A Dog's World

Working on our weaves today 😄 we've started with luring the behaviour and everyone's smashing it (I wish I got Bailey's first try on record 😂..he literally smashed it 😆) Next week we will try fade out the treat and go just on hand lure 👏🏽

Bailey's Birthday party 2. and Alfie's first day at Rompin' Rovers 🎉 Alfie got on so well with the other dogs today and showed how much of a massive bundle of fun energy he is, which really fits in well with this group 😄 The party rings were dished out (Quinn got some nice butternut box treats instead as he's grain free - he was definitely not complaining 😆) and everyone had a ball! We took plenty of pool and shade breaks too as it was scorching 💦. What a great day 🥳

It was Bailey's 1st Birthday on Sunday! 🎉 His mum kindly gave us some doggy party rings to celebrate and I even brought along Buddy his friend to have a play with him for some of the session (Buddy's still a pup so was only allowed limited exercise). We are missing Mirren, Bailey's other best friend as she's recovering from an operation but I'll keep her a party ring to celebrate when she's back! Tomorrow is part 2. Bailey's Birthday as he will have different friends to celebrate with! Bring out the party rings! 🥳

Miska and Bailey were practicing their stays last week. I find the easiest way to teach this is to work on a sit and then add duration, distance and distraction individually and incrementally, working at the dogs pace. When first teaching any behaviour, you should start in a low distraction environment such as your living room or garden. Once your dog is understanding the behaviour and executing it correctly and consistently, you can then practise it in different environments, with different distractions. You build this up slowly, for example you would go from the living room>garden>empty park etc, again, only going to the next stage when your dog is consistently getting it correct. Long lines attached to your dogs harness are perfect for practicing this in outdoor environments.  In this video I started teaching Miska and Bailey separately, adding distance, distraction and duration. We then practised it together and you can see when I moved my hand to my head the threshold was reached as they were moving out of position. When you see the threshold reached, take the difficulty level back a notch and practice it there until consistent. In this case, practice moving the hand to the head at a closer distance and then gradually progress from there.

Yesterday Alfie met Bailey for the first time 😄 Would you believe Alfie is quarter poodle! 🐩 Alfie is joining Rompin' Rovers and after having a consult to assess compatibility and temperament we introduced him to Bailey to see if they would be a match ( I had a feeling they would be but we always do a trial to make sure first ). Alfie loves Bailey (who doesn't love Bailey 🥰) and they had a great time running around playing together. I can't wait for next week to see how much fun they have with Quinn and Miska. Alfie is already friends with Quinn and Kate is helping on Thursday introducing Miska to Alfie (again we think they will get on without any trouble but we always take things slow and make sure for safety).

Some beautiful dogs coming through the tunnel this week 😃 Wednesday's group were so enamoured with the pool we didn't get to the tunnels but we will have a go next week 😄

We managed to get out the equipment this week as the weather's looking up ☀️ Here is a mixture of the groups Wed - Fri 😄

This is a video of me and Bailey playing the drop game using 2x toys of the same value. We use the same value toys so Bailey won't favour and hold onto one over the other. 📝 A Note on Taking Items from the Mouth By taking items from your dog's mouth, you are increasing the likelihood of resource guarding. This is a defensive behaviour (aggressive response can also be shown), where the dog protects valuable items like food or toys. This is an instinctual behaviour which would have ensured their survival and well-being in the wild - They are protecting valuable resources. Instead of taking things out of their mouths and increasing the likelihood of an incident, you can teach dogs to drop items on cue or trade for something more high value. Respecting their boundaries strengthens your bond whilst also avoiding conflicts. This is a good game to play to help teach that cue.

Having fun in the snow 🐾 ❄️

Look how fast they are! 🔥🐾

Bailey and I were working on the cue "drop". I have two balls that are the same high value to Bailey - you might have to use two of the same kind of ball for some dogs as they may find one ball more rewarding than the other. When he drops one successfully I reward him by throwing the other ball. As you can hear in the video it's very windy, this can be enough to throw your dogs focus off. Start off by practicing in a low distraction environment such as your garden and then build to practicing in different environments as your dog progresses. This is called ' proofing ' in dog training and is the best way to get fluency and reliability for your cues in all situations.

Super flying zoomies after a dig in the sandpit 😆 what a happy beagle 🥰