Little Melvin, my foster pup, has gone to his new home. He is now called Merlin and is very spoilt and loved. I look forward to seeing him in puppy classes. I looked after him yesterday for his new owners ... he is a very special puppy!
His wound is almost completely healed, he is such a happy boy :)
Anna and I have now taken on another foster dog each ... I will blog about them soon. There are so many dogs out there needing help in some way; from fundraising to volunteer dog walking. Its just interesting to see who is willing to do it!
My own dogs are great :) looking forward to the show season with little Code :D
Dependant on who you are, dog training and ownership is either general knowledge, gut instinct and natural or a science. To me it is both; having a sound understanding of the science behind dog ethology, ecology and learning is vital but is nothing without a natural understanding, empathy and experience. And vice verca, a competent history in canine handling means little without the science.
Where possible, I try to keep an open mind into views surrounding canine welfare and training but when facts from leading veterinarians, trainers and behaviourists support my own understanding of dogs, this can prove difficult.
Choke chains to me should play no part in our modern day relationship with dogs for many reasons:
they have been directly linked to the following medical conditions: injured ocular blood vessels, Tracheal and oesopageal damage, severely sprained necks, cases of fainting, Trabsient foreleg paralysis, Laryngeal nerve paralysis, Hind leg ataxia
It is often argued that if used correctly they cause no harm. This is because the dogs fears the noise the collar makes. Should we not avoid any punitive training?
The use of them often cause behavioural problems (next blog)
Choke chains (I include half checks in this title) can be disguised in many different ways to look more subtle, but effectively do the same job (slip leads, made of tuggy material, pretty colours etc).
Owners often say they use them as they are 'easy', 'work' or 'stops the dog getting out'. To me, after seeing the facts and figures surrounding this apparatus i would ethically never be able to use one. On top of this, as a trainer, i would be gutted to know i needed a punitive piece of apparatus to train my dog to complete a behaviour.
However this is my opinion, it does not mean it is right or wrong. How we take peoples opinion is up to us. Some take it to heart and get defensive. Some listen, way up the surrounding thoughts and act in accordance.
“An open mind leaves a chance for someone to drop a worthwhile thought in it”
Last weekend end, and after a 6 hour journey to Wales, I arrived at Many Tears Rescue to lend a hand. Wow, what a fantastic, dedicated, caring and inspirations team! Saturday morning and Nat gave me a tour of the kennels. It was heart-breaking to see so many beautiful yet un-wanted dogs but at the same time reassuring to know there are centres like Many tears around to help. It was both an eye opener and a privilege to have spent time at Many Tears.
Nat apparently knew I wouldn't come home with the same number of dogs I arrived with ... and she was correct! Meet Melvin, Moomin and Meerkat; the puppies Anna and I are now foster parents to.
They are 10 week old working lab cross collies. But mentally and physically resemble the traits of a 6/7 week old pup! They are really starting to come out of them selves and starting to form real characters (noisy ones)! Both Anna and I hope that the time we put into these puppies will benefit both the puppies and their future owners in the future.
'For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward' - Jim Rohn
There have been so many doggy activities going on in the past week that I will have to report on them over several blogs.
Saturday Morning, and running on 'D-Force Time', dedicated owners turned up to hear me present 'so, you think your pack leader?' a talk aimed at challenging old fashioned dominance and pack theories. The audience contained an array of owners from trainers and behaviourists to first time owners and vet nurses.
It can be a very difficult challenge to enter things with an open mind, but no one seemed to have a negative 'I don't need to learn' attitude. And I believe everyone left questioning what they may have previously believed.
At the end of the session, I asked for a group conclusion (see below):
1.) Dogs are not wolves
2.) Dogs do not form packs.
3.) Dogs are a mirror of our training, not a pre-programmed 'must rule the world' machine
4.) Dogs know we are not dogs and therefore it would be impossible for them to want to 'dominate' us and see us HUMANS as part of their pack.
5.) The evolution from wolf to dog was complex but quick and done with little help from humans (except a bit of garbage).
6.) Positive methods work. Dominance based training methods are cruel to the point of ridiculous.
7.) Pack rules are silly ... if you want your dog on the sofa, he won't think he is god!
Lets take one example of a pack rule to get you all thinking ... A dog that pulls on leash is dominant as he thinks he is leading the pack hunt.
1.) so your dog is dominant whilst he pulls on his way to the park, and suddenly decides he doesn't want to be when he stops pulling on the way home?
2.) Your dog really thinks your going on a hunt?
3.) This is a serious problem that must be sorted. A choke chain will be a great method to show your dogs who's boss?
4.) A halti will PREVENT the problem?
5.) Your dog really wants to go out and hunt even though their is easily accessible food at home for minimal effort?
6.) Your dog sees you as another dog who is to be 'led'?
Got you thinking? Take a look at Dominance: Fact or Fiction by Barry Eaton and make your own mind up (and make your dog 100 times happier)!!
"We don’t have to be Alpha, dominant or pack leader, and neither does our dog. All we need to be is an owner responsible for guiding our dog, shaping and influencing its behaviour through correct socialisation and training so they can live in harmony with us." - Barry Eaton
I have just been having a clean out at home and came across a card I was given years ago whilst sitting exams. The front of the card read ‘We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough – Helen Keller’ As with most things in life, this got me thinking dog!
There tends to be two types of attitude when people train dogs:
1. * I will stick to this technique/method/exercise/system, perseverance will pay off
2. * This technique/method/exercise/system isn’t working, I’ll try another.
Something I remember Dave Munnings making very clear during my first lesson with Cody is ‘consistency is the most important ingredient for successful dog training’. It was a wake up call. I had always told my clients to be 100% consistent, but had I ever sat back and analysed my own consistency.
The behavior of a human being is diverse, complex and confusing for another human to read. Imagine how hard it is for a dog to try and figure. Now imagine being a dog who is just getting to grips with what you may mean/want …. Then, everything changes again!
Last weekends recall workshop was a great fun and all owners were amazed at how much there dog had improved in a two hour session. At the end of the session I asked the owners to set four aims in which they wish to complete within a month. Every owner mentioned consistency – BRILLIANT!
A little twist on Langman’s Shaskespear quotes - Some are born consistent, some achieve consistency and some have consistency thrust upon them!
Well tonight, I couldn't be more grateful for having some fantastic club members. Two members are organising a club trip to Crufts including minibus, tickets etc!
Hopefully lots of club members will take them up in this great offer for a fun, doggy filled day.
So a big thank you to Emma and Alison :) (below are Emma and Alison's dogs)
At home, we've been answering the door all night too Ditto fans after her guest appearance on Location, Location, Location tonight :P
Training Ditto is so much fun, she is so into her food and toy, she picks things up so quickly and always gives 100%. Being the behaviour geek I am, the socialisation training just gets my brain going into a frenzy.
Sunday night’s puppy class have just completed their 10 week socialisation plan and diary, and although not everyone chooses to give them to me to read through, those that have, have done a fantastic job. These first time puppy owners are setting exercises, breaking them down, attempting them, noting strengths and weaknesses, asking me how to improve areas of weakness, going home and kicking ass! I was so proud to hear one of last year’s puppy graduates has been accepted as a PAT (Pets as Therapy) dog showing just how great the results of socialisation work within the D-Force classes are.
So where do so many people go wrong:
stopping socialisation – allowing issues
going for gold (flooding) – forcing issues
not raising criteria – training issues
Issue one comes from the attitude ‘been there, done that, got the t-shirt’. For example ‘my puppy has met a child, had no reaction, job done’. Remember the developmental stages puppies go through, these will affect your puppies reaction to a stimulus, puppy needs to meet children at every stage of its development, regularly and confidently. I describe this attitude as ‘allowing issues’ i.e not enough socialisation training allows issues to arise nothing has been done to prevent these ‘negative behaviours’.
Issue two is something that many owners do subconsciously. The attitude ‘he will be fine, throw him in the deep end’ can perhaps cause the most detriment in socialisation training. Lets take a puppy party, 8 puppies are let off lead in an enclosed area. The puppy may learn to become a victim or a bully, this may then become a ‘learnt behaviour’ so by ‘forcing’ the dog into this environment rather than gradually building it up and by taking no control (regular recalls, quite time ect) the dog learns undesirable behaviours.
Here is an analogy for problem 3 - Imagine a 30 year old man greeting someone with ‘ga-ga’ and a smiley wave, instead of shaking someone’s hand politely like we have been brought up to do, this is the result of not raising criteria with age. In a canine, the equivalent behaviour when meeting a human would be lots of hyper, frequent licks and a body out of control rather than sitting and waiting to be invited to say hello. The dog has been taught that people are great, but not to show some self control before being invited.
Below are extracts from one of the diaries from a D-Force puppy owner. What is brilliant is how much care is taken to avoid the three above problems.
Puppy age: 8 weeks
Overall aim: Teach a polite meet and greet with humans
Aim for this session: increase confidence to approach people
What happened: met 10 people all gavepuppy treat and gentle fuss. Puppy grew in confidence did not back away. Man in hat was scary!
(In-between 8 and 10 weeks lots of hat work)
Puppy age: 10 weeks
Overall aim: Teacha polite meet and greet with humans
Aim for this session: Sit before meeting person
What happened: Met 10 people. Asked puppy to sit before meeting each person, rewarded (high value) and then released to greet stranger who gave reward (high value)
Puppy age: 12 weeks
Overall aim: Teach a polite meet and greet with humans
Aim for this session: Puppy offers sit position when in front of stranger
What happened: Met 10 people. Had to prompt the first 3 sits and then puppy offered last 7. Slight caution of man in hat. Need to go back to high rewards from lots of people in hats.
Who is willing to be honest? Most dogs will react to a certain stimuli in a non-ideal manor. Identified it? Hattie’s (my 10 year old retriever) is loud Lorries (probably because you don’t see many in my village), Cody’s is cows (seen a lot but never did any ‘socialisation training’ specifically on cows). Form an initial plan including your overall goal. Have a go and see how you get on. And let’s prove that socialisation does work outside the critical period!
Step 1: From a large distance from stimuli push feed or play with dog. Don’t push your luck and move closer until your dog is ready. This step should last a week. No ‘commands’ are being asked for just to have a good time whilst the stimuli is present.
