue :)!

Alex and Tilly, a beautiful ginger and white Border Collie (I have a soft spot for this colour Collie:) ), who not long ago we couldn’t even groom without her having a tantrum, again completed off lead heel work weaving in and out of the other dogs! Another dog obsessed with toys, Alex was able to recall Tilly while I did my utmost to distract her by throwing toys around. And then went on to completing a very controlled retrieve, something that used to be impossible, once Tilly had the toy getting it back was a bit tricky, but today straight back to Alex!!

Sharon and Sophie, a black and white Pointer, I was thrilled to see the bond that has developed over the time I have known these two, who when they first came Sophie thought Sharon was her accessory, today Sophie was responsive and willing to please!!! I know that the work we did on retrieve today (Sharon’s first lesson with me on retrieve) is going to make even more difference to these two, all the more because the relationship is now right between them, that was a joy to see!

Last but not least Cathy and Herbie, a black Labrador, Cathy and I have been working with Herbie in a group and more recently one to one. They had struggled in the group sessions and I was thrilled to work one on one with Cathy, which gave me more time to focus on their needs as well as get to know them both better :), today was a big test to see if they could hold their training together in the group and guess what? They did, Cathy took a while to settle, a little nerves held them both back for the first 30 minutes, which is the nice thing about the recall training sessions as we have two and half hours, so plenty of time for them to settle in and start performing as they both can in private!!! So again a big pay off for us and I was so proud of Cathy as she was feeling the pressure at the start!

It isn’t often I write about the dogs and people I am working with, but today was so special I wanted to shout it from the rooftops!! 🙂 I am hoping some of my proud owners will add their own comments! Sadly I was so engrossed I didn’t even think to get the camera out, but I do have a few photo’s of at least 3 to share with you. The morning left me buzzing, happy and proud and as long as my work keeps giving me odd times like this I will stay addicted:) !

Me and Betty and cuddle time!

Betty, silly ears tell me she is teething!

I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying this great weather!! Not quite so great when I am working, but on the whole it is possible to find less exerting exercises for the dogs, while still getting the job of training them done!

I have been a bit neglectful of the blog the last few days as I have been concentrating on putting the finishing touches to my book! At last! I hear many of you say:) I am an organic type of writer, at least this book has been very organic, growing at my pace when I am in the mood:)!

I have not been neglecting the dogs though and Betty’s training is coming along brilliantly, she is so clever, at least so far:), this week I have been noticing some more of those little things I do that I think make my puppies easier, things that I forget to tell my puppy clients as I guess they are instinctive for me, rather than thought out, of it there were thought out it was a long while ago:)!

Dogs and doors

Betty is of that age when if a cupboard door opens she puts her head in for a look, of course she would, the young love to explore! On one occasion she climbed right in the pan cupboard, my reponse is to take little notice 🙂 she soon came out of the pan cupboard:). When she puts her head in I gently press the door closed until she retracts herself, this way she is learning to not put her head in, I do not say anything to her, I do not need a command for not putting her head in the cupboard as she will soon grow out of this phase. She is learning a useful lesson though, to be careful of doors! I do not want her thinking she can rush through any door that opens, some doors will not be so safe, like the car door or a door opening onto a road or public place. By addressing the door thing at this level she will take this experience over to other doors! When I am moving around the house, she is not allowed through doors unless invited, if she does rush through I simply turn round and go back the room we were in, she follows and I go out again without her. I use my feet or the door, in a gentle but determined way to block her when I can, it is good manners for her to be respectful at doorways, so I teach her patiently and persistently to do be respectful and wait until she is invited.

I often see dogs that rush through every door that is opened, often trampling and bashing their owners, it is a very irritating and rude habit that can be changed with a little thoughtful planning! It is in these small ways that we can establish a great deal of respect and attention from our dogs that has repercussions into all areas of life!

Betty meets Beccy and Mum Hilary before their class starts

Betty meets Lottie

Lottie and Mac try the cones on!

Pie waits for Mac to throw the ball and Betty takes advantage of him being distracted!

Betty acting grown up!

Thursday was a busy day for Betty, my niece Lottie came to meet her along with her brother Mac! It was love at first sight for both of them! Lottie is 5 years old and a great age for a puppy, I think she will learn to be a dog trainer with Betty, she is pretty good already with practice from her dog Doyle (son of my late Teddy), but she doesn’t remember him as a puppy so this is great fun for her.

Betty got more practice with children when Beccy came to class with her Mum Hilary and their dog Truffle, a Labradoodle, before class Beccy had cuddles!

Betty’s favourite toy of the day is a cardboard box!

Toilet training is going well at the moment, as long as I remember to take Betty out enough, I found one little wet patch on the back door mat, I see this as a positive as she was trying to get out the back door, and my back door is in the utility room a long way for a young puppy to go to find the door! I am going to try using the bells (poochie bells, hang on the door handle, the idea is the puppy knocks them when trying to go out and alerts us to them being by the door) on the door to see how they work! I will let you know in due course, this will be my first chance at trying them out first hand!

Truffle Labradoodle

I might be a dog trainer, but it seems it doesn’t mean I am always very bright! I am lucky for the most part with my work routine, it means that I am at home a lot and I can get Betty out to the toilet, play with her and socialise her fairly easily, some days I do have to do home visits and do stuff for me that mean I am not here quite so much, yesterday was one of those days!

I was in and out a lot and away from home for a little over two hours in the morning and again in the afternoon, the most I have had to be out since Betty arrived, a new routine.  When I came home around 4pm there was a bad smell in the kitchen, I looked for puddles, none, I sniffed the bin, not that, washed the floor anyway, better, but not right! I noticed that Betty, who is normally like a little magpie taking all her toys into her crate, had got most of her toys scattered around the kitchen, I looked in her crate and realised her bedding was wet with pee and the source of the smell! Dogs don’t normally wet their beds, but at this age it is more common, it is one of the reasons I haven’t been shutting her in too much, and she wasn’t confined to her crate at all today. In the litter the puppy’s use the bed for a toilet until they are getting out more normally around 4/5 weeks of age, in nature this would be a factor in keeping them safe from predators, my different routine had obviously stressed Betty a little and she reverted to natures safety behaviour and used the nest for her toilet!

Betty is starting to hang off the bottom of my jeans now, especially when I am walking! Not great for me and fairly dangerous for her, my response is to keep walking carefully but deliberately, keeping my feet low to the ground to avoid kicking her. My intention is for her to fall off my jeans as I walk or get shoved along by my foot, so that she finds this behaviour uncomfortable, it is working but she still thinks it is a good game, at one point I turned quickly to answer the phone and trod right on her, she was right under my foot, I felt bad and gave her a cuddle, but it is likely to happen again if I don’t get the message across of not playing with my feet and legs! Best I don’t wear hard soled shoes around the house for a while!

Betty's brother Smarty

Smarty retrieving!

Maggie (who owns Dennis of “over the rainbow” fame) has had a boy puppy from the same litter as Betty, she has named him Smarty and kindly sent me to photo’s today, which are shown here! Isn’t he gorgeous too?