Leader of the Pack

We had a little break from training at home but got back into things this morning. Here is a snippet of our place training activity. I moved the location (for added distraction) and also worked with each dog, 1:1, while the other two remained on place. It was really fun and I wish I filmed the whole thing to show you 😊

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?! This older gentleman Chilli learned the start of a sit/stay under distraction today.

We had to separate one of our drakes from the flock (hopefully temporarily) and we are keeping him in the base of our water tank for now. The dogs had to stop by and check him out and have been good so far about moving on and leaving him alone. The dogs can see the ducks through their enclosure door but generally don’t pay them much mind.

Puppy training tip: learning new things is tiring! This is Theo and he is just settling into his new home. There is a lot for him to experience and learn about his new environment and family and this can be very mentally taxing. As he is not yet fully vaccinated and can’t go out on walks, his family must think of other activities to help him expend his energy. Good examples include: playtime, short training sessions, socialisation opportunities, going for car rides etc.

Another great pack walk today! I love seeing the dogs mix and mingle throughout the walk. I was lucky enough to walk the wonderful Cujo who is one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met 🥰 Look out for details of the next walk if you are interested in coming along 😊

Poor River just can’t get any privacy! (I know. Can totally relate 🙄) She was just trying to chew on something she probably shouldn’t have had, in peace! And the nosy Alpacas just had to ruin it 🤣

Here is a short snippet of the match up we did over the weekend of Batman (black dog) and Max. I didn’t film the first few minutes of the interaction as I was concentrating on the match up as Batman was reactive as expected. When Batman first saw Max he was alert (tense body, closed mouth, ears up) then started barking and lunging as Max got closer. We utilised the fence to get them walking next to each other. Max did everything right to help Batman to relax and learn how to interact appropriately. Max ignored Batman’s high energy and barking and as soon as Batman stopped Max immediately went to the fence for a sniff greeting. It didn’t take long before they were happily walking around the park together. They greeted well on the lead and spent time calmly hanging out. Our aim is for them to be friends with off lead playtime. We start with calmness first as we build their relationship.

Our first group social dog walk went fantastically well! Thanks to everyone who made it out to the salt lakes this morning. We had a blast 😊 I hope to make these a regular event so keep an eye out for details of upcoming walks on this page.

This is the progression for Ledo learning to relax on his place while his family eat dinner. This was all filmed during one session. Things to note. 1. Place is a well practiced activity and Ledo understands to stay on place until released. 2. Ledo had learned to bark at his family for their attention. 3. If allowed, Ledo will try to jump up on family members and the table to reach the food. 4. In the middle section of the video you can see Ledo realising in real time that what he was doing (barking, getting off the place) was not getting him what he wanted. 5. We did not use food rewards in this case as Ledo was not interested. He had a puzzle toy that he ignored and he doesn’t get rewards after breaking position. It takes patience and practice to teach and train a dog. Be clear about your expectations and the parameters of the activity so the dog can easily understand.

I’m working with a family to help their two whippets come together after a pretty serious fight. We have put some management strategies in place while they heal and while they are uncomfortable being around each other. We are also working on individual and joint training activities and behaviour modification to see if we can mend their relationship so they can live in harmony together going forward. This is the end of our session on Sunday.

Life on the farm update. The dogs and the alpacas are coping very well together. Jett doesn’t pay them any attention and River tries to play with them, though they are not very impressed with this. Benny is still weary but has made great progress. Generally he keeps his distance and moves away from them. We were working on the fence the other day and the alpacas came to check things out. This is the closest Benny has been to them where he has deliberately walked over. Just before I started recording he had soft body language and was sniffing the air to scent them. As soon as I started recording the tension increased. I wanted to see if Benny would walk away on his own and I was right there if things were to go a different way though I didn’t expect it to. I did help Benny move away in the end and they continued to hang around for some time afterwards.

The Aussie Dog Tucker ball is my favourite and most recommended dog food toy. This ball is solid and sturdy and stands up to rough play. It also has a small ball inside that clinks around so even when the food is gone the dog can still be interested. There is no food in the ball during this clip and Bonnie is very happily playing with it. Bonnie is a destructive chewer and likes to dig as well and we are changing the way she is fed to help address these behaviours (with some other strategies as well).