Surviving Adolescence Part: Impulse Control - Ginger Grinch Edition.
Shall we let you in on a secret?
Well, it's not so much a secret, because if you ever ask us, we would tell you, but Venom isn't the only dog with a tiny little bit of a decfit in the manners or patience department when it comes to certain things.
For the Ginger Grinch, it's chasing some thing small and fluffy. Now, we can't blame him, small and furry things are fun (have you seen Flint?!) but, the main reason we can't blame him, is because of genetics.
In case you are new to the page, Ginger Grinch is our Patterdale Terrier, Four.
The majority of Terriers are designed to kill small furry things (hence we don't allow chase games with Flint in our house, but that's a topic for another day).
So, what we try to do, is to find ways to replicate some aspects of what GG was designed for, sometimes a little too creatively and sometimes not enough, and spend a vast amount of time training *things* (we like to teach all the dogs random things, they all learn differently, all require things tweaking, it improves our training, tires them out, and bonus, they've learnt a new skill, even if it is "how to die, dramatically").
Back to the creative side of things.
From the moment GG arrived, we spent a lot of time teaching an out/drop, getting some nice solid foindation behaviours, working hard on recall...working on impulse control...
GG started work with a flirt pole quite early on, and rabbit tuggys, but the flirt pole he particularly likes. Combine the two and you have *the* perfect toy for a terrier when training. It's distracting, it's a high value reward, you can play tuggy, you can make it appear alive, you can use it for chase, you can let it die and ALL without as much physical effort from you, but much more for them than a standard tuggy.
So that's what we did, exactly the same way we have been working with Venom.
In this session, we worked on using the pole as a distraction, because we can
In our Thursday Tricks class, Dot and Flint were practicing their Christmas Card delivery!
They were so speedy, Royal Mail could do with employing them!
#trickdog #jackrussell #chihuahia #minpin
The two Terriers aka Edie and Venom did some work on distraction, engagement/keeping attention on their handler, a little impulse control, staying on their mat and some loose lead walking !
Being a social butterfly, is a wonderful thing, but so is being able to work on a social setting, and these two pups smashed it!
#terriers #jackrussell #jackrussellpuppy #bullterrier #bullterrierpuppy #puppyclass
Surviving Adolescence Part: Impulse Control, upping our game.
Now we've done a lot of the foundation work with our down, we thought it was time to break out the bombproof flirt pole (*NB it isn't actually bombproof!).
We looked at what we would start with, and what we hoped to achieve, and any problems that might crop up. One thing we didn't think to consider, was that Venom might take us out chasing the toy🤣
This session we were working on releasing onto the toy after trying to tease Venom out of the down. Then we repeat the whole thing a few times.
So, we ask for the down, move the flirt pole around like its something alive and exciting that needs killing, dog doesn't move from the down, release onto the toy on the end of the flirt pole.
Along with our proofed down, we have a pretty decent "out" aka "drop it", because we need that as well to get the toy back to start again.
*It's important to remember that when you up the criteria on one part of training, to lower something else.
So we started with the down, and a little wiggle of the flirt pole, and built our way up to the snippet you see in the video.
If something isn't working in your training, look at what you have, or haven't changed.
Have you brought in something more exciting? Are you asking for something harder?
Once you've worked that out, you need to look at what can you do to make reaching your overall end goal more achievable?
It could be you reduce the duration, it could be you up the reward, it could be a combination of things, but if you can work this out, you can tweak your training and then build things back up.
Next step for us is asking for more duration OR switching to a different behaviour, whilst there is a toy out or a pile of food, and work on proofing that in baby steps.
Now, we might get stuck and have to take things right back to the beginning, we might advance pretty quickly now she has the idea of what it is we are doing. All progress depends entirely on how well and
We have a permanent place available on our Tuesday Blackpool Scent class.
Suitable for all levels, whether you are starting out or a seasoned pro, as we tailor the search to your needs.
Send us a message for more information!
#scentdog #scentdog #scentdetection #scentwork #nosework #scent #dogtrainingblackpool #dogtraining #dogtraininglancashire #dogtrainingpreston
Surviving Adolescence Part: Choose your playmates wisely.
For once, this will be a short one!
You'll notice only three of our four dogs are out playing in this one. This is because Venom plays, well, rough. All the terriers do. And the part terrier (he's not quite so rough). Inserting what is essentially a tiny rat into a play session, would not only be stupid, but dangerous.
For multiple reasons but we're going to touch on just a couple.
Firstly, tiny rat weighs 3kg, the next lightest is 3 times that, with the heaviest being 7 times that (and clumsy, really clumsy). One wrong paw or a collision could seriously injure or kill the tiny rat.
Secondly, prey drive. Whilst everyone knows tiny rat is a dog, what can happen in a play session though is genetics can kick in, they're all playing, they get excited, tiny rat gets zoomies, and all of sudden, chase becomes hunt, and it can happen in a split second.
It isn't the tiny rats fault, it isn't the three idiots fault.
If anything happens, it's our fault.
It would be our fault for not paying enough attention, for having them all out in a high energy situation, for having dogs much bigger than one of their playmates, for letting them all get overaroused...you get the jist, it's a long list.
So when toys are involved, no tiny rat.
When there are no toys, tiny rat can come out and play with them, but we still supervise, no charging around, if the play looks like it's going OTT, we have a chill out session of "sprinkles" to let arousal lower, then let them crack back on, OR, we remove the rat from the equation for a while by doing some training with him or the chief mischief maker.
It doesn't matter what size of dog, or dogs are together, you should ALWAYS be supervising, moreso when the dogs are not equally matched, but especially when they are playing and especially so when you own breeds designed to hunt or chase small furries.
Case in point, our personal wrecking ball.
Tricks Class Remix! Featuring Dot, Flint, Four, Nico, Schwarz, Ted and Venom.
#tricksclass #tricktraining #trickdog #dogtraining #dogtrainingpreston #jrt #jackrussellsofinstagram #collie #colliesofinstagram #cockapoo #cockapoosofinstagram #chihuahuasofinstagram #chihuahua #chipin #minpin #bullterrier #bullterriersofinstagram #bullterrierlife #bullterrierpuppy #lancashiredogs #nellandco
#happyhalloween #trickdog #lancashiredogs #agathaallalong
Sneaky peek at our Tricks Class production!
#trickdog #trickclass #tricktraining
When you accidentally film in time lapse, you might as well run with it🤦🏻♂️
Trying to teach Venom slightly more precise paw targets...and for this session, press the buzzer!
#ringthebell #trickdog #dogtraining #tricktraining #dogtraining #dogtrainingpreston #dogtrainingblackpool #bullterrier #bullterrierpuppy #lancashiredogs
