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Dog doc - reader's questions

Building confidence & coping with a pup and a toddler

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Dog Doc – Your questions answered

Question 1: How do I manage my reactive dog who is scared of other dogs

A friend has recently rescued a two-year old German Shepherd cross girl, Zuki.  She was kept in all the time so is very nervous of practically everything.  I asked how she was getting on with managing her on walks.  Anna is getting Zuki to ‘watch’ her as a dog goes past, whilst feeding treats, which is working well.

I suggested adding in some play with a toy, preferably something squeaky, on a strap, so that they can play ‘tuggie’ and really engage together.  It is another way of distracting the dog away from the dog going past, without it being too boring and serious.

Another option to consider is to have a basket muzzle on the dog.  This fits fairly loosely over the dog’s muzzle.  It should not be inhibiting to wear.  It means that the dog can get on with its walk and the owner can relax, knowing that the dog cannot bite anyone else.  Here are some links to advice about the use of a basket muzzle to muzzle or not to muzzle /conditioning a dog to a muzzle

Of course disagreements can still happen!  So it is still necessary to manage any interactions carefully.  However, if the dog can be off lead, even for only short periods, without the owner needing to panic every time another dog appears, this is a step forward.

Anna said “It was really useful to chat things through and interestingly, we’re not walking her for a few days while her nose heals from the canny collar and conditioning her to it again slowly in the garden in short bursts rewarding her when she walks well and that seems to be reaping rewards!”

Question 2: I have a very lively spaniel who is hard to control – can you help?

I asked the owner what was the worst part of his behaviour.  She said that he was 16 weeks old and although they were working hard on training, especially jumping up (by turning away from him), she was finding he was too ‘full on’ with her 3 year-old son.  She has a stair gate across doorways, so that the puppy and toddler can be kept apart, but felt that they should be able to play together.

I reassured her that they probably would play together, soon.  I told her to be patient, as both the puppy and the child are very young.  In a couple of months the puppy will be a bit more settled and consistent in his behaviour and she will find it much easier to manage their interaction.

It is also likely that the toddler will become increasingly familiar with the pup and the way he behaves.  He will be less interested in the dog and react less to his presence.  This is the best way for the two of them to learn to get along.  Of course it is lovely to see children and dogs interacting, but it takes time and good management.  See my Dogs and Children page for more information.

Remember..

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Please note: I am not a qualified dog behaviourist or trainer.  I have owned border collies for many years and raised a number of puppies, so I am an experienced dog owner, that is all.  Information provided here represents my opinion, based on my experience.

Ounce's Adventures

Desirable Behaviour in Dogs

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What do we want our dogs to be able to do?

When I walk my four adult dogs around our local parks, particularly at the weekend,  I am frequently complimented on the ‘good behaviour’ of my dogs.  I feel pretty smug, but also a bit confused, because they aren’t really doing anything.  They are off lead, running around, often fetching a ball or chasing each other.  They don’t always look where they are going and I still have to pay attention when cyclists and runners go past, as Busy in particular is often roaring around without looking who is coming.

So why are they so well behaved?  I think the main thing that distinguishes my girls from the majority of dogs that people meet, is their indifference.  They do not go rushing up to other dogs, sticking their noses where they are not wanted.  In fact they give other dogs a wide berth.  If other dogs come up to them, they will turn away, or may say quite politely “No thank you, I do not want to play with you”.  (Sunny has a nice smile she likes to do 😉 )

When we walk past people, including families with children, my dogs will never, ever, run up to people or jump up.  They might occasionally go quietly towards someone who would like to say hello to them.  They will stand to be stroked and might even lean in for a fuss.

If we see runners, or cyclists, which we usually do, my dogs will get out the way on their own.  Or they will follow my command to ‘Mind’ and then get onto the verge, beside the path, where they will wait until the path is clear.  When someone pops up unexpectedly, the dogs will ‘wait’; completely still until told ‘OK’.  If we are walking across a field and someone comes towards us they can go ‘down’ simultaneously, keeping completely still until I release them.

Impressive?  Or just good manners?  I think it is the least we should expect.  This is what I am currently working on with Ounce, when we go out for our separate walks in the afternoons.

It’s such a challenge though.  Not to train the puppy, she’s an angel.  But coping with all the idiots out there.  In the last couple of days I’ve had people letting their boisterous retriever bounce up to Ounce while she was sitting quietly at my feet.  Not surprisingly, she told him to sod off, and when I asked the owner to please call their dog off, he was so half-hearted about it that the dog took no notice at all.  I’ve also had people bending down and making a fuss of her when I am calling her away from them.  I’m happy for her to talk to people, (without jumping up) and for them to talk to her, but I also need to be able to call her away first and if they encourage her to talk to them it makes my life extra difficult.

Top tip: If you see someone with a puppy, please don’t encourage it to come and talk to you unless the owner is happy for you to do this?  And please don’t allow your big dog to jump on my puppy? Work on your recall, so that your dog is nearly as obedient as my 14 week-old pup!

Overall though, it’s going well enough.  As you can see, she is growing!  Nearly as big as Busy, who has no hair left at all!

Remember..

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Ounce's Adventures

First Family Walk

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What do you call a collection of collies?  Think I have a ‘handful’ here.  Maybe a chaos of collies?  Anyway, I decided today to take Ounce out with her family for a runaround.  As you can see they largely ignored her!  She thought it was pretty exciting, but was also able to return to me specifically – that won’t last!

Remember..

If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.  Please CONTACT ME if you would like me to write about a specific topic?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think?

Dog Breeding

What is a Puppy Farmer?

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What is being done to improve dog breeding standards?

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long time, but am nervous about doing so – it’s such a controversial issue!  I am buoyed up about it by the Kennel Club issuing a document last week ‘Collaboration is the Key – the Way Forward for Breeding Regulations’.  You can read this document by clicking here.

“A new system so that more breeders are inspected, good breeders are more identifiable to puppy buyers and puppy farmers and bad breeders are driven out of business”

As a member of the Assured Breeder Scheme I am kept informed about the Kennel Club’s campaign for their scheme to be fully incorporated into the local authority licensing regime.  The government is committed to introducing new regulations on dog breeding, which will reduce the litter licensing threshold at which breeders will require a licence, from five litters per year to three.

Based on Kennel Club registration data alone, this will result in a threefold increase to the already stretched workloads of local authorities. Given this, and as a result of our work on this issue to date, Defra has given a commitment to incorporate the concept of earned recognition into the new licensing system. It was explained that this would include consideration of affiliation to a body accredited by UKAS (i.e. the ABS), in a risk-based assessment process which would ensure a reduced burden on low risk breeders (i.e. Assured Breeders).

“The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme makes it easy for people to find responsible breeders, whose standards have already been assessed.”

The KC want to ensure that the new system works in practice in order that more breeders are inspected, good breeders are more identifiable to puppy buyers and puppy farmers and bad breeders are driven out of business. This means using this opportunity to grow the scheme by incentivising the best breeders to join and improving the standards of health and welfare in dog breeding.

Puppy Farming – Definition

“A puppy bred by a commercially driven breeder with low welfare standards”.

What does that mean exactly?  Quite simply, it means that the breeder cares more about making money than how healthy and happy their dogs are.  They do not care about their customers either; they are simply the mugs stupid enough to buy whatever is being sold, at any price.

If you are ‘doing it for money’ then it becomes a business.  But if you are doing it well and responsibly, then surely you should be rewarded for your efforts?  I will talk about what you should be paying for and why in a future post.  NB: Never get a dog for nothing – It costs money to produce a healthy and happy puppy, so it is therefore right that such dogs should be paid for.  Equally, don’t pay £1000 for a crossbreed – why is it worth that?

What does a puppy farmer do differently?

Someone I know got a puppy this year; here’s a description of where he came from:

“She went through the puppy pack with all the breed details from mum and dad with us but didn’t give it to us to take away. She is a ‘breeder’ rather than the same as you (breeding your pets). Albeit a well organised breeder. She breeds 4/5 different ‘types’ and has a big set up. Was all very professional, clean, spacious etc but not ‘pets’. Lived in a massive beautiful house with lots of land and kennels. She clearly make lots of money from it! “

Here are the alarm bells for me:

  • Didn’t give away details of parents – were they actually the parents of that pup? Had they been health tested appropriately for their breed?
  • A breeder, but not ‘breeding your pets’.  Sorry? Aren’t you buying a pet?  Why would you want something not bred as a pet?  That’s the very definition of doing it as a business.
  • She breeds 4/5 different types and has a big set up.  Not pedigree dogs, defined by their characteristics and lineage, just random mongrels.  A big set up – 20 dogs? 50? Not much time for them then.
  • She clearly makes lots of money from it!  No other income? Relying on this income to live on means the litter must be profitable.  So not spending money on health testing, toys and good quality food.

Here are a few questions you could ask your breeder:

  1.  How many dogs do you have?  Can I see them?  Where do they live?  Good breeders might have a number of dogs, but they will be part of the family.  They might spend some time each day in crates or runs, but should be in the house for most of the time.
  2.  How many litters do you have per year?  How many does each dog have?    How old are they when they have the first litter?  And the last?  A litter of puppies is extremely time consuming (or should be!) So the more litters you have, the harder it is to spend time cuddling the pups.  Dogs should have no more than 4 litters each, between the ages of two and eight.
  3.  Who is the sire?  Why was he chosen? How closely related is he to the mother of the litter?  What is the in-breeding coefficient? Stud dogs should be from good lines, fully health tested and with a good temperament.  They should be similar in breeding to the bitch without being too closely related.
  4. What health tests have the parents had?  Can I have copies of these test certificates?  If the correct tests have been done for the breed, copies of these tests should be given to you as part of your puppy pack.

If the puppies are pedigree dogs, all this information is available on the Kennel Club website.  You can look up dogs and breeders and see who has had what, how they are related and what health tests they have had.  As soon as you move away from pedigree dogs, this information is not compulsory, therefore breeders don’t need to bother following the KC rules.

Finally, something to think about:

“Dogs owned by people who spent more than an hour researching where to buy them from are likely to live twice as long as those who spent under 20 minutes choosing a puppy, with mean mortality ages of 8.8 and 4.3 respectively.” (Taken from the KC report ‘Collaboration is the Key – the Way Forward for Breeding Regulations’).  As a result of buying from puppy farms, people claim to have suffered emotional and financial hardship, the KC report.

If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.  Please CONTACT ME if you would like me to write about a specific topic?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think?

Ounce's Adventures

Training Progress @ 3 months

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Away we go!

I am currently walking Ounce daily for 15-20 minutes.  I am supposed to take her out twice a day but I’m ashamed to say that I rarely manage that, although I do try to provide additional experiences, such as visiting family.

I make sure that the walks we do are different from day to day.  So we sometimes walk on lead from the house for 5 minutes, then round the field by the lake off lead, then back up to the house.  On other days we hop in the car and drive round the corner, so that we can do the whole walk off lead.  Or we might go in a different direction, so that we are closer to the lake and the trees.  I plan to gradually increase the variety of walks we do, but it’s a challenge when the time is so short.

I walk her in the afternoon, before they have their dinner, so that she is hungry for treats!  Each day I mentally run through the ‘programme’ of activities we might cover.  This includes:

  • Walking on lead
  • Walking off lead, letting her wander away from me and have a good sniff
  • Recall x 10-20, making sure she comes back during the walk, not just at the end

  • Sit x 5
  • Down x 5-10
  • Play tuggie with toy
  • Chase after toy
  • Fetch toy, with recall

  • Ignore a person walking past, while watching me and having treats
  • Say hello to a person walking past, without jumping up

  • Wait practise.  This is quite a tricky one, as you can see in the video.  You have to start right by the puppy and only move away bit by bit.  I stepped in to feed her after a few seconds, before she got bored.  I should have ended it there, because as you can see she then did get bored.  I tried not to ‘reward the fail’ but to make her do a tiny bit more before I rewarded again.  I didn’t do a very good job!

I’m pleased to say we are managing to work through all these elements.  The other day I was feeling smug and getting ready to head back, when a man appeared round the corner, running flat out.  Ounce first of all turned and barked at him “what are you doing you maniac?”  Then she set off after him, running full pelt, hard on his heels.

There was no way I was going to catch her.  I called her in a variety of tones, starting with a firm voice, but remembering to switch to ‘Excito-mode’ – more of a high-pitched squeal.  After only about 10 seconds, she came hurtling round the corner back to me.  Phew!  Good test of her recall – passed.

Finally, just before putting her back on lead, I did a couple more practice ‘downs’.  Because I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now, I am starting to say ‘down’ (trying to be consistent in the tone of voice I use and being firm without sounding too scary) then waiting to see if she knows what that means.  She does!  Yesterday she looked up at me and flopped down, without me moving my hand down to her nose to bring her into position.  Hurray!  Only another few hundred more times and she might do it most of the time on voice command alone…

Remember..

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Ounce's Adventures

Visiting Family

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Seeing the Rellies

On Monday we had so much fun.  Ounce and I travelled to Surrey and met up with Nicole and her dogs, including Ounce’s dad, Sox and her half-brother Dreamer.  The two pups got on straight away and had a wonderful time running around together.  They are just two weeks apart in age, so it is lovely for them.  Clever Sox produced a second litter just like the first one, same colour mix, same number of pups and very similar to look at – just that Dreamer has matching eyes, unlike Lenny!

Before we left, we decided to go for a ‘family photo’.  Easier said than done, as you can see!  They do look great though, don’t they?

After that we went round the corner to my friend Jane’s.  She has three of my pups, one from each of Sunny’s three litters.

This is Nell, Luna’s sister.  They are so alike, it is really quite hard for us to tell them apart, even after 7 years!  Their ears are set slightly differently, but that’s about it.  Luna and Nell don’t like each other much, typical sisters!

Lyra was the only girl in Sunny’s second litter.  We toyed with calling them ‘Snow White and the seven dwarves’ but decided that Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy and Dopey were not the best names for beautiful puppies!  Have a look at the Litters page to see what we did call them.  Lyra is a beautiful girl, so like her mum.

Jumble is Busy’s brother.  He is such a happy boy; he really loves life and his family. He has such a sweet nature.  I am lucky to be able to see these pups regularly and they are lucky to have such a brilliant home and loving family.

Ounce really enjoyed seeing everyone and of course being made a fuss of by all the people. She plonked herself on my goddaughter Alice’s lap, making herself completely at home.  She was very tired after all her adventures!

Here’s a tiny clip of the pups at play

Dog Breeding

My First Breeding Experience

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Becoming a breeder – The first time

This is a description of my first experience mating a dog.  WARNING: some explicit language has been used.

Sunny was different from our previous dogs.  I made sure that I cuddled her and handled her.  She was encouraged to come onto the sofa and lie with us.  I took her to training classes and paid her much more attention.  The boys were already teenagers when she arrived but all visitors to the house were made to play with her.  Made to by her, of course, not me.  She explained the rules as soon as people arrived: “Here’s the ball.  Throw it for me.  Then I bring it back.  Then you throw it again.  And again.  And again.”  I watched many people being taught this game by her over the years, including grandparents, non -dog owning people and toddlers who couldn’t yet talk and weren’t very good at throwing!  When we had a French family stay with us, the children learnt to say “Where’s the ball?” before anything else!

I had a vague plan to find a mate for Sunny and someone at a show introduced me to a friend with a nice black and white boy.  They felt it would be a great pairing as both dogs were super-fast and agile.  I knew that I had to get Sunny’s hips x-rayed and got that done.  It involves a general anaesthetic but doesn’t take long and isn’t too hard for the dog as it’s not invasive.  I then started to get cold feet about the dog because he wasn’t registered and hadn’t had his hips done.

Suddenly Sunny came into season.  She was three years old so I knew I had to get going.  I did a frantic search online for another stud dog and fortunately, found Julia.  She was extremely experienced and knowledgeable.  She checked Sunny’s pedigree and agreed I could put her stud dog to her.  He was another red and white, a show champion no less and best of all, only lived down the road.

The first mating was quite traumatic for me.  When we arrived at Julia’s house, there was Wizard, in all his glory.  He was beautiful, but seemed so big, compared with my little girl.  He was really keen to ‘get on with it’ but Julia made him wait for a while, until Sunny and I were a bit more settled and not quite so anxious.  Then there was plenty of sniffing and licking and mounting.  I was surprised with how much we needed to be with them.   There was a chance that Sunny could have really attacked Wizard, but fortunately he was pretty determined.  It was also a bit of a challenge as it was Sunny’s first time, so it was quite a ‘tight fit’.  Once he has penetrated and ejaculated, the dogs remained ‘tied’ for around ten minutes.  This is where the male stays inside the female, but they turn around so that they are tail to tail.

Sunny screamed the whole time he was inside her, yelping as though she was in agony.  This was hard for me to take – my poor girl!  But as soon as it was finished she was all bouncy and jaunty, almost as though she was ready to go again!  Cheeky girl.   Even better, when she got home she told Buzz all about it!

Next time..

My next post in this blog will be about the arrival of the first litter.

If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.  Please CONTACT ME if you would like me to write about a specific topic?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think?

 

Ounce's Adventures

Chewing, weeing, biting – a puppy’s endearing habits

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How do we stop all the bad behaviour?

This week Ounce has had lots of fun – we went to an agility show!  Sadly I was too busy paying attention to my puppy and all the admiration she was getting to take any pictures – will try and remember for the next time.

Here a picture of her cousin Aura, with her rosette and trophy, after winning a grade 3 class.  She is in grade 4 now!

Agility is all about having fun with your dogs.  They get so excited when they are there and they really love doing it.  My last run of the weekend was completely rubbish, but Aura came out smiling so widely – she had had the best time!  I look forward to training Ounce, but we won’t start for another 9 months.  Meanwhile there is work to be done..

Chewing

Puppies chew things – everyone knows that.  But why do they do it and how do we stop them?  They do it because they need to get rid of their baby teeth and grow in their adult teeth.  Just like babies, this process is lengthy and can be sore.  So they go through periods where they will chew anything they can get their teeth into!  Like this coaster, left on a side table.

Prevention is definitely better than cure.  Here are my top tips:

Crufts 36″ Dog Crate – 36 x 22 x 25 ins high

Keep puppy safe.  Do not leave your puppy unsupervised unless they are in a safe place; a run or a crate.  Of course this is easier said than done.  We don’t want them to be ‘cooped up’ if we can avoid it.

A crate like this one is ideal.  Puppies like going in their bed, especially if you give them a treat every time you shut them into it and feed them inside it as well.

Provide plenty of toys to keep them occupied.  These will get chewed, but it is better that they chew these rather than your house!

KONG Puppy Durable Rubber Chew and Treat Dog Toy – Small, Assorted

Kong chews are invaluable for keeping your puppy entertained while you are away from them.  If you fill it with treats and freeze it, this will keep your pup busy for quite a while!  It is also good for when they are teething.

Weeing – the nightmares of toilet training

Another massive challenge with puppies – how do you stop them weeing everywhere?  I know perfectly well that if I pay attention to Ounce and take her outside regularly, especially after she has woken up, she will go in the garden, not in the house.  Hmm, well it’s a good theory.  The frustrating thing is that she does know, she just forgets.  So even if I leave the door open so that she can go into the garden when she wants to, she can’t really be bothered.

I am now trying to make it clear to her that going in the garden = success!  Lots of praise and cuddles.  Going in the house = BAD!  I am not happy and get pretty grumpy about it.  I don’t smack her, or ‘rub her nose in it’ but I do make sure she knows that is not what is expected.

Yesterday we had a first – a wee on the walk!  Don’t be surprised if your puppy does not go to the toilet on their walks for quite a long time.  There is just too much excitement out there.

Biting – the game of ‘snap-snap’

I call this game ‘snap-snap’ for obvious reasons.  If you have more than one dog, chances are you will have seen this.  It’s a lovely game and so nice to see the dogs enjoying each other’s company.

However, if you don’t have another dog willing to play this game, your puppy will try to play snap-snap with you!  As you can see, it is really just ‘mouthing’ without real biting, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.  So it needs to be managed.  Again, toys can come in handy, as playing ‘tuggy’ with the pup can be equally stimulating and helps you bond with your puppy, without hurting.  Be aware of what your puppy wants to do and teach them that some playtime is really fun, but it must be on your terms.  Dogs say ‘no’ to each other by moving away, or yelping – you can do the same.

What do you think?

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Dog Breeding

My life in dogs – how I got started

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A life in dogs

My life in dogs started with the first dog in my life, Bella, a black Cocker Spaniel.  She smelled horrible (ear issues) in my memory.  She died when I was 10.  Then we had Shahn, a Working Sheepdog, who nipped our ankles if we weren’t careful.   Two years later we had Kali, another WSD, who was incredibly soppy and would follow us around, getting under our feet and breathing her smelly breath on us.

Bella – she loved having her picture taken

When I was 18 my mother decided to get Afton, a pedigree Border Collie.  She was a completely different kind of dog – a ‘proper’ dog.  Beautiful to look at, a classic collie, and with a really super temperament.  She loved to have things thrown for her – anything at all, she didn’t care.  The classic was that she would bring visitors a tiny twig, or a leaf and carefully place it on their lap, then gaze at them patiently, waiting for them to throw it.

Rue (next to me) with Missy, Daisy and Afton

My mum wanted to breed from her and when I was around 21 she had her first litter.  I was there for the whelping (the births) and loved it!  It was so exciting.  She had beautiful puppies, which we named after herbs and we kept Dill.  Two years later she had another litter and we kept Rue.

My first dog

I took on Rue once I had stopped work after the birth of my second son, in 1994.  She was a sweet girl, but a bit neurotic.  She didn’t like other dogs much, or men, or children.  Typical collie.  She was easy going, kept herself to herself.  Undemanding but a bit boring.

The first puppy of my life in dogs

My first puppy was Buzz, bred by my mum.  It was 1997 and we had spent nine months trying to move house.  We kept getting gazumped, or losing our sale, because our house was made of concrete and people couldn’t get a mortgage to buy it in case it crumbled to dust.  (The mortgage company had clearly never trying to put up a picture).  We were pretty fed up and there was this litter at home.  My younger son to a shine to Buzz, so there we were, a two dog family.  Soon to be followed by Woody, the cat.

Rue with Sammy

Buzz was a right pain.  He was as neurotic as collies can be, easily spooked.  He would bark, irritatingly, to come in, or go out, or whatever.  Incessantly at the doorbell.  He loved the boys, and would run around while they played, but they didn’t play with him.  We were brought up to have respect for our dogs, and they were always left in peace or put away if the house was busy.  We occasionally stroked them, but they were never cuddled, or handled, or fussed.  They were just part of the house, part of the furniture.  Not really walked and certainly not trained.

Buzz and Woody (with Batman)

New understanding of my dogs

I did do some training with Buzz and because he was a collie he was generally obedient, but didn’t really do much.  It was while I had Rue and Buzz was a puppy that I learnt that dogs could talk.  Not just bark, but actually communicate.  I was sitting working at my desk and Rue came into the room.  She said “You’d better come.  That annoying puppy has done something naughty.  I told him not to, but he did it anyway.   It wasn’t me.”  I was surprised that she was able to say all that, but she did and sure enough, when I looked, there was the chewed thing, just as she’d said.

Sunny at eight weeks

Buzz had grown up with two small boys, but they never really paid him any attention. It was a shame because his brother Digby had gone to my friend, who also had small boys.  Digby was one of the family and would lie on the floor cuddling with George, aged 2.  He was a super boy and I think that was when I started to realise just how much dogs could vary and how important their upbringing was to the way they behaved.

Sunny – the dog of my life

I had seen red and white collies at Crufts and when I mentioned to my mum that I fancied getting one, a few years after Rue died, she put me in touch with a friend of a friend who had a red and white girl.  I went from Essex to Southampton to see Sunny when she was three weeks old.

It was the first time I had been interviewed by a breeder and I was surprised, but pleased when I passed the test and was awarded with the puppy.  I named her Sunshine, as she was born on Midsummer’s Day, June 21st 2006.  She was the start of my journey as a breeder.

Buy the Workbook

The Workbook – A Year With Your Puppy is available to buy. It was written and designed to be a hands-on, interactive book for you. It will help you survive the first year with your puppy, but also act as a memento of that time and the journey you have been on. You can write notes and stick in pictures of your puppy throughout the year. Lovely!

BUY NOW!

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