Bull terriers are reknown for being friendly, exuberant, mischevious, affectionate and full of character.
For 17 years of owning bull terriers, my girls have been just that, loved people and life as a whole.
So it comes a little bit of a shock recently that Myrtle is more reserved around people, and is happier not to interact with people outside her close circle of friends.
Which isn’t a problem, she doesn’t need to be a social butterfly, but what if she needs a vet check at anytime in the future?
As a trainer, I like to think outside the box.
So, I decided to teach Myrtle a chin rest on a chair.
If she keeps her chin on the towel, she’s telling me she’s happy to be touched/handled and I can carry on. But if she takes her chin off the towel or even walks away, I stop.
Myrtle is in complete control of this situation.
After a month of training this, she’s had multiple known people stroking or handling her and she’s been totally relaxed.
And only last week she was happy for a lady that she didn’t know, to stroke her.
There’s still lots to work on and improve, but I am so pleased with how Myrtle has picked this up and totally aced it
This just shows, with patience and time, confidence and trust can be built.
I will keep you updated how she’s getting on ☺️
Ernie & Pickle telling us to keep our dogs safe in the warm weather.
😎Remember, no dog has ever died from missing a walk😎
Oscar the Dalmatian x Collie
I had the pleasure of visiting Oscar recently. He’s of adolescent age, so lacking a little bit of focus and needs a little bit of guidance to get him back on track with his training. One thing we looked at was how treat delivery can make such a difference.
Oscar was particularly good at catching, and look at the concentration and focus 😊
Scent work on the farm
I was lucky enough to be asked to lay the scents out for @happydogsdorset this week, so Lyn could handle her own dog. The farm is very environmental, so the dogs did extremely well to stay on task. Great work everyone ⭐️
Do you own an adolescent dog? Carry on reading below ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Do you own an older puppy 6-12 months old?
Do they struggle with -
🟡 Over excitement
⚫️ Pulling onlead
🟡 Go deaf when offlead
⚫️ Jumping up
🟡 Making poor choices
Would you like to join a small class in a safe environment to work on these things?
Our Junior course covers -
🟡 Focus & engagement
⚫️ Loose lead walking games
🟡 Recall games
⚫️ Impulse control games
🟡 Mental stimulation
⚫️ Tricks to build focus
🟡 And much more …….
Watch the video of the current Juniors having fun 😊
Our next 6 week course starts -
Saturday 7th Sept @10.00am
1st Westbay Sea Scout Hall, St Swithins Rd Bridport DT6 5DS
£80 for a course.
A maximum of 6 dogs in a class for maximum input.
- It will include notes and video demonstrations with every class.
- Q&A every week
- Online support throughout the course
- Certificate of completion
For further information or to book, please email
📧 [email protected]
Do you have a lively young dog that finds it difficult to settle or they’re always finding things you didn’t even know you owned?
Why not try a very simple search game with them using treats or kibble.
Level 1️⃣
Ask your dog to stay (if it’s reliable) or have someone hold them on lead, or pop them in a crate.
Let them watch you place treats/kibble around the room at different levels.
Release them to search for the treats.
Try not to help them out too much, let the nose do the work.
Level 2️⃣
Shut your dog in another room whilst you’re hiding the treats, so they don’t see where you’re putting them.
Level 3️⃣
Put less treats out, so your dog has to search a little longer.
Level 4️⃣
Move to different rooms or go outside and repeat.
This is Billy first try at the search game. As you can see he loved it 😊
It’s great to be back with my super sniffers after a few weeks off. They did some excellent searching on table & chairs, walls and we even did a novel search on the stage. None of which fazed the dogs. Great work everyone ⭐️
Fun and games at class this week for the Juniors. An easy search game using boxes, also incorporating impulse control and improving a sit stay, food follows to help with focus and loose lead walking and finally a fun trick - a little spin. Great work Juniors 👏🏻👏🏻
I went to visit Martha the terrier last week because she was starting to struggle when she passed other dogs. She’s a super social dog, and has started to get frustrated if she can’t go and say hello. So we are now working on her becoming more neutral when she comes across other dogs. Well done Martha, you’re a quick learner 👏🏻👏🏻
In the Junior class this week we were discussing recalls. If an adolescent dogs recall isn’t there, if/when/how to change it, recall/proximity games to play, to make them fun and also training a ‘drop’ something from your mouth on cue and the start of a retrieve. Well done willow, Winnie, Holly, Archie & Chica ⭐️
The puppy class had so much fun first thing today. We looked at everything recall related. Equipment & safety, helping a puppy feel comfortable to come in close to an owner and having their collar held, restrained recalls to build speed and proximity games so puppies think it’s fun to stay close to you. Well done Muffin, Chief, Quipp, Lottie, Flik, Ronnie & Nova ⭐️
This is a video of my Ethel being introduced to the hoover at 8 weeks old.Looks cute doesn’t it. But what looks cute as a puppy, doesn’t always seem as cute when you have a full grown adult dog. A few weeks later when Ethel became more confident around the hoover, she was beginning to want chase and bite it. Obviously I didn’t want this, so put management and training into place asap. I will post a video of Ethel (and Myrtle) around the hoover in comments. How does your dog or puppy act around the hoover?Need any help or advice, do not hesitate to get in touch #followers
My final class on Saturday was my fabulous Introduction to scent course week 4.
Because of an issue in the hall, all classes were held outside, which made it even more interesting for this class.
Scent work is a lot more difficult outside because of all the added distractions, so the handlers had their work cut out keeping the dogs focused. But as you can see, they did an amazing job ⭐️⭐️
Well done Barley & Phoebe.
Sadly Rocco couldn’t make it to the last class.
Puppy class - week 2. What can I say, apart from you were all amazing. We look at toy play, loose lead walking and to finish with a fun trick ‘paws up’. All with the added distractions of working outside. Great work everyone ⭐️
We had impromptu outside classes today because of a problem in the hall.
No need to worry though, as everyone smashed it.
What absolute stars 🌟
Scent club - class 1 on Tuesday doing fantastically. We did a search of 2 rooms, building up a dogs endurance so they can sniff for longer, line ups of similar articles and a difficult search with lots of toy/food distractions. I’m so proud of them all ⭐️ More videos in comments.
Both scent classes this evening were on 🔥 I upped the difficulty level by a big margin and everyone stepped up to it ⭐️ Also, a special little mention to Fynn the Saluki who can often become distracted. But started off doing a line up, finding every hide like he’s been doing scent work for donkeys years. He was a delight to watch ⭐️ More videos to come tomorrow when I’ve had a sleep.
