How do you start socialisation?

When you meet someone, do you rush up to them shouting ‘Play with me’? Do you insist that everyone you meet talks to you and gives you a hug? Or do you calmly walk up and look at the person to see if they are interested in talking? Let’s think about how dogs need to learn to say hello, otherwise known as socialisation.

If your small dog runs up to my tiny puppy and chases it, do you think ‘how sweet they’re playing’? I don’t think that. My puppy is frightened. He doesn’t know your dog, so why would he want to play with it? What will happen when Quin grows into a big dog (the size of a lab) and your dog runs up to him and chases him? He might turn round and say ‘go away’ and snap his teeth, which might catch your dog and draw blood. Who’s fault will this be? You taught him that dogs are scary and rude. 

Call your dog. Get it under control. Walk calmly towards me and say hello to me. If I stop to chat, your dog and mine will say hello. They might even play!  I teach my dogs to ignore everything they pass, as a starting point. But if I say hello to someone, they can say hello. Calmly. It’s not that I’m an anti-social bitch who never talks to anyone. It’s that I want a calm, relaxing walk, with no stress, shouting or running away. I don’t want barking or lunging, pulling on the lead, or lying down until other dogs go past and then leaping at them.

How to socialise your dog

Teach them to be calm and focus on you. Like this:

Other dogs just aren’t that interesting. There is no need to panic and run away. Nor is there any need to bark or lunge. This other dog is not a playmate, I am exciting and will play with you! One of the crucial parts of this process is how I behave with my dog. I MUST stay calm and positive. If I am nervous, particularly if my dog is on lead, my dog will know straight away and that will impact on how he reacts.

Ignore it, it’s boring

Here is some more training to ignore. With a bit of recall thrown in at the start:

You can see in this video that there is a lot of feeding of treats – in this case, cheese! Look how small he is though! Such a baby still. I am not going to feed him this much indefinitely, but at this point, I need to get commitment from him. NB: I feed my dogs treats as rewards for the whole of their life!

The next step

When you are confident that your dog is calm and feeling happy, you can try a bit of greeting:

You can see in this clip that he is not that confident. He thinks about running away, but is reassured by me standing calmly. Quin then comes through my legs, so nice and close to me. He enjoys saying hello. So much in fact he jumps up! He nearly gets rewarded for that, but fortunately he remembers he’s not supposed to do that so is rewarded for sitting down.

Look at how he is with the other dog. He doesn’t really want to engage with it. The other dog would like to sniff him, but it is on lead, so can’t get there without pulling. Because he’s pulling, he can’t reach Quin and Quin isn’t interested in talking to him (perhaps because he is pulling?) So then we calmly walk away.

What is socialisation? Why do we need it?

What is the ultimate goal here? I am aiming to teach my dogs to calmly pass other dogs on their walks. But I also want to be able to have them walk alongside other dogs, if I meet up with friends.

If you only have one dog, these issues are bigger and more difficult to overcome. If you have a breed of dog (or a mix of breeds) that are not particularly confident, such as a poodle, or a toy dog, you will find these issues more challenging to train, which means socialisation is even more important.

Border Collies want to learn and to please. They are more intelligent than other breeds and will pick up training more quickly. But that doesn’t mean you can’t train other dogs – of course you can. You just might need more time, more effort and maybe some professional help from a good dog trainer.

Other training progress

I’ve started teaching Quin to ‘wait’. This takes a long time, but is an essential command, one that I use every day.

I will be adding time, distance and distraction over the next few months.

Finally, I am very pleased with his on-lead walking. I don’t walk him on lead very much, but is vital that he is able to do so.

Weekly Focus Challenge

How are you going to react when you see other dogs whilst you are out?  Make yourself stay calm.  Try to get your puppy’s attention and give them lots of treats whilst people go past, then play!  Be interesting, rewarding and exciting.  Think about what you are enjoying with your puppy’s walks?  What still needs working on?

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.

Stop jumping up!

A dog that jumps up at people is annoying. Fact. People rarely like it. Unless of course it is their dog, when they might actively encourage it. Which is a bit of a shame, because it makes training a lot more difficult. Jumping up is not a desirable trait.

If you are out walking your dog though, chances are you do NOT want them rushing up to strangers and leaping into their faces. So why do they do that? And what can we do about it?

Why dogs jump up

With this litter, my tenth, I finally realised why dogs jump up. When they were just a few weeks old, the mum is not with them all the time. She arrives into the den or run and they rush to greet her. Initially this is just for milk. They scrabble around to get onto a teat and when they are too big to fit lying down, she will stand so they can get into position underneath her.

A few weeks later, they have started to eat solid food. In the wild, this consists of her regurgitating food for them. The puppies all rush to her mouth and ‘kiss’ her, licking and pawing at her.

Steps to stop jumping up

It is perfectly possible to stop your puppy from jumping up at you. But it takes CONSISTENCY and you must be PERSISTENT. Here are the steps:

1. Sit down with all members of your household and agree that this is a behaviour you want to stop. You can have plenty of cuddles with your dog, without letting them jump up when they see you.
2. When you come into the room with your puppy, DO NOT give attention if they jump up at you. Say nothing. No eye contact.
3. If they persist in jumping, turn away from them. Walk away from them, ignoring them completely.
4. When they stop jumping up, bend down and give lots of praise and fuss. Ideally, say ‘yes!’ as you do this. You are rewarding the correct behaviour. Great.
5. Model this behaviour for your family and friends. Ask them to copy you.

Out on walks

Ideally, you then need to continue this good practice when you are out and about. You should initially stop your puppy from greeting people on walks. Call your dog to you and reward their attention. Then when they are calm and still, the person you meet can bend down and make a fuss of them. Perfect!

What is rewarding?

There are various things that your dog finds rewarding:

• Praise – your dog loves you and anything you say in a positive voice is rewarding to them
• Patting – a gentle fuss around their head or ears is tremendously rewarding
• Play – activity with a toy is great fun!
• Food – (can’t think of a way to say food beginning with p). Of course food is a great reward. Tiny amounts though.

If you push your dog off you when it jumps up, you are rewarding it with ‘patting’. If you shout at it, you are rewarding it with ‘praise’ by speaking to it. Have a look at my ‘fun quiz‘ for more ideas about how not to reward your dog…

Managing visitors to your house

Of course not everyone you know will understand the importance of good dog behaviour and they may be really pleased to meet your dogs. But some visitors may be quite nervous around dogs and definitely don’t want to be leapt on!

When people arrive, put your dog away. Every home should have a separate space, even if it is just a bathroom. Ideally, it should be a room that the dog is used to being in on its own, so that it doesn’t try and wreck it if left for a few minutes.

Greet your guests, bring them in. Ideally, you want to get them seated and settled before you bring the dogs in. Then calmly let the puppy in. If people are sitting down there is less chance of them being jumped on and it is easier for the visitor to bend down to stroke them.

If the puppy jumps up, try calling them away. Calm them down, then let them try again. If they get too excited, take them away. Do this by calling them, not dragging them. Put them away again, preferably with a treat.

Good manners cost nothing

It’s just a bit of time and effort. You want other people to love your dog, so try to teach it to behave politely? I did train Ounce not to jump up, more or less. Here is the post of her progress at around this age.

Weekly Focus Challenge

How are you going to stop your puppy from jumping up?  Be aware of your behaviour when you come into the house.  Talk to family and friends about what you plan to do to stop the jumping up and why that is important to you.  Reward your puppy for not jumping up.

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.

Puppy travelling – how can you get them used to the car?

This post is about putting your dog in the car, not about going on holiday, or travelling abroad. One day we will do those things, but not today…

Like so many things in life, getting a puppy used to travelling by car takes practice. It’s as simple as that. Lots of dogs do not like going in the car to start with. When I take my puppies to the vet’s for their microchips, or to the specialist vet’s for their hearing and eye tests, they often cry for most of the journey. Some of them are usually sick.

When they go off to their new homes, they are still small enough to be cuddled. They are usually happy travelling on a lap, curled up on a blanket or towel. In a crate, in the boot, they are very often frightened and stressed. Even covering the crate doesn’t necessarily help. Earplugs might be needed!

Travelling in crates

Dogs must be secure when travelling in cars – it is a legal requirement. The most common way of achieving this is by having a dog guard fitted between the back seat and the boot area. The advantage of this is that it is inexpensive and easy to fit or remove. It should not impact the sale of your car in the future (although the mud and dog hair might!)

However, if you are planning on leaving your dog in your car, where they might chew, you might be better off getting a crate to go into the boot. This can be a free-standing crate that just sits in the boot (see above), or it could be a structure that is specially fitted. When you have multiple dogs, people normally find that a van is the best option.

One of the key advantages of this option if you plan to go to any events or shows with your dog is that the dogs can be safely left inside the cage, with the car boot or doors open. It’s also brilliant if you are taking the dogs away with you, as they have plenty of room.

Other travel options

Some people don’t like using crates, or they don’t feel they have space in their car. You can use a harness to keep the dog secure on the back seat. Personally I feel that a dog is likely to chew through a harness. I also feel that a crate gives a dog more opportunity to change position and stand up, if it wants to. You can also put a water bowl in a crate.

How can we help?

As I’ve said, the main thing in getting a dog used to travelling is to take your dog out and about. Don’t make the only time they are in the car be when they go to the vet! Take them out for short journeys to different walks. This has the advantage of being a really positive experience for your dog. It also gives you the chance of a change of scenery.

I tend to walk from home for only around half my walks. The rest of the time I go off to woods or fields. I park in places where my dogs can go straight out from the van, with no lead walking at all. Lovely!

If your dog is really stressed by the car, try feeding them in the boot, with the engine off. If that is too stressful, start with giving treats next to the car. Gradually increase the time in the car. Turn the engine on and sit quietly, with the dog in their crate. Then start to go for short journeys, without stopping or getting out.

Quin’s other news

Walking around other dogs continues to be a challenge. The other day I had two dogs, including a greyhound, run over to us, causing Quin to run away from me. The owner called them, but it was a bit of a challenge and I had to go and fetch Quin from where he had run to hide under the van.

Fortunately, some dogs are polite and don’t rush at us. Quin is happy to sit by me whilst they go past, or even cope while they sniff him. We have managed to walk alongside a few other dogs, which is great.

This morning someone remarked “What a well behaved puppy!” That’s lovely, but really, I’m not doing much. It’s a slow, steady process. Keeping on doing it, every day. We do a few recalls, a bit of a wait. On lead, off lead (mainly off lead). Playing with my puppy. Engaging with him. He’s a happy boy, loving his life. Which reminds me to go and check what he’s eating..

Weekly Focus Challenge

Take your puppy out regularly in the car.  Make sure they are secure.  Reward them for getting themself into the into the car.  Go on short journeys every day, preferably with a positive experience at the end of the trip.  Watch out for your puppy jumping out of the car, as this may stress their joints unnecessarily.

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.

Socialisation – part 2: meeting a friend

This post is really about recall, but it’s also about socialisation. On my post two weeks ago about socialisation, I talked about training your dog to ignore other dogs, to be calm and not lunge or bark. I wanted to be able to stay relaxed and calm as other dogs walk past. One of the best ways to do this is to arrange a playdate.

Life would be pretty boring if we never talked to anyone else! I definitely like seeing friends and I love walking my dogs with other people. So how would Quin react to meeting up with another puppy his age? And would he ever come back to me? Would the playdate be a success?

Meeting another dog on a playdate

This morning I met up with a friend, who has a five-and-a-half-month-old Border Collie puppy. We had both pups on lead to start with and managed the distance between them and the way they said hello. It was interesting, because Quin immediately knew the puppy was a friend. He recognised his breed and the age of the other dog, not surprisingly. His behaviour was far more confident and he straight away asked if Isla would play with him.

When dogs meet, they ask to play with a ‘play bow’. This means ‘Hello, I’m friendly. I would like to play with you’. Your dog will do this to you, but you might not realise. Obviously they know you, so to you they are saying ‘you are my family and I love you. Now give me food/walk/play!’ It’s their way of saying ‘please’.

Off they go!

When we got to the field, we immediately let the puppies off lead. They can’t play together if they are on lead. It was so lovely to see that they ran around together straight away. They roared about, up and down, probably going a bit further than Quin would go from me.

Then they stopped. After just a few minutes they had a pause. Take a breath, then go! That is the ideal point to do a quick recall, to get them to check in with you.

Recall away from distractions

It’s very exciting, being around another dog! So much fun, being chased and chasing. So don’t expect a miracle? I bet if you call your other half, they aren’t there in a second, are they? What about your children, do they respond immediately when you call them? And if someone calls you and you are busy on your phone, do you say ‘Coming!’ but actually take a while to actually go?

Get a grip. Your puppy will not come back to you straight away. But IF you have done your training, practising that recall again and again, you will find that they DO come back to you, even when they are playing. Well, they will in a minute…

Always reward

Don’t forget the reward. YOU MUST REWARD EVERY TIME! And be pleased to see them, even if it has taken longer than normal. Have good, tasty rewards. Grab their collar and stroke their neck and ears. Use a toy to engage them if you can.

Don’t keep calling

If you say your dog’s name, over and over again, it just becomes white noise. Blah, blah, blah. Boring. So try to just say clearly ‘Quin come’. Wait. Then wait a bit longer. Of course in a really distracting situation like this, it’s incredibly difficult not to keep on saying his name. Panic sets in! But patience is rewarded.

In the clip, you can see I call him and he turns to come. Then Isla runs past him and he decides that’s much more fun. But he does turn towards me and then does come over. I get his attention with an ‘Oi!’ rather than repeatedly calling. I laugh, because I am being realistic about how hard this is for him. He comes. I am thrilled! I am hopeless in this clip, but it is my first time with such a BIG distraction!

Manage it

Don’t overdo, especially when they are still so young. We were out for around 20 minutes. They were off lead for around half that time. That’s it, it was enough to tire them out. And I wouldn’t want to do that every day. Now and again is fine. Lovely to have friends though. Thanks Ruth, a great playdate.

Weekly Focus Challenge

Arrange to go for a walk with a friend, preferably with a young dog.  Hold your breath, then let them off lead.  I know it’s a challenge, but it will be fine.  Let them play and give them space. Then call them back.  Be exciting!  DO NOT keep on saying their name.  If they ignore you, give it a minute, breathe, then try again.  If they really don’t want to come, run away, preferably squeaking a toy and calling in a positive, high-pitched voice!   Then make sure you let them go again. It’s fine.  What do you think your puppy gained from this experience?

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 house train your puppy – toileting

I’ve left this to week 9 to talk about because although you need to get started in week 1, you will probably find by week 9 you are getting sick of clearing up the puddles!  It’s not too late, you will get on top of it.  Don’t despair! I recently received an enquiry asking me if the puppies I produce are sent to their new homes fully toilet trained. Er, no. At 8 weeks of age, puppies are still babies and do not have full bladder control. Toileting takes time.

Over the years, as I have had litters of puppies and watched them grow, I have realised that they will try and toilet away from their bed almost before they can walk. Their mother cleans them up completely for the first few weeks and you rarely see any mess in that time. Then they stagger and stumble away from where they are feeding, feeling a different texture underfoot and toileting there.

As they grow, puppies become weeing and pooing monsters! It’s one of the hardest parts of having a litter of puppies in your home – it’s a constant mess. Once they are up and about, they will toilet anywhere. I have newspaper in the run, which I change regularly. Other people use different materials. Many puppies are kept on sawdust or straw, in outside runs, or sheds, simply to help manage the mess.

Dogs don’t care

Dogs do have very different toileting behaviours to us. Because they are ruled by their noses, they use their urine to scent, or mark where they have been. They also urinate on top of where other dogs have been. Once one dog has urinated in one place, every other dog in the world will want to go there! So if you have a male dog who marks something, you must expect every other male to also add their scent. Beware cleaning with normal household cleaners – they are likely to make the problem worse, as the ammonia just smells like wee to a dog! And they can still smell traces of wee for years – trust me.

Dogs will also poo in particular places. My dogs do toilet in the garden, which I clear every day. I know that each dog has one or two places they go, every day.

So they do care where they go. But they don’t care what you think about where they go! In other words, in makes no real difference to them if it is inside or outside, on a walk or in the garden.

Dogs won’t go to the toilet in their bed, if they can help it. But a bit of wee doesn’t really bother them and they will happily lie in it if they have to. They also eat poo! The Kennel Club recently produced this great article: Why does my dog eat poo? We might find it disgusting, but for them, it’s no big deal.

Getting started

I think understanding toileting from a dog’s point of view does help us to manage their behaviour. As I’ve said, I know that dogs move off their bed (usually) to toilet from a very young age and I do try to keep their run clean.

When they are up and about, I ensure they can go outside as soon as possible. They have access to grass, which they much prefer to poo on. I also start to take them all outside to wee as soon as they wake up, or after they have eaten, or after they have been playing… I call them, “Puppy, puppy, puppy” and they all come running! Of course I can’t do that all day every day; six week old puppies are particularly trying!

When they go off to their new homes, this is how you get started – every hour, after a sleep, after food, after play, go out with them. Go onto the grass and say “Do you want a wee?” Or “Be quick!” or “Be clean”. It’s up to you what you say, but then as soon as they have toileted, REWARD!

Reward every time

It’s really about consistency. The more effort you make, the less ‘accidents’ you will have to clear up. If you can’t be bothered to be with your puppy and pay attention to its behaviour, you can expect to step in the odd wee!

Naturally we can’t be with our dogs every second of every day. When we get a puppy at 8 weeks of age, they will need to toilet at least every hour during the day. They can’t go through the night without needing to toilet. They poo four times or more.

For me, I prefer to give my dogs space to toilet, in a run either outside or inside.

Dry at night

Puppies can usually last all night from around ten weeks of age. They can then go into a crate, to stop them rampaging, playing and chewing all night long! Crates are a great way of helping them to learn bladder control and managing when and where they do toilet.

You may still have accidents in the crate, if you leave them in there too long, or if they get an upset tummy. Border Collies are a breed that are prone to sensitive digestion, so you need to feed them something consistently.

Keep going with toileting

If you get your puppy in the summer, it’s tempting to just leave the door open and let them find their way outside. Dogs prefer to toilet on a soft surface, so if you don’t have any rugs or mats, they should go outside.

However, if you do that, your puppy might then be confused when it gets colder and you shut the door! So you might then be back to square one. Go out with them, wait for them to go. REWARD! If they find the garden too exciting and rush around playing and exploring, you need to put them on a lead and just stand with them and wait.

Of course they might not always want to go when you want to take them. This is when is good if you can be around your puppy for a while. If they are wandering around a bit restlessly, that is probably what they want. Some puppies are kind enough to stand by the door and wait for you to open it, but they won’t wait for long! You can teach them to ring a bell on the door, with time and patience. Be careful though, or your dog will have you at their beck and call, ringing every five minutes just to go into the garden and play!

Should you tell them off?

In the old days (a very long time ago) we used to show our dogs their wee or poo and shout at them (I won’t mention rubbing their noses in it). Thankfully we don’t do that any more. But it’s not unreasonable to say ‘NO!’ sharply if you catch your dog in the act of toileting in the house. They can understand when you’re not happy, it just needs to be very clear what it is for.

Above all, praise them for toileting in the right place. If you keep going, patiently and consistently, you’ll get there in the end. I’m writing this post when Quin is over four months old. He’s pretty good, on the whole. We caught him digging a hole in the lawn the other day and got cross, so he came in the house and weed everywhere. Silly us! And he tends to leak a bit if we don’t let him out when he needs to go.

Excited wees

When you greet a puppy, it wees. They just can’t help being excited and they don’t have enough control. This usually sorts itself out by the time they are six months old. You can help by being less exciting, or by letting them out before you greet people. Or by saying hello to them outside, when it doesn’t matter so much.

Toilet training your puppy is a challenge. Like everything else relating to your dog, it requires effort, patience and persistence. Oh and don’t forget the REWARDS!

Weekly Focus Challenge

All day long, take your puppy outside, wait for them to toilet and reward them for going.  Go out with them, even if it’s the middle of the night or it’s cold and raining.  Watch them.  Wait for them.  Give them a verbal prompt, before and after.  Again and again.  And again.  It’s hard work and takes effort.  The more you do it, the better they will be.  If you can’t be bothered, they won’t be bothered.  You can’t tell them off for your lack of effort.  NB: If they start playing in the garden, you will have to put them on lead to help manage their behaviour.  You cannot leave them unsupervised and expect them to perform.  They are also likely to then come back into the house and toilet.

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 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.