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:)?
The puppy class at work and play!
July 5, 2010
The stars of this show are Lisa and Teddy (Bichon cross Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) Hilary and Truffle (Labradoodle) Shirley and Abby (Chocolate Labrador) and Pauline and Ben (miniature Schnauzer)
We always begin our puppy class with the owners sitting on chairs with the leads under a leg to allow the pups to settle and learn not to pull themselves! This time we went straight on to teaching the puppies not to jump up, we took it in turns to walk towards them and turn away abruptly if the pups jumped, very soon the pups were not jumping and we were able to greet them with their bottoms on the floor!
These pups are only on their 4th week of training, they are progressing so fast, at this age the puppy is very willing to learn and hasn’t yet the confidence to be too naughty, that will come a bit later when they go past 6 months, the teenager time is the most challenging period of training! Ben, Teddy and Truffle can do some positions on command now, only using the hand signal when they are distracted. We have also begun come to call, walking on a lead and they all learning to be very patient when groomed!
Ian has taken some wonderful photo’s of them, here is a selection! I plan to add some to the main website over the coming week.
For those of you commenting, if you are a subscriber and click on the email, it seems I am not getting them, could you go on the web site to leave comments please? I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Naughty Pugs!
July 5, 2010
A picture says it all!
How about a Pug for the next Andrex dog!!
Thank you to Bella for these great photo’s of naughty Pugs! Though I do think one of them was just saying I want to be an Andrex puppy! I won’t comment on the other one, Bella was not amused:)
Please keep sending in your photo’s I am enjoying them 🙂 and I think everyone else is?
The intermediate class at work and play!
July 2, 2010
Ian came along to take photo’s of the classes this week, some brilliant pictures, the only problem is there are so many of them! Here are some for starters! Sadly Louise and Paddy who are usually at class couldn’t make it this week so no photo’s of Paddy 😦
More to come soon!
This group is intermediate level now, though they are all still youngsters they are progressing well, which means we get to have more fun times at class as we try out more advanced exercises. And it isn’t true that all I do is sit in the garden and watch when I am working, it is a wicked rumour! 🙂
If you are receiving this as a subscriber you will have to log on the main site to view the slide show, and it seems comments don’t work unless you on the web blog version.
Nessa does some gardening!
July 1, 2010
Thank you so much Sue Harris for sending in these photo’s of Nessa giving you a little help in the garden! Nessa comes to class on a Thursday morning, watch out Nessa I will get you to dig the Veg plot over come the autumn!
Please send in your photo’s if you would like to see them on the blog!
What hole?!
Wasn't me!
Betty’s training – top puppy training tips!
June 30, 2010
This hugely important training tip is that I rarely say no to my puppy or any dog of mine, what I want is for my dog to associate my voice with good stuff, to turn happily and look when I speak to them, verbally correcting and telling off young dogs simply teaches them to take no notice of us at best and at worst spoils the bond between dog and owner! Besides I do not need a command word for things that in just a few months she will lose all interest in, like eating inappropriate stuff in the garden.
That doesn’t mean Betty gets to do whatever she likes though! As with any young baby, I distract her sometimes, when she is for example heading for my greenhouse to eat my plants, on occasions I pick her up and move her to another area, as when she is in the front room and I want her out without damage or fuss or want her in her crate in a hurry, I make picking her up a time for a cuddle to ensure she continues to enjoy being picked up.
When I have time and I want her away from a room or an item, I practice her recall to me, rewarding her with a treat, there are endless opportunities for recall practice with this!
When she is eating or chewing on items of no value and no harm I simply let her get on with it and let her find out for herself that it is not tasty or fun, if I show interest in whatever she has I will simply reinforce her interest.
I keep my corrections gruff, short and sharp for things of more importance like play biting and chasing my feet, she now backs off immediately on these behaviours simply because it is so rare for me to be gruff! So much of dog training is not what you do, but want you don’t do!
I back this all up with titbit training Betty with clear hand signals to do little recalls, sit, down, heel, watch and walk to heel at least 6 of each on the trot, currently I use her normal meals for training these, she is still greedy enough for this food to be important to her, and ensures she gets lots of repetitions on each exercise while having fun!
Betty is far from perfect and I cannot say I want her to be, but she will be perfect for me 🙂 we just need a couple of years! I am so enjoying being with her and be at the beginning of my dogs life again, this time passes so fast, I find each time I have a puppy these early months are more precious to me and that makes me more patient, thankfully as I did need to learn some patience!
If you are subscriber you will need to click the link to the website to see the photo’s as a slideshow.
Lady the Labrador takes a ride!
June 29, 2010
I thought you might all like to see this, it is of my client Jan’s dog Lady, everytime Jan puts the wheelchair away at night Lady gets in for her ride!
Please do send me your photo’s?
aplogies to Jan for writing nonsense the first time and calling Lady Susie, Susie is Jan’s other Labrador!!
Lady taking her nightly ride!
Pie takes Betty to the seaside!
June 28, 2010
Betty sees the sea!
Isnt this weather great! I made the most of the sun with a trip to Southwold and Dunwich with Adam and Ian and the dogs! Betty’s first trip to the seaside!
On the behaviour course last weekend we were talking about social things to introduce puppies too, and Jeanette, who is into gun dog training was saying how swimming introduced in the early weeks makes for good swimmers. I must confess having my dogs swimming has not been a priority for me, though I can see it would be for gun dog owners. Pie does not like the water, but interestly as he was born in September it was not the right weather for beach trips in his the early days! Both of my last two Collies, Teddy and Truly were born earlier in the year so I guess they did get to the water early on, and both liked swimming!
I carried Betty most of the walk to the beach at Dunwich, saving her energy for the beach part! She was fascinated when she saw the water, but soon decided to stay near Pie, and true to form Pie put his brakes on every time the tide got close, not getting even his feet wet and Betty did just as he did! Eventually I went in paddling to encourage Pie in further, he overcame his reluctance to follow me and dear little Betty was right behind him :), being so small she was soon in to deep water for her! Betty took it all in her stride, swimming round me, I got worried and steered her back to the beach! She proved it wasn’t just a mistake by doing the same again, so it seems she will be a swimmer!
We all collapsed in giggles at a wet Betty, she looked so silly, skinny little legs, looking more like a whippet than a Collie as you can see from the photo!
I have seen how to insert a slide show, let me know if you prefer this format or shown photo’s?
Betty thought Ian looked like a perfect towel for her, when he sat on the beach, and used his shirt to dry off!
On a more serious note: Dogs and law!
June 24, 2010
On my current behaviour course we were discussing the law in relation to walking our own dogs, and the difficulty of other people, with dogs off lead and not under control, bothering our dogs and how offended people can become if we don’t want to have their dogs jumping on ours, when the law entitles anyone to walk without being accosted in a public place. So if you feel threatened by someone elses dog on a walk, the law is on your side, not all dog owners recognise that their dogs behaviour appears threatening to others, when in fact it is!
For those of you who would like to know your legal position here it is:
Important legislation is:
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, which is further amended in 1997
Control of Dogs Order 1992
Dog Control Act 2008 – parts of which are still yet to be enacted
The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
Section 3 makes it a criminal offence for anyone to own a banned breed; Japanese Tosa, Pitbull, Filo Brasilera, Dogo Argentino, or any such cross-breed. (exceptions if permitted by court to be registered, muzzled in public etc).
The Act is extended in 1997 for dangerous to mean any dog in England or Wales that is dangerously out of control. This can mean that a person is in reasonable fear of being injured. The offence is aggravated if a person is injured. This can also extend to other dogs. However, in this Act covers only in a public place (anywhere where the public is permitted to have access). So if you are trespassing or in a friend’s garden say, this Act will not apply.
This Act gives the police & dog wardens powers to seize the dog and prosecute the owner. Power of arrest only applies if the owner fails to five a name and address at which they can be summoned.
This Act gives the court powers to destroy the dog (if a person is injured then there is a presumption to destroy, but there is always discretion). The Court can also ban a person from future ownership of a dog. Other Acts allow for ASBOs to be placed on owners. This is a civil hearing.
The Dog Control Act 2008 This is not in place yet as gets second hearing at the end of July, the difference here is that this is public or private place.
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The Control of Dogs Order 1992
This Order makes it mandatory for dogs in public (other than listed exceptions such as service dogs etc) to wear a collar and identification stating owners details. This is important, as whilst there is no power of arrest for the above Acts, anyone who fails to give their name and address to a police office for the purpose of summons for any offence, can be arrested (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984).
Procedure in Practice
Dependent on the local procedures of forces a dog attack on dog in a park would most likely be dealt with by a dog warden.
It may become a police issue, if the matter is in say a housing estate, road, because the likelihood of danger is higher, (ie dogs off lead out of control on a road may be considered to have a greater opportunity to injure more people/ animals.
Police will always get involved if a person is injured, a dog is killed, or the dangerous dog is a repeat offender (ie the dog warden refers it to police because of the number of complaints received).
Betty, yoghurt pots, pack leadership and me and Pie
June 24, 2010
Betty waits for her turn with the yoghurt pot!
I do like yoghurt 🙂 not that I have one every day, over the years I have always given my older dog the pot when I am done, to lick out. First it was Truly and Teddy would wait for second pickings, when Truly died Teddy got the pot first and when Pie came along he got it second. Now it is Pie’s turn!
Betty has her turn with the pot!
Now that Pie has taught Betty not to jump on him, it seemed a good time to try out the yoghurt pot with Betty, I don’t give my young dogs food when I am eating generally, but I think this is a great way of emphasing the pecking order to Betty, and I love to see if she has accepted the order of life. As you can see in the photo, Betty pretends not to be interested in what Pie is doing, yet lies close enough to know, and the second he walks away from the pot she has it!
Avril Munson's Blog 