Avril Munson's Blog

I wonder how many of you have puppies at the stage where they are tall enough to reach the work tops and tables in the kitchen? I have been living with dogs all my life and have been fortunate to live a with a lot of puppies and still I forget how much damage they can do once tall enough to get up on surfaces! The first warning came when Betty started pulled magazines and papers off of the kitchen table, mostly they were of no real value and I didn’t take much notice, thinking I had left a chair out or left them too near the edge! One Monday I was busy going from appointment to appointment and had planned a visit home at lunch time that for one reason and another didn’t come off and poor Betty was in her crate most of the day, I felt bad, but she seemed to cope. The next day she was a complete demon, all that pent-up energy from the day before came out (easy to forget for us owners that the next day the puppy will have more energy than normal)! At one point on returning to the kitchen Betty was on top of the table, having thrown everything off on the floor, having first torn up anything tearable! The look of her face was so full of mischief I had to turn away before she saw my smile! The day went from bad to worse, she ate one DVD, a tea towel got shredded, anything she could move got moved and all this despite me training and walking her a lot that day!

The work tops have come in reach over the last week or two, at first it was just stuff near the edge but now it is anything and I have at last noticed and remembered to be a dog trainer! I am not the tidiest person on the planet, but now I must be or Betty will learn to explore work tops and high surfaces. The best way to stop this behaviour is not to leave the room with anything in reach! Betty has already realised that it isn’t a good idea to go up on the work tops when I am in the room, at least mostly, I wouldn’t test this theory by leaving delicious food near the edge :)! For those of you whose pups still jump at work tops when you are in the room here is the way to stop them:

Do

Those legs are getting longer!

not:

• speak or shout if they jump up
• do not use your hands to pull them off
• do not look at them directly

the above are all interpreted by the dog as attention and will encourage the behaviour!

Do:

• push them down with the side of your leg or hip
• do brush their back feet out from under them by sweeping your foot along the ground
• either of these without speaking or looking directly at them

I look forward to your comments and hearing your experiences and do send in photo’s of your puppy’s please?

What a difference a day makes! I have to tell you all about this, about how different my training was on Thursday after our victorious day Wednesday! I have been doing this job long enough to know now that if I have a big up with a dog or dogs there can only be a big crash fairly soon after! 🙂 Thankfully, though Sue and Alex were present from Wednesday with Nessa and Tilly neither of their dogs were involved!

Thursday morning is group class morning, a regular group generally, but this week we had two new members, Gill with Fergal and Matt and Bella, both Border Terriers. Our fifth class member is Tracey with Ella a Welsh Terrier. Tracey had brought Ella training as she has a big problem with Ella with two Border Terriers in her village, one of them bit Ella as a puppy, as a result Ella has never forgiven them and kicks off the minute she sees them on walks! Tracey and I have worked on her technique and now Tracey can get round the village and see these dogs and Tracey is able to keep Ella’s attention on her, so things have been going well!

But now we had two of the offending breed in her class, oh dear Ella was not pleased! She particularly took a dislike to Fergal, the boy Border, which is interesting as it was the boy Border in her village that had bitten her. Fergal was not to happy about being the focus of Ella’s dislike and was not afraid to answer her back. Over the first part of the class I had both Tracey and Gill working their dogs with some good heelwork at opposite ends of the garden and they appeared to be settling, Tracey disappeared round the corner of the patio for a moment when I heard her shouting “lead” or that is all I heard, I ran to get in front of Fergal, knowing that would be Ella’s first port of call, (I am quick at these moments 🙂 ) as Ella appeared, trailing her lead, minus Tracey, I threw myself at her and did my best impression of a scarey human, she was not detered for a second and rocketed toward Fergal!

Gill was great and as Ella ran in on Fergal, managed to grab her leg, I grabbed the lead and yanked Ella away, the dogs only made enough contact for us to hear the start of fighting noises, just enough to know their were not going to get along, which they had already made clear at a distance! It was all over very quickly, though I have to say all our hearts were racing and we were all very distressed! Poor Tracey most of all, she had tripped over which is how she had lost hold of Ella, and was now going to blame herself for scaring us all! Even though it was an accident that could have happened to anyone, what was great is that she had enough presence of mind to warn us all so that we were ready to take action! Ella is one brave dog, not many dogs are brave enough to come past me in full scarey mode!

I will let you into a secret I love my job:) ! especially on days like today! This morning  I was working with Sophie, Nessa, Leo, Herbie and Tilly, I have been working with all these dogs on and off over the spring and summer and today was our big

Nessa

Herbie

pay-day!!! So often with dog training I and my dogs owners work hard over some period of time, we see improvements which keep us all encouraged to keep going, even though the dogs are not quite where we want them to be. It then seems suddenly that everything starts to fit together, of course it is the hours of work that have been going on over many weeks that produce the result, but so often in dog training there is this moment in time when everything the dogs do seems to go up a gear, when they respond every time to all that we have been teaching them, when even difficult distractions do not put the dogs or handlers off and the thrill is just amazing! This morning was just such a occassion, and even better it was the same for all five of the participants, that is really incredible and unusual.

For Chris and Leo, the Jack Russell cross (chocolate coloured gorgeous boy), the miracle was that at the start of the morning Chris was so anxious about the training session, this was their first time in a group with me. Chris and I have been working one to one to get this little boys confidence with strangers, he had at last come to trust and be friends with me, today was his first big test to see if he could do the same with new people. Guess what, in no time at all he was best mates with Richard and Christine, two of our spectators! Chris really moved me when she explained to us all how she felt to see Leo being stroked by strangers, the first time in along while since she had seen this, and there was hardly a dry eye in the house, especially with me!

Sue and Nessa, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a beauty of a brindle as you can see in her photo’s. Sue started with me back in April with a young thug of a puppy, not sure where that dog went, as we now have a very lady like Staffie in her place!!! Today was the culmination of so much work from Sue, and what a result, Nessa was completely obsessive with toys, especially footballs, today you should have seen her, I was kicking the football around while Sue was doing stays with Nessa and long line recalls, and Sue stayed in charge with Nessa concentrating on Sue!!! I was so amazed it was only a few weeks ago I had to hide the football so that Sue could get Nessa’s attention! Nessa completed every exercise we put to her, weaving off lead in and out of the other dogs she did not falter once! I feel so privileged to have been a witness to their training progress, I am not sure who was proudest today me or Sue :)!

Alex and Tilly, a beautiful ginger and white Border Collie (I have a soft spot for this colour Collie:) ), who not long ago we couldn’t even groom without her having a tantrum, again completed off lead heel work weaving in and out of the other dogs! Another dog obsessed with toys, Alex was able to recall Tilly while I did my utmost to distract her by throwing toys around. And then went on to completing a very controlled retrieve, something that used to be impossible, once Tilly had the toy getting it back was a bit tricky, but today straight back to Alex!!

Sharon and Sophie, a black and white Pointer, I was thrilled to see the bond that has developed over the time I have known these two, who when they first came Sophie thought Sharon was her accessory, today Sophie was responsive and willing to please!!! I know that the work we did on retrieve today (Sharon’s first lesson with me on retrieve) is going to make even more difference to these two, all the more because the relationship is now right between them, that was a joy to see!

Last but not least Cathy and Herbie, a black Labrador, Cathy and I have been working with Herbie in a group and more recently one to one. They had struggled in the group sessions and I was thrilled to work one on one with Cathy, which gave me more time to focus on their needs as well as get to know them both better :), today was a big test to see if they could hold their training together in the group and guess what? They did, Cathy took a while to settle, a little nerves held them both back for the first 30 minutes, which is the nice thing about the recall training sessions as we have two and half hours, so plenty of time for them to settle in and start performing as they both can in private!!! So again a big pay off for us and I was so proud of Cathy as she was feeling the pressure at the start!

It isn’t often I write about the dogs and people I am working with, but today was so special I wanted to shout it from the rooftops!! 🙂 I am hoping some of my proud owners will add their own comments! Sadly I was so engrossed I didn’t even think to get the camera out, but I do have a few photo’s of at least 3 to share with you. The morning left me buzzing, happy and proud and as long as my work keeps giving me odd times like this I will stay addicted:) !