Here is a brilliant example of how to prepare a puppy for agility without doing any damage to joints, causing over-excitement, or causing them to get bored. We are simply giving her something to think about. She is moving slowly forward, not looking particularly where she is going, but becoming aware of the need to lift her feet over the obstacles. Clever girl!
We want Ounce to be aware of her whole body, so that she has better coordination and well better agility! It will really help her once she starts moving around a course of obstacles. It also helps her with muscle conditioning and general fitness.
Thanks to Sam Lane of Daimonic Dogs for the training – we love it! Sam competes at International level, so we are so grateful that she is able to train us – what a difference it has made.
Here a clip of Sam winning at Crufts a few years ago.
Bless her, she’s almost fully grown now, so I decided last week that she may as well walk with the others. I only walk my girls for an hour a day; off lead the whole time, apart from 5 minutes here and there. They have a variety of walks and so receive plenty of stimulation. I usually do a bit of training with them while we walk. This might be a ‘wait’ or a ‘down’ or we just work on recall.
Ounce loves being out with the pack and follows Busy (her mum) around the whole time. It’s great seeing the two of them running about so happily, Busy and her shadow. However, as you can see in this photo, while the girls are usually pretty tightly together, Ounce is perfectly able to go off and explore something on her own. We’re in Rushmere Country Park by the way.
I am delighted to report that she is also able to come back to me, regardless of what the others are doing. I was also extremely pleased this morning when she came round a corner to find the others waiting for a runner to go past. I said ‘wait’ and she stopped immediately, standing stock still. Fantastic!
This is an interesting picture of the ‘pack order’. They are waiting for the ball to be thrown. This is them in order of ‘most interested in the ball’. Lol. In fact, this morning they did actually pick it up in that order – Aura, Sunny, Busy and Ounce. Luna never, ever picks up the ball. She is in charge of making sure we are all safe. Usually, a family of collies will stay in order of seniority; Sunny, Luna, Aura, Busy and Ounce. But when there is a ball involved, all bets are off!
I thought I would try and take a picture of them in the frost, under a Christmas tree. It was the end of the walk, so Ounce was rather tired, bless her. Do you think this picture would be OK for December’s Dentbros Calendar next year? Needs a bit more work, I think 🙂
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I was reflecting on the fact that I have recently bought another pile of toys for the dogs (especially the puppy) and some of these have already been destroyed. Is is a waste of money? Is it better to spend more on toys, or buy cheap ones? Should you have toys for chewing, or fetching, tugging, or shaking? All of those, of course!
I have a whole toy box full of stuff for my girls. I tidy up before bed every day and by the end of the following day there will be up to 20 toys littering the kitchen and hall. This demonstrates to me that the toys serve a purpose. They engage the brain in some way.
Butter wouldn’t melt, eh? Hmm, that’s what you think.
This is supposed to be a squirrel.
Busy still loving it though, despite its diminished appearance.
This had a nice rope on it for tugging a week ago. Ounce even played tuggy with Aura, for about ten minutes. I found the rope in the garden yesterday, having been passed right through somebody (it was Aura).
Poor thing. It had legs, and stuffing in its head. Not long before it too, is consigned to the bin.
This tatty old bottle was inside a toy, which went in the bin. Bottles and yogurt pots are such popular toys. Not everything has to be expensive.
This hat was hanging from a pin on the top floor. The puppy is not allowed upstairs, yet somehow she crept up two flights and picked this off the wall, bringing it downstairs. Fortunately she decided not to shred it, so it can dress some pirate up on another day.
That is what happens if no toys are provided – the puppy will look for other mischief. As well as keeping them happy, toys do provide mental stimulation and engagement. That is why I keep buying and providing them. Plus, who doesn’t want to buy their dog a sprout for Christmas?
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This is Ounce’s second agility ‘lesson’. Five minutes playing, then a break, then five minutes more. Last time she just learned about tunnels, so now she knows that they are super fun! Please try not to pay too much attention to my delayed reactions.
Today she also had a go at walking over some poles, a bicycle tyre and a plastic bag, in order to get her to think about placing her feet and coping with obstacles. She looked like a prancing pony lol. Ounce also did some ‘shaping’ around a wing. This involved her looking at the wing and receiving a reward. Not too taxing.
Why do Agility with your dogs?
Because it is fun! Dogs absolutely love doing agility, on the whole. If they are collies they do anyway. Some dogs are not motivated by it, but it suits collies perfectly. Running about, doing stuff with you and then you throw the ball – fantastic!
Officially, dogs can compete in agility when they are 18 months old. Which means by that age they need to know how to do it. They are generally not meant to start jumping around at around 1 year of age, although no-one has told Ounce that. She loves to fly on and off the sofa and treats the footstool as a trampette.
Before they are a year old, there is still a great deal they can learn and that is what we have been starting. Maybe in a few years’ time, she will be as good as her cousin Aura…
I’m an old hand at dog ownership, but taking my dogs away is still stressful. I don’t take them ALL away, although I hope to do that next year. I am fortunate that I can leave some of them here with family or friends and that is one less thing to worry about. So what do you need to think about when taking dogs away, or leaving them behind?
My girls are all pretty well behaved around other people and can be looked after by just about anyone. They are easy to walk, as they always come when they are called and they don’t usually complain when left. They do get on with other dogs, on the whole, so are fine to stay with other dogs.
They love people, so are great to cuddle up to on the sofa. That’s fine, as long as the sofa is OK for dogs!
They do usually settle down in strange places. They often stop eating properly when they are away, which is fine for a few days and to be expected. Dogs usually sort themselves out after a while.
Packing for your dog
Here’s a checklist of what to pack:
food, including treats and bedtime snacks
bowls, including something for water, especially in a non-dog friendly house
bedding – take spare in case of accidents
crate for puppy – an absolute must if puppy will be left. Most people don’t really want strange dogs in their bedrooms, so dogs must be able to be safely left.
towels – really important if it’s muddy in the garden
leads – I keep spare in the car so I always have one to hand
ID tags – vital to have these when you are away
toys – if you have a young dog, don’t forget to take some toys with you, as your visitors won’t be impressed if your pup chews up their house!
Of course you also need appropriate clothing for you to go on walks with your dog. It’s not quite as much stuff as when taking a baby away, but it’s not much less!
What about the dogs left behind?
Here’s a checklist of information to provide:
Reminders about providing plenty of fresh water
Clear explanations of feeding regime
Tel no of your vet
Medications – dosage and timing
Walk instructions – I’m really fussy about the amount of ball throwing I want other people to do/not do, so that the dogs are not over-exerted. I don’t want my dogs walked on lead, as that is not a proper walk. I would rather they were not walked than kept on lead!
Of course your dog sitter should be able to contact you with any queries or concerns, but often they feel that they don’t want to bother you. So any guidance you can provide is helpful.
A final point about taking your dog away; they must be good in the car. They need a clear space in which to travel safely, preferably with water to hand. You should stop regularly to allow them to toilet. It is handy to teach them to go whilst on lead, so that they can go anywhere. I will talk about travelling by car soon.
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Why does it matter? Well it doesn’t, not really. But in an ideal world, your dog should be able to distinguish between different commands and act on your voice alone. This can be useful, such as when you are out of sight, or have your hands full, or just when you want to show off how clever your puppy is! Mainly we do this as a test, to demonstrate that they are listening to us and focused on what we want.
The video demonstrates clearly that Ounce has heard me command her into a ‘down’, thought about it and decided to do it. Good girl! I then go on to demonstrate some commands that she is not quite so sure about, ‘twist’ and ’round’. With both of these I need to reinforce the voice command with a gesture. That’s fine, we’ll continue to work on these. You can see when I go to give her the ‘twist’ command that I give her a chance to do it without the physical prompt. She ‘offers’ me something, (lying down) which I ignore. This is called ‘shaping behaviour’ – we wait for the puppy to offer something, hold out till they get it right, then give a big reward.
Target Training
I started this today with Ounce (just a few minutes before we took this video). Hold out the lid, wait for her to touch it with her nose, ‘click’ or say ‘yes’ and reward. Repeat. And repeat, moving the target once she has done it a few times. Clever eh?
Yes, but what’s the point? Again, this is shaping training. Waiting for her to do something, to offer a behaviour, then rewarding it so that it is reinforced. The reason we do this is so that I can move the target to somewhere and she will go over to it. This could be used for all sorts of things.
A target doesn’t have to be a lid, it can be anything. You can do it by holding out one hand flat, making sure you reward from the other hand. Or you can use the end of a stick. This is how people train dogs and other animals to follow them, or go in a circle around them. All kinds of tricks start off this way.
For Ounce, I am already thinking about agility. If she is used to touching the target, I can place it at the bottom of a piece of contact equipment and she will run down the ramp, or the seesaw and touch it with her nose. This will help me to teach her to go to the bottom and not jump off halfway down.
I am fortunate to know the brilliant Smurf and his owner Sarah, so have been getting some tricks training tips from them. Smurf is a Guiness World Record holder for the most tricks in one minute, so they really know what they are doing! You can watch Smurf’s World Record yourself.
A couple of other bits of training progress
If we were going to do competitive obedience, this would be one of the exercises. It’s good to be able to turn your back on your dog and be confident that they will carry on waiting. Again, this will be used in agility, when I put her on the start line and try to get a head start. I go back to her and reward her, so that she doesn’t anticipate the recall. And yes, if you do obedience, she is a bit crooked as she comes in this time (not usually). I would also train her to come around to the ‘heel’ position for obedience, but I don’t need to do that. I’m not especially keen to do competitive obedience as in my opinion it is a bit boring for the dog and the heelwork is such a forced position.
This is where we have got to with our stay training. I mentioned in a post almost a month ago about training progress that there are all sorts of ways to ‘strengthen’ the waits and this is me demonstrating (rather comically) one of the aspects we have worked on. What do you think? She doesn’t look very impressed, does she? If I persist with her training, she should be able to wait while I throw the toy I am waving about…
I am so loving this puppy. Ounce is incredibly sweet-natured and easy going. I am really proud of the way that she walks along with me, then rushes to say hello to everyone, but will stop and turn back if I’m quick enough to call her. Or she does go up to people, but usually now stops herself from jumping up. She is polite with dogs she meets and so far, comes back brilliantly. Lots to work on, but lots of progress made.
Play with your puppy – it’s a vital part of training
It’s lovely to see Ounce running around with her cousin Charlie, who is just over a year older than she is. They had a great time, getting on straight away. I love that she is able to interact so well with other dogs now – she was a bit anxious around other dogs to start with.
I have already talked about her playing with her family at home and again, it is lovely to see this. They play tag, and snap-snap and tuggy with a toy – great dog games.
What if you have an only dog though? How can you replace this interaction? Some of my puppies go to homes without other dogs and obviously it is important that they do not become bored and frustrated, because this is when problems occur. A bored collie will become extremely destructive, chewing up furniture and even the walls! They can also become obsessive, looking for lights to chase, or barking at anything and everything. Frustrated collies may also become snappy and aggressive, if they feel that they are being ignored.
Collies are not great at coping with challenging situations. If you start to get stressed or anxious, they will quickly start to freak out. If you are trying to get one dog in a room and another out of a room, for example, they will easily pick up on your annoyance, or urgency and stop listening to you. They will then just cower and/or try to get away, which of course is even more annoying! Play is the way to get around these issues. Stop trying to get them to do that thing and have a quick bit of play. You will then regain their attention and can ask again for the desired behaviour.
If you can meet up with friends with other dogs on a regular basis, so that they have the chance to run around together, then this will be really helpful in giving your dog a chance to interact.
If you struggle to do this, then playing is up to you! Tuggy games are an easy place to start; you hold one end and the dog holds the other. You can also play fetch, although watch out for your furniture and valuables if you do this indoors! You can also play a kind of tag, chasing your dog or running away from them. Or you can do a bit of rough and tumble, although be careful not to allow biting, even in play.
Whatever you do, the object is to engage your dog’s brain and get them thinking about something. Once you have their attention, you can intersperse bits of play with bits of training. Play, command, reward with play. Repeat.
This is also a great way of distracting your dog. I have used this with Ounce when I want her not to go chasing off after someone, especially runners and cyclists. Also when the dreaded fireworks started the other night, I had all the dogs doing a few tricks to help them realise that it was nothing to get excited about.
As always, if you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest on Ounce and her adventure, or any of my other posts, FOLLOW ME? Then you will receive an email when there is a new post. Please CONTACT ME if you would like me to know more about me or my dogs? And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think?
I have worked hard to train Ounce by walking her on her own, but ultimately, she will be part of the pack. I have felt that she needs that time on her own to reinforce recall, wait and down. Also to try and ensure that she doesn’t rush up to everyone and jump up, that she is polite with other dogs and comes back to me, whatever the distraction.
However, that is not all she needs to do. Ounce also needs to learn to fit alongside the other dogs. With Busy I went from walking her on her own to taking her out with all the others. I ‘lost’ her then, as she forgot all about me and just focused on the other dogs. I then had to almost start again with her recall and I had quite a few frustrating and annoying walks, where I had no control over her.
This time, I have decided to mix things up a bit. I am doing several walks a week with Ounce on her own, but am also trying to include a walk with a friend and their dogs and a walk with one or more of my dogs. That way, Ounce gets used to a variety of different scenarios and hopefully, copes better with them all.
While we were out, I noticed just how alike the mother and daughter are looking now. This relates nicely to the post I wrote a couple of days ago about pedigree breeding. Not only do they look alike, Ounce clearly takes after her mum in her calm, easy-going nature.
As always, if you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest on Ounce and her adventure, or any of my other posts, FOLLOW ME? Then you will receive an email when there is a new post. Please CONTACT ME if you would like me to know more about me or my dogs? And feel free to COMMENT if you want to tell me what you think?
I took Ounce out to somewhere new this week and people were (as usual) completely entranced by her. Everyone comments on her eyes (can’t think why) and often on her colour and breed – what is she? On this occasion one person asked me what she was called. Ounce I said. Blank look. “What?” I repeated myself. “What the f*ck?” I could see her thinking, but she was an elderly lady and much too polite to voice her incredulity at such a bizarre name for a dog.
I went into my explanation that she is named after a snow leopard, because she looks just like one. They were not convinced, I could tell.
Yes, ounce is another name for snow leopard and she does look slightly like one. (Look it up if you don’t believe me).
However, that is not the only reason she is called Ounce – it’s a bit more complicated than that… Here are the names of my previous 6 dogs:
Rue – we were into herb names at the time, had Dill, Parsley, Sorrel etc
Buzz – had 2 young boys, got cat called Woody
Sunny – born Midsummer’s Day, hence Sunshine. Also character in the Series of Unfortunate Events (sharp teeth, didn’t say much)
Luna – one of the Harry Potter litter. Also goes with Sunny rather well
Aura – one of the princesses. Also born the year we saw the aurora borealis
Busy – hmm, now I need to tell you about the other reason…
Look at the list above and the way the names are spelt. When I had Aura, I planned to spell it ‘Ora’, as that is the end of her name. However, my son Adam pointed out that if I spelt it ‘Aura’, then all the dogs would have a letter ‘u’ as the second letter of their names! Wow, we were excited about this coincidence.
After that, we started to think about words that have a ‘u’ as the second letter but also sound different. It’s great fun when you get going. Here are a few examples:
Sugar
Quin
Purse
Ouzel
I’m sure there are others – what a fantastic language English can be!
So that was how Busy came to have her name. I thought she would be busy, rushing around all the time and it’s true, she does rush around in the woods and at agility, but of course she is also the calmest dog you have ever met 😉 Usually people think it is spelt Bizzy, as that is more of a ‘name’ way of spelling it, but of course the whole point is that it makes a different sound but has a ‘u’ as the second letter. I don’t care, Busy is a great name.
Ounce also has a link to me, as we can both be associated with pounds.
I decided that perhaps that should be the reason for her name. After all, she did steal an ounce of my heart when she arrived.
Whatever, it is fun to have such a different and unusual name. It’s not hard to spell and it isn’t as odd as Spoons, Boots, Toggle and Jumble, some of my other pups (or is it?) Lovely puppy xx
Remember..
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