Which pooh bag do you recommend?
November 17, 2011
The Thursday morning class are always a fun group to work with and we often have the most enlightened conversations about dogs and life! This week the pooh bag came under the spotlight! I am not joking, for dog owners this is a serious subject, we all use pooh bags often enough for this small item to have a major impact on our day-to-day lives!
Daisy! A new recruit!
We all reached into our pockets for a sample to show to the group, and 7 dog owners and we all had different versions! How many versions are there and which is your favourite?
Happy birthday Nessa!
November 6, 2011
Happy birthday November 5th to Nessa! two years old and a grown up girl!
The photo’s show Nessa at various ages and bring back some great memories for me as I have had the privilege of being a part of most of Nessa’s training life!
Even Nessa can't get this ball in her mouth!
What hole?!
Nessa shows her disgust at West Ham's result!!
Help find Mollie please? Mollie is home!!
November 2, 2011
Mollie lives with her family in Takeley, if you live in the area please keep an eye up for her, she is a dear little dog and I know her family are beside themselves with worry! I have a photo and their phone number if anyone can help please?
Emma writes:
Mollie is black body with tan legs (looks rather like a teddy bear).
Ross was walking them both along the Flitch Brewers End Takeley yesterday morning around 10am but Mollie never returned.
We had a call from Hatfield Forrest to say a man had our Mollie but after waiting all day it wasn’t Mollie!
I wondered if anyone had mentioned to you they had found a dog in the last few days?
We have informed the dog wardens in Uttlesford and Herts.
She is not microchip-ed 😦
Happy birthday Harley!
October 28, 2011
Thank you to Smita for sending in the photo’s of Harley growing up, what a handsome boy he has grown into! I think this is a great idea for the blog to feature the puppy’s growing up, I think we just need to add some video’s to demonstrate how clever he has become too! Send in your growing up photo’s please?
Now I just need a camera person? 🙂
Little and large! His or hers?
October 27, 2011
Roxy and Diesel are in the Tuesday evening class together and it is definitely love! Diesel is rescued GSD who came to classes originally because he had some aggression issues with other dogs! You wouldn’t know it now! Don’t you just love how he is getting as small as he can to get on Roxy’s level?
Listen out for me on BBC Essex next Thursday 3rd November 2.15pm to 4pm, if you miss it you can listen in for the following 7 days on the iplayer
I was discussing at class the other week with Fiona and Sue (Thursday morning group) about their different expectations they have on their boy and girl dogs, both Sue and Fiona have one of each. They both reported they were always delighted with their boy dogs and quite the reverse with their girls, and yet from the outside both these little girls are trying their very best to please a great deal of the time! Interestingly Sue and Fiona reported their husbands were much softer on the girl dogs and more demanding on the boys in the home!
I know that this can be the case with children, that is Mothers are more critical of daughters and vice versa, whereas Dad’s give the girls an easier time and are more demanding of the boys. Has anyone else got a view on this? I can’t say I have really thought about this before, I am watching myself now with Pie and Betty, I will report back!
New dates!
October 11, 2011
Brodie (Tuesday night puppy class)
Events
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
19th October Wednesday and Saturday 29th October
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 Times: 10am – 4pm
Fee: £75 includes tea/coffee
Venue: Barbary Cottage
Date: November 7th
Harley keeps cool in the October sun!
A frequently asked question!
October 4, 2011
Dog training classes have an issue that other evening class don’t experience, at least not that I know of? How many soft furnishing course tutor’s have students ring them to say, “I can’t get there this week, can I send my husband instead”? Or cookery tutor’s asked “I am poorly, is it okay if my son/brother/aunt/neighbour comes this week”? 🙂 I know you are smiling now! But however often I tell people that they are the ones learning, they still think the dog is being trained! And yes I have had a request for all of the above surrogates to bring the puppy to class!
I know that Mum’s get fed up with taking responsibility for everything domestic, believing that at least someone could get involved with training the puppy! The reality is it really is the handler I train, and this dog training lark is a skill, it is learning to communicate with another species and teach them to be obedient and good mannered! In fact the more people involved in the training the more the process is slowed down! For every person involved in the training, the poor puppy has to learn yet another set of physical and verbal commands, how hard is that?
The truth is that if one person takes on the job of training the family pet it will all work out fine, promise! The dog gets trained faster, everyone in the house gets to learn through observation, (there is nothing like a bit of successful dog training to get everyone mimicking the able dog trainer). I have witnessed first hand how, when my clients stop wanting involvement from the rest of the family and get on with the job themselves, success comes rapidly, the dog suddenly starts to get it! As a result the rest of the family want to walk or train the dog, because they are a joy to take out!
These photo’s feature the Thursday class, theyhave taken on all the training and are very successful in their dog training!
Edna and HarleySid is perfect!
Badger
Badger and Lucky
A great photo and some brilliant training!
September 29, 2011
Well trained dogs, ponies and children!
Many thanks to Georgie for sending me this photo! Georgie lives just down the road from me yet it was only last week that I saw her out with all the family! Congratulations Georgie on some great training!
New puppy groups this month! And honestly dogs do not speak english!
September 28, 2011
Evie (a miniture Schnauzer ) started puppy class last week!
It doesn’t matter how often I say that dogs don’t speak english I know that not everyone will hear me! Even clients who have been coming to training for some time tell me they forget, so it not surprising, for those new to dog training,take a while to really appreciate that dog language is body language and even if their puppy is a good guesser that is all it is guess-work, the puppy doesn’t understand words, it takes  a lot of time and effort for the to learn words. Next time you find yourself repeating a word to your dog over and over again, stop talking and think movement and action! 🙂
Listen to Avril!
September 12, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00jwgwy/Steve_Scruton_07_09_2011/
For anyone missing me on Radio last week use the link above to listen! It was a fun show with Mark Punter standing in for Steve Scruton!
Avril Munson's Blog 