Buffy produces again!
May 5, 2011
Many of you will remember the sad news of my dear friend Annie losing her puppy last year, well Annie’s Border Collie Buffy (sister of my Pie) has produced a second long-awaited litter and has again presented Annie with one girl in the litter 🙂 ! It saves Annie having to make a decision! I don’t think Annie has named her yet, but you can spot her as the puppy furthest left in the basket photo, with the half white face!
I think there are one or two boy puppies left for sale if you should know of a good home?
So Annie what is her name? Would you like some suggestions?
Happy birthday Scruffs!
May 4, 2011
Scruffs, a Labradoodle who has featured on the blog before was a year old this week, Happy birthday Scruffs! There was a birthday party at his breeders home to celebrate the day for the entire litter of 10 puppies!! Scruffs did take his family along with him and here is Phil’s account of the day 🙂
Back from our adventure in Devon to celebrate Scruffs’ birthday. Thought you might be interested in a few pictures. Fantastic seeing all his siblings and back with his mum one year on.  As is the way with crosses they all look at bit different but there were two other dogs that are virtually identical to him.  Without collars not sure I would have been able to tell the difference!
Aside from the fun and games it was one of those weekends where all the training seems worthwhile.  As you can imagine with 10 puppies and a few other dogs running around off lead for a few hours it was a bit chaotic to say the least but he was one of the better behaved ones (mind you they were all pretty thuggish!) and it was pretty clear who had put the time in training and who hadn’t.  As you know he has been a real bugger on his recall at times recently but he was amazing coming to call and sitting nicely even with the distraction of his siblings going nuts.   The attempt at a group photograph was particularly enjoyable. Scruffs came to call and sat at heel very easily ready for the picture while there were plenty of people chasing their dogs all over the place trying to get them and then holding them to the spot for ten seconds for a picture.   There are enough times when it goes wrong so please forgive the brief gloat!   I would have given you a plug but they all live a bit far away!
Also enjoyed the time at the hotel which ended up letting dogs in the restaurant for dinner.  I feared that this could be quite a stressful meal with three other dogs in room but we put his lead under the chair leg and pretty soon calmed down and just stayed there quietly all through the meal.
Overall one of those days where all the little bits of training slot into place and make life with a dog quite enjoyable.  Of course the next day we were walking off lead in Exmoor and he spotted a pony, chased after it and wouldn’t come back but hey nobody is perfect J
See you Thursday, Phil
A dog attack|
April 22, 2011
Below is an account sent to me of a nasty incident when one of my clients was out with her dog. This experience is made even worse by the fact my client wishes to remain anonymous as she is afraid that the dog owner may be dubious enough in character to pursue her, plus the police are taking action. I look forward to hearing your comments?
I have written a summary of what happened to my dog and I a few weeks ago just to make you aware that there are dangerous dogs running about off lead and that you need to take care. I cannot mention too many details for legal reasons but I hope that it is enough for you to understand that you need to be aware.
Whist out walking my little dog with a friend and her dog we decided to go to a local nature reserve as we thought that it would be nice for the dogs to investigate somewhere new ( I do not usually go to these places on my own as I have been previously worried by dogs running around off lead with owners nowhere to be seen). We had just entered the reserve with our dogs (both on leads) along a path which opens up to a large green space with trees and a pond. As we turned the corner my friend shouted good god and as I looked up I saw three large dogs running towards us with no owner to be seen, before I knew it the big dog went straight in and bit my little dog with no warning, she then yelped so I remembered very quickly what I had been told by Avril on a course which I had done last year. I immediately kicked the dog off and managed to pick up my little dog and put her under my arm all the time I was making growling noises as I thought that this would make him stop and go away. It didn’t he came straight for me, this was a very big dog biting at my arms and with his paws on my chest I can still see his face in mine. My friend was screaming at the owner who had just appeared to put his dogs on leads. I didn’t realise until later that the other two dogs had been scratching at my legs and trying to bite (my friend told me the next day) thank god that I didn’t know. I think that it all happened so quickly that I did manage to blank bits out) I found the evidence the next day on my legs. When the owner did eventually get them on leads he walk off. By this time I noticed that my little dog was bleeding and that I needed to get her to the vet immediately.  It was not that far to walk and on the way the police came to hand and helped us. When I get to the vets my vet took her to be seen straight away as he was worried about the depth of her injuries. When they sat me down and took my jacket and jumper off they found that I had also been bitten I think that you are so shocked that you switch off and don’t feel a thing. I got away with just a tetanus injection by my little dog sustained a big bite to her back for which she had to have stitches and scratches to her body thankfully she did not have internal injuries which was the main worry. The vet told me that by picking her up I saved her life as this dog could have quite easily killed her. My dog has made a remarkable recovery thank god although I think that I will take a little longer to heal as the threat of something like this happening again is scary to say the least but like all experiences in life we learn from them and I hope that by telling you my story it will make you think and ultimately keep your precious dogs safe.
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?
You can still catch me on BBC Essex Radio with Steve Scruton, the programme is on the iplayer until Wednesday at:
On a more serious note last week Sue and her little Jack Russell cross, Millie suffered a dangerous dog attack! Millie spent the afternoon at the Vets and Sue at the doctor! Both Sue and Millie are on the mend now and I will leave it to Sue to fill in some details on her ordeal in a reply here, when she is up to it! I will say that Sue’s quick thinking and coura
Millie and Sue before the attack!
ge, saved her dog’s life, and kept Millie’s faith in Sue. This was proved the very next day when Millie made a brief appearance at class, to check her reaction to new dogs, happily Millie reacted confidently as normal, Sue having demonstrated that she is one tough pack leader!
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
Pie and Mel’s babies!
March 26, 2011
Here is a photo of Pie and Mel’s babies, I think they look like Pie already, fat and gorgeous :)!
Smita sent me a lovely photo of Harley, a GSD puppy some of you will have met on a Thursday morning! Harley is growing so fast, he is going to be a really big lad and is already a great example of GSD with an amazing temperament, a real credit to Smita and the breeder!
Thanks to Graham for another brilliant photo of JJ and you! JJ is another ambassador for his breed, he is such a big softy!
I have got behind with the blog again this week, I had a small eye operation that went really well but I had booked some time off work and Annie came over to drive me back and forth! Amazingly well-timed time off with the weather we have had this week, Annie and I had a lovely time sitting in the garden soaking up the sunshine!
The worst thing that has happened is I broke my phone and being off work I hadn’t done a back up of my diary!!! For anyone that has an appointment booked could you ring me please to confirm, in case I have forgotten your appointment?
Pie and Mel's babies!
Harley is growing up! (Thursday morning class)
JJ and Graham!
Teaching dogs to come to call! and photo’s of some new clients!
February 28, 2011
The slide show of photo’s are 3 dogs belonging to Amy, they are one Dachshund called Monty, one mini Dachshund Mikey and a gorgeous Chihuahua called Henry!! In case you haven’t guessed Henry is my favourite 🙂 and Amy now sends me regular photo’s of him!!
The recall subject is not to do with them but I wanted to show you the photo’s 🙂 Amy does seem to have a gift!
I was thinking about recall after Jane had asked on the last blog, as you know I spend a lot of my working day teaching recall and I also have to teach my dogs to be good at coming too! As I walked by the lake last week I could see 2 Mallard ducks some way ahead of us sitting still. The dogs hadn’t noticed them, mostly as they were still, I knew that as we got closer the ducks would take off. What I didn’t want was for Pie and Betty to chase them, I do not let me dogs chase any birds or animals if I can help it to keep their recall strong! I knew that if I had Betty and Pie thinking about me and along with that their brains in gear I would have a chance, I called them both to me, rewarded and continued, I repeated the recall a few times and threw in a few downs on command too. I had a pocket full of tit bits of course, so they were both rewarded generously. As the ducks spotted us and took off I had just called the dogs, both dogs responded to me and did not chase the ducks!!! A big test for Betty, but one that I helped her to resist in every way I could. If she had failed I would not have been upset with her, but I would have known to work a lot harder, as it is I will most likely get complacent and have to work harder later in the year 🙂 but for now we are on track!!!
Avril Munson's Blog 