Avril Munson's Blog

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Betty was 6 months on the 20th of October, it is around this time that puppies move into a new developmental period and it seems Betty has with a bump! It seems almost over night that she has gone from cute and mischievous to a hooligan! More confidence has arrived creating a whole new ball game! All puppies come to this phase, I don’t know why I should be surprised and I had intended to write a blog on this as she hit this age, to warn you all of what was to come:) for me and any of you with pups of the same age.

Betty is braver on walks, her new confidence means that she goes further from me. On days when I am busy and she has less work, she is a little demon, ripping up anything I mistakenly leave lying around:)! Today she hit an all time low, she started having a real “go” at her Daddy Pie, telling him off for going in her crate to take a chew, Pie, bless him, was taking no notice of her!! Betty sounded really aggressive, really horrible, I was soon in the kitchen and hurled a box of tissues at her as well as growling fiercely at her! I could see the look of “oops” followed quickly by concern and she dropped on to her tummy and submitted, and quite rightly! I will not tolerate any anti social behaviour from one of my dogs, and this was the first time Betty has had or needed a real scolding. I was pleased to see her concern at my reaction, at least the terrible age she is at doesn’t also mean that she has no respect for me!

The day did not improve, her toilet training then went out of the window! I am the first to admit if I have been slow to get Betty out to the toilet or if I have been sloppy in making sure she has been. I caught her pooping indoors! Yes, time to be told off for that too! I shooed her outdoors, showing her I was not happy with my tone of voice and serious face. I had a very different puppy for the rest of the evening, a much nicer one:).

Most of my regular readers know that I do not use telling off as a training method, and in fact rarely scold my dogs, but there is a time and place for doing so and the day was right for Betty! Hopefully it will be some time before I have to scold her again!

I wanted to tell you all about it as I know there are several readers of the blog with pups of the same age, we all have a challenging month or two ahead! It is around 6/8 months that our little darlings turn into little hooligans, it feels like they have forgotten all  the work of the early weeks. Well they haven’t they just need to learn in a new way at this developmental stage, it can mean going back to the beginning on some exercises, or finding ways of making the exercise simpler so that they can be right again. Being sure not to get into the habit of telling them off too much or this is when the relationship can be spoilt! Managing the puppies time is helpful to avoid trouble, use of the crate to prevent mischief is helpful at times.

With the dark evenings with us now, I will be putting up some ideas for indoor training and amusement for puppies this winter, I am hoping we can share ideas:) so get thinking please? Either mail to me or you can post on the appropriate blog later in the week.

The slide show of Betty and Pie, notice the tea towel Betty is lying on:) stolen, but looking innocent again:)! I tried to catch Pie doing his face trick, not very well but looking cute!

JJ is so cool!

This is Fiona and Winnie on the left

I love this photo of JJ, he is a great dog, his personality is as big as him! Graham his owner is making a great job of training him, along with help from Mum, Val!

Fiona was a pupil of my instructor and behaviour courses who has gone on the run her own dog training business! Her little dog Winnie is a half-sister of Betty by my Teddy. Winnie is a super star at agility, as you can see from her trophy!!!

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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!