Teaching your puppy to wait

Why do we need to teach wait to our dogs?  This is by far the most important command to teach a dog, in my opinion.  It is the lesson I want my puppy to learn as soon as possible, but it is pretty tricky to teach!  Again, this is something I started from day one with Quin, but it takes ages to teach, so I’m focusing on it now.

Why wait?  What do I use it for?

• Stopping my dog from heading into danger
• Stopping my dog from approaching another dog
• Waiting to cross a road
• Stopping them from rushing at their food
• Stopping them pushing past me through a door (rude)
• Making them wait when I open the door to the garden, or to go into the van
• Enabling me to take nice pictures of my dog(s)
• Waiting on the start line in agility

I’m sure you will find other uses for a good solid wait.  It is absolutely invaluable.  It is useful but also keeps them safe.

How do you start?

Call your dog to you.  Have them sitting at your feet.  Give them a treat for coming.  Then get eye contact with them.  Say ‘wait’.  I usually put up my hand, or my finger to reinforce.  Wait a few seconds.  Say ‘yes!’ and reward.

Do this a few (hundred) times.  The amount of times you need to do each stage and the speed with which you can move forward depends on:

• Your dog
• Your consistency
• Your patience

Not all dogs are as quick to learn and keen to please as Border Collies.  So this can be challenging.  But it is worth the effort.

Next step

Once you have your dog able to sit and focus on you for a few seconds, you can start to move away.  Take a step back.  Stand sideways and wait.  Then step back in and reward.  From there you can gradually (very gradually) increase the distance and time. 

It will go wrong!  When you move off, your puppy will probably follow you.  That’s fine.  Step back and put your puppy back into a sit.  Say ‘wait’ again.  Step away and wait.  If you can move away and then step back in without movement from the puppy, you are succeeding.  It might take a while! 

You might find it easier to put the dog into a down to teach the wait.  Get them into a down and reward.  Then say wait and step away.  I have found Quin is less fidgety and more relaxed in a down.  He can be a bit watchful and anxious in a sit.

Moving on

Once you have a bit of distance and you feel that your dog understands the basic concept, you can start to make it more challenging.  There are all sorts of ways you can do this.  Here are some options:

• Increasing distance
• Turning your back
• Moving around
• Going round the back of the dog
• Moving quickly
• Waving your arms around
• Making a noise
• Having a toy

There is a lot you can do to challenge the wait!  You can mix it up, sometimes just standing beside your dog, at other times moving around.  It’s a great idea to call your dog to you, from the wait.  This is known as a ‘formal recall’, as the dog remains calm and still, then comes neatly to you and sits at your feet.  It looks impressive!  The hardest part of this is that your puppy will anticipate what you want and set off before you call it.  So you need to go back to your dog for some of the time and reward the waiting, before you reward the recall.

Be realistic

If it goes wrong, that’s fine.   Put the dog back and start again.  If you can’t get the distance or movement, go back a step.  Move away and be still.  Or just stay by your dog until they are happy with the wait. 

Don’t push your luck.  If you try to make your dog wait in a busy, distracting environment, you will find it hard.  Try and practice where it is quiet.  Or go somewhere busy, but wait beside your dog, building their confidence.

Advanced wait

As I’ve said, there is a great deal you can do to challenge the wait.  I will talk about that in a few months’ time.   There is also a difference between ‘wait’ and ‘stop’, although you might use the same command for both.

Weekly Focus Challenge

Start working on your wait.  Make sure you are realistic.  Build it up slowly.  Share a picture of your puppy waiting while you take a picture.  How far away from them can you go? 

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

How to manage your dog’s howling and barking

Dogs bark a lot don’t they? It’s one of the ways they communicate. We often find it annoying and sometimes frightening. It can be difficult to understand why a dog is making so much noise. Or it can be challenging to stop them barking. It is a complex issue, so I will only be able to touch on some of the key points here.

Excited barking

This is probably the most common reason why dogs bark. Something is happening! The doorbell has rung! A bird flew past! There’s a cat in the garden! A squirrel ran along the fence! You got up! And so on. Your dog is communicating with you that something is happening they think you want to know about. Or they are just excited and reacting to that excitement.

How to react: DO NOT shout at your dog. Your dog will think you are also barking! Hurray! Let’s all carry on barking. Lol. Call them, calmly and as quietly as you can. Get their attention away from the thing that is exciting and reward the quiet. Make sure they know that whatever it is, it’s just not that interesting. The less reaction you give, the more likely they are to stop barking and generally reacting to the stimulus.

However, this is very hard for a dog to control. It’s a base instinct, which means they react without thinking. Just as we shout at our dog for being annoying! Hmm. Another word of caution – if there are likely to be lots of things to bark at, try moving the dog to a different space, where there is less stimulation. Or reduce access to windows, or the garden. It’s a bit of a losing battle, if you have a constant stream of squirrels in the garden, to try and stop your dog barking at them.

Frightened barking

Again, this is an instinctive reaction to a stimulus, but this time it is about fear of the unknown. Who is that person? What are they doing here? I don’t know this other dog? Why is there a loud noise? Quin barks at his reflection quite a bit at the moment, bless him. We just ignore that. Or call away and reassure him.

I’m sure you can tell the difference between excited and frightened barking? Excited barking will happen alongside a wriggling, waggy, smiley dog. Fearful barking will be accompanied by hackles up and backing off. Your dog will be tense and focused on the fearful object.

You might see both these types of barking at home and whilst you are out. Understanding the difference can help you react to them. If your dog is afraid, they need reassurance. So again, shouting at your dog to be shut up is NOT the solution. Once more, quiet reassurance and distraction is a better solution.

Just be careful that you don’t reinforce the fearful response. Call away, distract, be calm. Then reward. Otherwise your dog is warning you that something might be frightening and then thinks you want them to tell you every time they see something similar. You are not saying ‘thanks for telling me about that’! You are rewarding them for stopping.

Howling

When a dog howls, they are properly distressed. Or really, really excited! Again, you need to understand the circumstances and why the behaviour is happening, in order to react to it appropriately. Busy is my main howler. She howls when she is missing out on something. If someone goes off on a walk or out to training without her, she gives a really plaintive, sad little howl.

Howling is not nice to hear. Sometimes a dog howls briefly and then stops, realising that nothing is changing. Sadly, dogs who are left alone for long periods may continue to howl, or bark pitifully, which is horrible for neighbours.

Separation anxiety

If you get a puppy when you are around ALL the time, and then suddenly leave it alone, you will make your dog sad and anxious. This is a very real problem and one that is unfortunately becoming far more common following the pandemic. It is known as ‘separation anxiety‘.

The trick is to make sure your puppy knows that being alone is fine. The earlier and more often you do this, the better your dog will cope. I do not stay with my litters of puppies all day every day and nor do their mothers. They are safe and warm, so they just sleep, or play, until we return.

When I keep a puppy from a litter, I leave it alone from day one. I put him to bed in a crate, at night. Or during the day, when I walk the other dogs. It’s only for an hour or so during the day, but I go out little and often. Or I go into a different room (including the toilet!) and make sure that the puppy can’t follow. Building confidence is the key to tackling this issue.

Distraction toys

I always make sure my dogs are safe and have things to chew, such as Kongs, if needed. You can also try giving a dog something to distract them, such as a ‘Lickimat‘. Whatever you do, as always with your dog, make sure you are:

• patient
• persistent
• consistent

Your dog will thank you!

Weekly Focus Challenge

Think about when and why your dog is barking.  Practice leaving them alone for longer periods, managing them so that they are safe.  Reward them when they are calm and settled.

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

Managing a puppy with children around?

If you have a puppy and children at home you will know all about this already. You might not see children regularly though, so now is a good time to think about this. My puppy Quin is 5 months old this week, so I have been thinking about how much he has changed. We went to our first formal training session yesterday. This was not a puppy class – I could run those, so have not needed to take him. Therefore I wondered how he would cope with being in a room with other dogs, being made to sit quietly while our trainer was talking. Then being asked to work, as required.

Quin behaved beautifully and really did me proud. He happily said hello to the other dogs, with no barking or wariness. He didn’t annoy them at all (always a bonus!) I asked him to toilet before we went in and he did. Great!

As they grow and change, our puppies have different needs and react in different ways to situations. Managing a puppy in a family home is not just about the week the puppy arrives. It is an ongoing challenge.

Biting puppy

I was recently asked advice about a puppy that was biting a lot and really hurting its family. I referred them to my early post about puppy biting. This can be an ongoing issue though and as their adult teeth come through, then can get a bit snappy, or just occasionally carried away when playing.

My top tip in managing your puppy’s biting tendency is to stop them getting over-excited or carried away. Don’t let them take advantage of you or think that it is OK to have them mouthing or biting you ‘just because they are being playful’. It is never OK to allow this behaviour if you are not able to manage it. So if it starts to happen, move yourself or the puppy away from that situation.

Learning boundaries

Everyone needs to learn what is and is not acceptable in different situations. Children need to know how to manage themselves around their dog. You should NEVER trust your dog alone with your children when they are both young and inexperienced. I would always keep them apart unless they were supervised. Children sometimes struggle to know when enough is enough. Dogs have very sharp teeth. These two things do not mix well. NB: Learn your dog’s calming signals?

In the olden days, (ie when I was a child), we understood the expression ‘let sleeping dogs lie’. If a dog is asleep, leave it alone. Don’t go over and poke it, or pester it in any way. If you call it, you might get a response. When your dog is awake, it will play with you. But don’t expect it to always be ready to play. Dogs spend most of every day asleep. Please respect that?

Teach play skills

Dogs and children love to play together, right? Well, yes, probably. But again, this needs to be managed. I have had to learn how to play effectively with my puppies, so it’s not something that we understand instinctively.

I’ve talked a lot on this website about the way dogs play with each other. They love to play ‘snap-snap’ which gets quite lively and can sound aggressive. They also play chase, roaring around the furniture and jumping on and off things. Then dogs will also play tug with toys. This is the game Quin loves me to play with him. He brings me a toy and asks me to hold it so he can pull against me.

Sunny was the expert at explaining to people what she wanted them to do. Throw the ball! And again! Over and over again. Border Collies are relentless in this respect. Other dog breeds are not quite so persistent. Nor are they so good at explaining what they want. Some dogs like a bit of ‘rough and tumble’, but many dogs won’t like this at all. Or they might get carried away and start to be a bit too aggressive.

Enough is enough

I can tell when my dogs have had enough when playing together. The sound changes – it is louder and sharper. Watch out for this – it means the game must end! A shout from me will bring things to an end, but for some people, dogs need to be separated before a proper fight starts.

Some dogs wind up other dogs, just as some children wind up other children. Quin likes to go and say hello to the other dogs if they’ve been apart. Aura doesn’t like him doing this and grumbles noisily. I always say ‘Quin, don’t annoy Aura.’ It’s not her fault he is being annoying. So don’t blame an older child if the younger one is being irritating? Equally, watch out for children winding up the dog – sometimes it’s a fun game, but it could have fatal consequences.

There is plenty of advice about managing dogs and children, both on this website and elsewhere. As with everything dog-related, it requires a bit of thought and effort. Don’t just expect it will be fine.

Weekly Focus Challenge

How is your dog around children?  If you don’t have any, try and visit family or friends so you can assess this interaction.  Dogs can become very wary of children if they do not have this interaction.  If you do have children, how easy is it to manage them around your dog?  Do you supervise their play?  Do you keep them separated when you are not around?  Does your child understand the dog’s rules for playing and not playing?

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

Walking on lead

I am going to talk about generally walking on lead this week and will focus on specific problems with lead walking next week. I’ve just been reminded of the excellent Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme. Looking at the requirements for the different levels perfectly sums up what we need our dogs to do while they are on lead.

At the ‘puppy‘ stage of this scheme, walking on lead requires the following:

Walking in a Controlled Manner
With the puppy on lead, and without distractions, the owner and puppy should walk for approximately 20 paces and include a
turn. They should demonstrate that this can be done without undue inconvenience to themselves or others. A tight lead does
not necessarily result in classification “Not Ready”.

You can see in the video that Quin is not perfect, far from it! But he is under control and relatively calm. That’s fine for his age and experience level. I’m pretty happy with how he is generally.

What do you need from your dog?

I think before we talk about walking on lead, you need to think about what you want from your dog? Most of us want the following:

• to be able to clip the lead on easily
• to be able to walk along calmly with our dog beside us
• being able to stop or turn without having to yank or pull the dog
• crossing roads safely and calmly
• not having to walk too quickly, or too slowly.

In addition we ideally want to be able to go past obstacles and other people and dogs without a big reaction.

Go off lead

In my opinion, your dog should be able to go on lead for as short a time as possible, if at all. I feel like this because I have Border Collies. BCs are terrible on lead, even when they are highly trained in obedience. They are just too fast, too keen and too impatient! I remember going to an obedience show and seeing people being tanked around by their Border Collies – it was shocking!

As a result, I let my dogs off lead as soon as possible. Around half my walks involve a 5 minute drive to the woods, or fields. They go straight in the van, then out and away! For my other walks, they are on lead for 5 minutes through my housing estate and then away! To be absolutely honest, they are only lead so they don’t poo in people’s gardens. They don’t pull my arms off, but 5 keen Border Collies don’t walk slowly!

Lead or harness?

These days, we are thankfully much more aware of our dogs’ welfare. We sadly haven’t made the sale of prong collars illegal here yet (sign the petition please?) However, we are aware that even a normal collar and lead can cause discomfort and choking, although of course my dogs have only the best leads available, from Dogs & Horses UK.

The trend is therefore to use a harness. However, these come in many different styles and don’t always fit well. There is also an issue that some harnesses can restrict movement or cause discomfort in other ways.

Personally, I don’t use a harness for a number of reasons:

• dogs in a harness are more inclined to lean into it and pull. This is fine for canicross, but not great for everyday.
• harnesses are a right faff to put on and off. If you have more than one dog, who can be bothered?
• if a dog is off lead, why do they need a harness?

However, if you have one dog, who has to do a lot of on lead walking, then a harness is far better for your dog than a simple collar.

NB: if you do use a harness, remember that you MUST include a name tag. It is a legal requirement to have identification on your dog and you can be prosecuted if you do not have this. I use Indigo Dog Tags as they are easy to clip onto a flat lead, such as my beautiful Silverfoot Dog Collars (only the best for my dogs).

Extending leads

I understand why people use these, honestly I do. Extendable leads are great if you are too scared to let your dog off lead. You can let them wander about and sniff, but you can still hang onto the end if you need to. Again, I don’t use these – I feel they are just an accident waiting to happen. The thin, nylon line is perfect for cutting into skin, getting caught around legs and causing a trip hazard. As with harnesses, you are really encouraging your dog to pull. The dog leans into the lead to extend it.

NB: Even a medium dog such as a Springer Spaniel or Border Collie is able to cause a fair amount of damage and/or pull you off your feet.

A much better solution is a longline. These allow the dog to wander about, with no pulling required and a ‘safety line’ for you.

Walking on lead – conclusion

Teaching your dog to walk nicely on lead is a real challenge! There are a number of options to help you manage this. I’ll talk about how to manage problem behaviour in the next post. The best solution is simply to let them off lead!

Weekly Focus Challenge

What is your dog like on lead?  How much have you worked on this?  What equipment do you use and could this be better?  Think about what you need to be able to do with your dog. Try out a different walk, where you can let your dog off lead.

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

Problems with pulling when walking on lead

Last week I talked in general terms about walking dogs on lead; this week the focus is on pulling. I talked about being realistic about managing your dog on lead. There are a number of different ways you can help manage your dog. I recommended a longline to help with your puppy’s recall. You can use a harness as an alternative to a simple lead and collar. Never use a harmful device, such as a prong collar (please sign the petition).

Off lead is always best

As I said last week and often repeat, letting your dog off lead should always be your main goal when walking your dog. You should be choosing areas to walk that are generally safe. Recall is of course the most important skill to have. I realise it’s a challenge! But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t work at it.

Quin is the perfect example of a dog who is better off lead. At 5 months of age, he can still be a bit worried about new situations and can ‘react’ when he sees a new dog, or sometimes a strange person. He barks and lunges at them. When he is off lead he can ‘sort himself out’. So his reaction is much less and he calms down more quickly.

Pulling on lead

I feel that dogs pull on the lead primarily because they want to get on with the walk! Dogs tend to walk more quickly than we do. Well Border Collies do anyway. My dogs pull when they are setting out for their walk. On the way home they are much more calm. So if you are just getting to a safe place to let them off, a bit of pulling isn’t really a problem.

If you do want to stop them pulling, you need to not pull back. This is pretty difficult to achieve! You need to let the lead go loose, or change direction every time they pull forward. Another tactic is to have the lead round the back of your legs so they are not in front of you (just watch the dog doesn’t pull you over!) Or you can use a head collar, but dogs do hate these.

Why do dogs react?

If a dog sees something they do not know about, or understand, they react, usually by barking, growling, standing up to it, backing off or running away. Well you would, wouldn’t you?

How do you feel when you are faced with a new situation? Going into a room full of strangers? Starting a new job? Being introduced to a partner’s family? Scary isn’t it? So you should be able to recognise that sometimes dogs can be overwhelmed, or scared. It’s completely normal.

What to do if your dog reacts

When your dog reacts to a scary or new situation, there are a number of actions we can take. These include:

• nothing
• punish or shout at your dog
• reward your dog
• calm your dog
• train your dog

Don’t underestimate the power of doing nothing? If you stay calm and ignore the ‘scary thing’, your puppy can learn that it’s no big deal. Sometimes that’s enough. It might even be the best course of action. Let’s consider the alternatives.

Hopefully you won’t punish your dog. Ironically, if you shout at your dog for barking and lunging, they might feel rewarded for their action. A shout is basically a bark, after all. So you’re just joining in with the fun! If you pull on the lead, that is the same as your dog pulling on the lead! Be careful not to reward the dog’s actions, because you know what will happen next, don’t you? Yes, your dog will think that is what is needed.

Calm down

You might feel that you need to reassure your dog, to calm them down when something is scaring them. Sadly, this is also a reward. Your dog barks to warn you as much as anything. They lunge and look fierce to protect you. If you give them a fuss or talk to them, they can see this as a reward, or positive reinforcement, for their actions.

Train to ignore

This is ultimately the best course of action. In order to do this you need to get their attention before the scary thing happens or appears. You need to be able to hold their attention and reward them for paying you the attention.

Training your dog in this way takes a bit of time and effort. Your reward will be a dog that can walk calmly past other dogs, runners, cyclists, cars etc. If you can’t be bothered to train your puppy to do this, just ignore the barking and lunging. They might calm down anyway.

Walking on lead – conclusion

Teaching your dog to walk nicely on lead is a real challenge! Staying calm and not worrying about ‘other things’ is a good start. Training your dog to ignore other dogs and issues is much better. The best solution is simply to let them off lead!

Ultimately, we need our dogs to cope with varying situations, including crossing roads, changing pace and passing distractions. Aura demonstrates the ‘gold’ standard for the KC Good Citizen Award in the video. (The distractions are my other four dogs and my family standing out of shot, including Busy whining away!)

Weekly Focus Challenge

What is your dog like on lead?  How much have you worked on this?  What issues do you have?  Practise keeping their focus while other things pass you – eg cars, runners, cyclists and other dogs.

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

Why rewarding your dog is so important

Imagine the scene – you start a new job, it’s difficult and stressful, but it’s OK, you are going to get paid.  You probably also get feedback from your boss and those around you.  So you know you’re doing a great job and it feels rewarding.  Then you get paid!  Fantastic, that makes it worthwhile.   Now imagine that after a few months your boss comes to see you and says “You’re doing a great job, just what we want.  I know you are enjoying the work, so we’ve decided we’re not going to pay you any more.”  How do you feel about your job now?  Would you carry on working just as hard?  Hmm.

Last week I was lucky enough to see a couple of friends with three of my (grown up) puppies.  Well I do see lots of my pups regularly because they belong to friends, since I am not a commercial breeder, in other words a puppy farmer.  Anyway, I took some photos and someone asked me how we got the dogs to ‘pose’ for these.  I (rather flippantly) said “well they’re Border Collies so of course they do as they’re told!”  It was a bit of an exaggeration, as six Border Collies on a new walk will obviously be pretty excited!  We did have to manage them and I did have to keep my wits about me.  But the main reason we are able to sit them in a line is because of the rewarding!

What is a reward?

Please remember that there are different kinds of reward, not just food.  For us, we can be rewarded by money, but also by praise, or approval.  We also enjoy physical praise, such as a hug or kiss from a loved one.  Think about how that makes you feel?  It’s the same for your dog.  Even a verbal ‘Well done!’ can be rewarding in the right context.  In summary, rewards for your dog can be:

• food
• petting or stroking
• play with a toy (tugging)
• verbal praise

You might need to mix it up and offer different rewards at different times.  Or use bigger rewards at different times.  It is important to understand what is rewarding for your dog. Whatever you use, make sure you have it to hand. I use Waggs Training Treats because the dogs love them and they don’t crumble, but are small and easy to break up.

The right reward for the task

There needs to be a difference between ‘an everyday reward’ and a bonus.  What would you get a bonus for?  Usually, this will be for something extra, including an extra effort.  It’s the same for your dog.  If you are training something, the sequence should be:

• action – reward
• action – reward
• action – reward
• bigger action – jumbo reward!

For example, if you are practising wait.  You might ask for a couple of seconds’ wait (reward).  Then you might step away and then back in (reward).  Next you might step in and out a couple of times (reward).  Finally, you step away a bit further and wait a few seconds longer.  If this is successful, bingo!  Jumbo reward!  This might be a few extra treats, or a ‘release’ – OK and then play.

What about when it goes wrong?

It doesn’t always go right, does it?  If you are practising wait and your dog moves, what should you do?  Tell them off?  No.  Just calmly put them back into position and ask them to wait once again.  Don’t expect perfection (and you won’t be disappointed).  Reward the bits that go right and ignore the rest. 

Just an aside about wait training; try not to touch your dog if they break their wait and you have to move them back to position.  Touching your dog is rewarding.  You can’t always avoid it, but the less you touch them in this case, the less confusing it is for your dog.

Be realistic

As always, be realistic about what you can achieve.  Set yourself and your dog up to succeed, not to fail.  Take into account their age and experience.  Be pleased with what they can do.  I’m telling myself this as I’m writing it by the way; it’s hard to remember!

Weekly Focus Challenge

What rewards do you use with your dog?  Are these things rewarding enough?  Do you always remember to take treats on a walk with you?  Do you find an opportunity to give your dog a reward on every walk?  What about at home – do you reward your dog around the house?

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

When recall stops working

Recall is the hardest thing to conquer when you have a puppy. I met someone this morning with a young Jack Russell, on lead. The owner told me her recall wasn’t very good ‘if she sees something else she won’t come back’. What was she doing about it? Keeping her on lead. Boo. If you asked your dog, I believe they would rather be run over by a car than kept on lead their whole life. But if you put a bit of work into your recall, your dog won’t be run over by a car.

Not an instant fix

Getting your dog to come back to you is not something you teach at the start and then have forever more. You MUST work at it, day in, day out. I have talked about it from day one, but I practise it every single time I take my dogs out. I call them. And reward them for coming. Like this:

The dogs are running around and having fun, when I call Quin back to me. He comes back pretty well, going past the other dogs, who know it is not for them to come back (unless they want a sweetie!) Not a bad effort.

Recall goes wrong

I’m writing about recall again now, because at six months old, your puppy will start to change. I met someone the other day who said that their 7 month old Labrador puppy was no longer coming back to them. Ah, I said, he’s 7 months old, that’s why.

At around this age, puppies start to think for themselves a bit more. They become more confident and able to go a bit further away from you. They also start to realise that if they don’t immediately come back to you, nothing bad happens. Great! So why bother? Well what’s the answer? You have to be more exciting than the other thing! That can be tough to do. Here’s my effort from today:

Can you see him thinking ‘what’s the point?’ I’ll just lie down, that’s something we’ve been practising. But he eventually realises that I mean it, so he does come. What do I do then? Smack him for being naughty and not coming back straight away? No. I am thrilled that he came! I have to actually be thrilled (even if I am secretly wishing I could kill him). Worse will happen in the future. I know that.

Two points to notice from this video:

• My dogs are running around, off lead, next to a busy dual carriageway. They are not running into the road. Why would they? That is not the way we walk. I have shown them over the years that we go along the path. It is a familiar route to us all. More importantly though, I pay attention to my dogs and make sure I feel under control. They can run about, I can call them.
• When Quin stops and doesn’t want to come back to me, I move away from him, not towards him.

Don’t chase your dog!

Who can run the fastest, you or your dog? If your dog is ten years old or more, a bit arthritic and maybe going a bit blind, AND if you are under 30 years old and regularly run marathons, you are still not faster than your dog! If your dog decides to run, that’s it, they’ve gone.

So there is absolutely no point in trying to catch your dog. If your dog doesn’t come towards you, you need to make yourself more interesting. That’s all there is to it. Running away from your dog is a great way to achieve this.

The collar grab

Putting the lead back on at the end of a walk is a massive problem point for most people. You go for a lovely long walk and then come to put the lead back on and the dog runs away. Here are the reasons why your dog does that:

• they are not tired, the walk hasn’t been long enough (they are never tired!)
• they know that it’s the end of the walk because you always finish the walk there
• you expect your dog to come and sit calmly at your feet while you fiddle around with the lead
• you don’t reward your dog for coming back to you.

In order to fix this, here’s what you do:

1. always reward your dog for coming back to you
2. call them back to you several times during the walk, not just at the end. Don’t forget to reward them!
3. make sure you have hold of your dog before touching the lead.
4. don’t expect them to sit and wait, just grab them and put the lead on. Make sure you reward them.

Here’s my video of a collar grab. I couldn’t hold the phone, grab him and put his lead on as I don’t have 3 hands! But it should show you how I get hold of him. NB: I don’t try and hold the collar, I hold him. I grab his fur, to stroke him and make a fuss of him. That physical engagement is a reward for him, so it reinforces his desire to come back to me. I have the lead clipped around my neck, so once I have him, I can easily grab the lead and clip it on.

It doesn’t have to be neat, or smart. It has to work for me and reward my dog.

Trust your dog

Going back to the point above about dogs not running into the road, I honestly wish people would trust their dogs more. Of course I realise that I have Border Collies and not all breeds of dog are as fast, manic and easily scared as mine. Oh wait, were you expecting me to say as trainable, intelligent and well-behaved as mine? Hmm.

Dogs will run about. They should, it’s what dogs do. But they come back. Here’s Quin again. Well it’s Luna standing around to start with; she’s 11 years old so really doesn’t go far now. Where’s Quin? Here he comes. I haven’t called him, he just comes back.

Bless him.

Let recall go wrong

Nobody’s perfect. Not even me. Lol. So it won’t go right all the time. It shouldn’t though, we don’t learn unless we experience problems. Please, please let your dog go through it. If you don’t give them a chance, how can they get better?

Don’t forget, there are plenty of safe ways you can practice and reward your recall. Call your dog around the house. Call them in from the garden. When you are out, start with letting them go to the end of a longline, or extendable lead and recalling them.

If you really are a scaredy-cat, just go somewhere you feel secure and practice. Don’t just go to a field and let your dog run about. RECALL THEM! and reward. Reward. Reward. Honestly, your dog will thank you for it.

Weekly Focus Challenge

Where are you up to with your recall?  Make a note of how your dog responds when you call him.  What do you do when he comes back?  How often do you call him?  Why does it go wrong?  What do you do about it?  If you don’t let him off lead, please find a way to practise this NOW.  The longer you leave it, the harder it will be to let go. 

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

Teaching your dog to leave something alone

How do you teach your dog to leave it alone and not to pick up everything? That’s the challenge I’m faced with at the moment. It sometimes feels as though every time I set eyes on Quin he is eating something. I’ve just been reading about 6 month-old puppies who have trashed their houses and gardens. That’s a bit of a shame and not very good for the dog.

Dogs need boundaries

There is nothing wrong with teaching a dog (or a child) that they cannot do exactly as they please. Not everything in the world is good, or safe, or for them. ‘No’ should be in your dog’s vocabulary, even if they (hopefully) don’t hear it very often.

Yes we should be training with positivity and rewards, but we still need to teach them ‘stop’, ‘wait’ and ‘no’, or ‘leave it!’ Imagine you are taking your medication and you drop a tablet on the floor. You don’t want your dog eating it do you?

Common foods toxic to dogs

You can see from this list that there are some really common foods that are really poisonous for dogs. Grapes and raisins are seriously dangerous and require a vet visit. But I’m sure you, like me eat raisins regularly. Of course other foods are less of a problem – who eats chocolate after all :p.

How to teach ‘leave it’ to your dog

It’s not hard. Just say ‘leave it!’ like you mean it. Quite loudly, quite sharply. Your dog should pause and look at you in surprise. You then need to quickly call them away, or grab them, or grab whatever it is your dog shouldn’t have. Here’s a video clip of me having a go.

As with every other bit of training your dog, you will have much more success if you reward your dog! If you make it a really fantastic thing to leave the tasty treat on the floor and come back to you, they are definitely more likely to remember the lesson and the associated command.

Temptation Alley

You can also try a ‘temptation alley’ exercise. This is also great for focusing your recall! These are sometimes set up at fun dog shows, for you to test out your dog. It’s hilarious to see some dogs thinking ‘Bonanza!’ and gobbling everything in sight on their way to you. NB: if you have a Labrador, they will always eat all the treats before getting to you. Have a look at this clip now.

This exercise is also used at puppy training classes, to test recall and help you be more exciting. It’s part of the KC Good Citizen Award. For example, at the silver level:

Food Manners
The object of this exercise is for the dog to have good manners when aware of food. Food should be handled or consumed while the dog, on a loose lead, is taken in close proximity to it. The dog should not unduly respond to this temptation, i.e. not to beg for food or steal.

Good luck!

Teaching your dog not to do something is much harder than teaching them to do something. Don’t despair! You can do this. Your dog will thank you (and so will your vet).

Weekly Focus Challenge

Can you persuade your dog to leave something when they go to eat it?  If not, now is the time to work on this with them.  Think about how you manage your dog around food.  Do they beg?  Do you put them away when you are eating?  What about when you feed them – is this easy to manage?  Or could it be better?

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.

How to prepare your dog for a visit to the vet

Nobody likes taking their dog to the vet. It is definitely one of the worst things about owning a dog – coping with them being ill. We love our dogs and we want the absolute best for them, so deciding when to go to see a vet can be the first obstacle.

Is it serious?

Here are a few reasons why you need to visit your vet’s:

• Vaccinations/boosters – I’ve talked elsewhere about the importance of vaccinating your dog. Just as with people, it is life-saving and simple.
• Annual check-up – this is usually part of having their booster done and is equally important as it gives you a chance to discuss any minor issues with your vet
• Sickness and diarrhoea – probably the most common reason for visiting a vet. When you have owned dogs for many years you will know that dogs are sick pretty often and it is not an immediate cause for concern. It’s usually because they have eaten something they shouldn’t have done. Throwing up once solves it – no further action required. When it persists and/or is accompanied by diarrhoea, there is a need to take action. Again, experience shows that starving for 24 hours might solve it, or feeding a plain food like boiled rice.

Other reasons for vet visits

A vet is essential if there is accompanying lethary, if the coat is ‘staring’ ie not shiny, but dull and flat. You should also go to the surgery if you know that something toxic has been eaten (raisins or chocolate for example). Or if you know that an object has been eaten (usually if you have a Labrador this will be the reason and socks will be involved).

You should be aware of the clinical signs of pancreatitis, as this is relatively common and requires hospital treatment. The most common clinical signs include nausea, vomiting, fever, lethargy, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and decreased appetite. 

Injury – either self-inflicted or caused by others. This mainly includes any sign of limping or change in mobility. Again, experience may mean you can check for a cause (a thorn perhaps?) Or wait and see if it’s just a bruise or underlying muscle damage. You will gradually learn how tolerant your dog is of pain and whether they are behaving differently as a result of this injury. Sometimes rest is what is needed.

Older dogs require more frequent care and management. Cat the Vet talks about managing our older dogs and asks people to fill in a survey about it. You would be amazed at how much care older dogs can take! Arthritis is probably the most common issue, but most dogs over the age of ten are on at least one type of medication.

Anxiety around vet visits is very common

Why do dogs get anxious when going to the vet? After all, they start off by going just for a check-up and a vaccination. I believe this is mainly because we are nervous. So when you go into your vet’s practice, please try and relax?

Try taking a breath before getting your dog out of the car? Better still, go and book in without your dog, then fetch them and go back in. Talk to the receptionists, who are always lovely. Take a moment to look around and see the setup, admire the toys for sale and see how the waiting area is arranged.

Dogs who don’t often interact with other dogs may feel really stressed by being in close proximity to other dogs, particularly if they are feeling unwell. If the waiting area is busy, wait outside with your dog and ask to be called in when they are ready to see you. Of course this has been happening anyway throughout the pandemic, but I have to assume when writing this that things are returning to more standard practice.

Treats on hand

As with everything else you do with your dog, make sure you reward them for being there. My dogs know that they get treats just for sitting in the waiting area. This morning Luna knew that if she stood on the scales she would get a reward, so she got weighed three times! Bless her.

You can’t reward every few minutes with treats, so make sure you make a fuss of your dog and talk to them. All of this should help you to feel calm as well.

The examination

When you get called into the consultation room, you need to be positive about going in, so your dog stays happy too. You need to chat to the vet about what is wrong and then be prepared for your dog to be examined.

I’m sure you spend ages every day fussing and stroking your dog, but how often do you examine them? You need them to be comfortable with you doing this, so that a vet can also do it. Here’s a video of me checking Quin over.

The more often you handle your dog in this way, the more relaxed they (and you) will be in the vet’s. Don’t forget the reward!

Visits without treatment

If you are passing your vet’s surgery, you might like to pop in to say hello and have your dog weighed. Again, the pandemic notwithstanding, you may not be able to do this if it is busy. But it’s worth taking your dog in, standing them on the scales, giving them a reward and leaving. Nice and calm, a positive experience for you both.

The final vet visit

Over 90% of dogs are euthanised. It’s the inevitable conclusion to living with our best friend. We know that when they are suffering, it is far better to let them go, in peace, than to prolong their agony. Fortunately, our very brave and highly qualified vets are able to make this process simple and painless for our beloved dogs.

Please do make the effort to stay with your dog at this time? It is far better for your dog and actually much better for you. Death is part of life, so you should let them go off to sleep in the arms of their most loved person. I’ll stop there. RIP my beautiful Sunshine, Quin’s grandmother, gone in March 2021.

With thanks to my vets at Milton Keynes Veterinary Group, who take such good care of us all.

Weekly Focus Challenge

How have the vet visits with your dog gone so far? Have you gone in with your dog, just to get them used to going?  Stand them on the scales, give them a treat, buy them a toy (if you can afford it!) and then leave.  Or better still, get some of the staff to give your dog a fuss and a treat.  The vet’s is a lovely place where good things happen!

Please share your thoughts and a photo? You can do this in the AYWYP Facebook group, or buy the workbook to keep your own record. Details below.

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!

Remember..

Please CONTACT ME if you want to know more about me and my dogs?  And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think.  If you want to know more, why not FOLLOW ME, by filling in your email address below?  Then you will receive an email when there is a new post.

NO PUPPIES AVAILABLE

NB: I am not a dog trainer, or a dog behaviourist, just a dog breeder and owner. I can only offer my opinion, based on my experience.