News and rosettes!
June 21, 2011
Lucky wearing the rosette he won at class!
Two classes came to the end of sessions last week, to celebrate the improvements by dogs and handlers we had a fun test of all the exercises! Nicola sent me a photo of Lucky proudly wearing his rosette, he was amazing in his stay exercises! I am pleased to say that everyone went home with a rosette and I only judged the stays so no favouritism on my part 🙂
What is your dog thinking? Ever wondered why your dog does that? So much of your success with your dogs is about understanding the dogs mind, so often we interpret their behaviour in a human way and respond in that way, no wonder the dogs become confused and naughty. By learning to interpret dog behaviour in a dog like way, the dog/human bond becomes stronger and living harmoniously with your dog becomes easier. If you would like to learn more I have a theory course (without dogs) this coming Saturday, for those that want some answers, held at Barbary Cottage! Saturday 25th June
Avril on Radio
You can hear me on BBC Radio Essex with Steve Scruton next Friday 24th June, or on the iplayer for the 7 days following! (2pm-4pm)
After my blog about Tracey’s Grand Basset Griffon Vendeen! and the seed problem it was great to hear from a client from a while back Sue Marshal and her GBGV’s, many thanks Sue for the photo’s! What are their names Sue?
Another Grand Basset Griffon Vendeen!
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Sue Marshal's GBGV's in the snow!
Seedy time of year!
June 16, 2011
With all the dry weather it feels like wild seed-time has come round faster than ever! Tracey and her dogs reminded me this week, as her 2 Grand Griffon Basset Vendeen, and yes this breed looks just like the one in the photo! Mungo and Milly have the type of coat that acts as a magnet to grass and other wild seeds, one quick shake of those long ears can rapidly catapult a seed deep into the ear canal! Resulting in a trip to the vet and anesthetic to remove the offending seed! So far Tracey has had 4 trips to the Vet in 4 weeks, a very expensive time of year! All this despite avoiding any off lead walks and avoiding as much long grass as possible. I think some dogs just have ears that act as funnels for seeds!
As a result Tracey has found a way of fending off some seeds with some stylish head wear!
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- Yes this is a Grand Griffon Basset Vendeen
Do keep an eye on your pets and seeds a few tips are:
- a quick brush following a walk to remove seeds before they find their way in deeper
- if your breed needs clipping keep them very short this time of year
- if your pet seems off colour or doesn’t seem keen on you touching his ear get them checked at the Vet, the ear canal is very deep and the lower part is not visible with the naked eye.
- Seeds and thorns can work their way in between toes, causing sores or worse, so keep feet groomed and clipped.
Feeding time!
May 22, 2011
I thought you may be interested in my favourite feeding regime for my dogs, I will be interested to hear your comments :)?
In a perfect world I prefer my dogs to have full-time access to their food, this is called ad lib feeding. Sometimes it is not possible to feed like this if you have multiple dogs, it may be that Pie and Betty will be too competitive over food and will not settle to my regime, I will let you know!I haven’t been able to try until now, but now that Betty is over 12 months and on the same food as Pie, I can start working toward leaving food out all the time, this is how I have started!
I had Betty on adult food for about a month, to allow time for her to get over the novelty of a new food, once that was achieved I started to increase their meals a little more each day, until both dogs were walking away and leaving some food. For Pie that took about 2 days, he has been fed ad lib before! For Betty, who is very greedy and competitive it took nearly a week! I thought she would pop :)! I would add here that the food I use is very low in salt, colours, sugar and additives, this is an essential part of the process, otherwise these ingredients increase appetite.
Yes, Betty has put on a little weight but I know she will soon lose this again once she settles into the new regime! That is what I love about feeding dogs in this manner, they do not stay fat! If fed on the correct diet and given full access, they soon become confidant that food is always available with no need to eat a store for later and keep a perfect figure, making life easy for me!
Betty is now leaving food at every mealtime, so far she finishes the food either before the next mealtime or around that time, 2 weeks on and this morning Betty finished last nights dinner at breakfast time this morning, not as soon as she got up, but at the very time I would have fed her, this tells me she is still programmed to eat at those times and it may take a week or 2 for her to find “her” best eating time. I have refilled the bowls and Betty has eaten a very small amount, overall eating a much smaller breakfast than before we started this process, therefore already her body weight is beginning to return to normal!
Regarding the best eating time, with any animal it is not good for them to eat a large amount just before exercising, it can cause health problems if they do, those of you with deep-chested dogs will be particularly aware of the problems. In the past I have found that my dogs naturally establish an eating routine around consuming the largest amount late in the day, when they are sure all activities have ceased. Strangely not a time of day I would advocate feeding a pet! Yet when allowed to choose it has been all of my dogs favourite time!
Another plus is the dog will be hungry for titbits when training! The regular food is obviously pretty useless for training, but a treat really is a treat!
New advert from Battersea and it is funny!!
May 17, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZRrqEDP9c&feature=youtu.be
Check out this link, you won’t regret it promise! How great to see a rescue ad that makes me laugh instead of depressing me!
Photo’s of class and recall training!
May 9, 2011
4 of the Thursday evening class in sync!
The Thursday evening class are starting to work as a team! We don’t have any displays planned either! Working in sync at class in this way puts a lot of pressure on the handlers and the dogs, we work the dogs close together to teach them to concentrate on their owner. All of the handlers were surprised by how well they did!
I have some really excellent photo’s of the recall training session last month, but sadly for some reason I have struggled to get them on the blog, today for some reason I have managed to upload some of them! If Phil, Gina, Kirsty, Graham, Gill or Sally would like me to email them their photo’s contact me please? Meanwhile here are some of them:
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!
Avril Munson's Blog 