So lovely to be back hooping today, our first Tuesday hooping of the year due to such bad luck with the weather!
We love competing as it shows up handling skills that need improving and developing. This week's homework was set by the lovely Emma at Halcyon Hounds ๐ with her fab Novice/Intermediate course, with what is now known in our training circle as a flik flack (agility handlers please don't come at me! ๐คฃ)
In this instance it is a shallow left/right turn followed by two more left/right turns, it was such fun to run at the weekend and we enjoyed sharpening up our skills with it today as well as training it in our morning hoopers classes, thanks Emma! ๐
I don't often have a videographer so I made the most of it this morning, here is Iris strutting her stuff. We isolated the flick flack once, ran the novice course once and then this was her first go at the intermediate ๐ฑ she was so on it today ๐ฅ๐ฅฐ
๐พ๐
#fridayfun
This week's training video is us taking a walk around squirrel corner at Barton Marina. ๐ฟ๏ธ
Loose lead walking is not an easy behaviour to teach your dog, it takes time, patience and a lot of practice. You are essentially teaching the dog to walk at a different pace to maintain a position by the side of you for long periods of time. You can see the changes in pace both dogs do to maintain this position as it is not their natural pace.
It doesn't matter what kit is on your dog they will pull on a lead if you don't spend the time training and teaching them. ๐คท๐ผโโ๏ธ Yes you can put bits of kit on that 'prevent them' from pulling but 1) they're uncomfortable for the dog that's why they work and I don't want to cause my dog discomfort 2) it doesn't teach them anything so they still continue to pull either in that kit or as soon as you take it off.
Here you can see the difference between a nearly 9 year old dog, Maisie wearing a collar, and a nearly 3 year old dog, Pearl wearing a harness, walking on a lead. You can still see moments where Pearl will come forward a little distracted, but not to the end of the lead and she quickly chooses to put herself back in position and I reward her for making the right choice. I try not to use the lead to 'handle' the dog, I want them to make the right choices so they learn for themselves. Position wise, I do prefer them at the side of me for walking rather than in front just because I am so clumsy on the best of days I don't want to fall over someone, or catch them with my feet on the back of a foot, as I have done that before ๐
I am thinking of running a practical lead skills workshop, not just loose lead but useful skills I use out and about walking the dogs, would anyone be interested ๐ค
๐พ๐
๐ Unedited training video ๐
I thought I would share with you an unedited video from a training session with the girls this week, where we were working on heelwork with distractions, in this instance other dogs and toys, (two tennis balls, a tug-e-nuff toy and a dummy)
You'll see one or two of them go to sniff the tennis ball but when they choose to leave it I mark and reward that behaviour. I reward them for their patience when I come back with another dog and for not interacting with each other when we weave around them. (The spaniel didn't get double treats she refuses my first offering, kibble, knowing I had sausage available she held out for the good stuff๐คฃ)
Behaviours like this are just the basics done well, it's nothing fancy, there's no tricks or special kit, in fact none of them are even wearing a collar. It's just time, patience, rewarding the right behaviours and choices, then gradually building in the distractions.
Please feel free to ask any questions or if this was useful and you'd like to see more training videos, let me know.
๐พ๐
I don't really do resolutions but.. I am trying to do more social media 'stuff' this year ( it will probably last a week but the good intention is there ๐คฃ)
So.. a few of us questioned our sanity and braved the weather to head over to Taming Canines CHUK show today and it was well worth the journey over as always, as we had such a lovely day!
Congratulations to Maxine, Gwennie and Jarvis, form some lovely runs taking a win each! A big thank you to Karen and Bailey for keeping me organised ๐ you worked through some interesting distractions ๐ and had some cracking runs taking home a rosette aswell.
We had a lovely catch up with Sue and Jan from Go-Go Hoopers and Ali from @4pawshoopers, congratulations on your fab results ladies your dogs were awesome!
I floofed Iris' first run๐ซฃ she floofed the second, then she went clear with max points on our third and we stopped there.. she is definitely a fair weather spaniel ๐ฅถ๐ค
Pearl had a 5f first run (my bad), clear second run with max points, clear third run with max points and then she broke her wait on the last run so we go e'd (she was definitely tired but it was her first time at novice and she had run three of them), but set her up again and she ran it beautifully all from the box.. so proud of her ๐ค little video of her starters run ๐ฅฐ
Thank you to Haley, Tracey and all the judges for some lovely courses and getting up at silly o'clock in the snow so we could have a fab day having fun with our dogs! ๐ฅฐ
๐พ๐
And just like that ๐ช we're back!
Thank you to everyone who supported our little business last year and to those that attended all our festive themed workshops and classes over December, we couldn't do what we do without you our wonderful clients!
We have lots more planned for this year which we are very excited to share with you but for now we are officially back in office, or field ๐ค! and ready to train! I know the girls are that's for sure! ๐พ
Let's go 2025! ๐๐๐ผ
๐พ๐
Santa Paws will definitely be visiting these puppies this Christmas! ๐คถ๐ผ๐พ
How fab our last group of puppy class graduates? loose lead and recall around other dogs in just six weeks โ
We have just two spaces left for our course starting in January!
Please visit out website to book online!
๐พ๐
Our focus for hoopers training on Tuesday was the 'check check' cue, teaching the dog to slow down on a barrel in preparation for a tighter turn or choice.
All the dogs and handlers did a great job of working through the foundation skills, then applying it to a small sequence, gradually adding more speed as we went.
Here is Charlotte and George in action! ๐คฉ
Good job everyone ๐๐ผ
๐พ๐
What a beautiful frosty morning! โ๏ธ The girls were having a great time!
Who else loves flying spaniel ears ๐๐ผโโ๏ธ๐๐ฅฐ
๐พ๐
Just keep swimming.. just keep swimming ๐
Rehab in full swing for my baby girl ๐ I feel like it is going to be a long old slog of a journey but we will keep going until we get on top of it the best we can ๐๐ผ
Thank you so much to Becky from Bouncing Back Veterinary Physiotherapy & Hydrotherapy for looking after her and of course Pearl and Iris too! ๐๐ผ
๐พ๐
How fab are Julie and Hector doing in our life skills classes!? ๐ฑ
With practice and patience, teaching your dog to walk calmly on a loose lead strengthens your bond and keeps walks enjoyable for both of you.
As you can hear in the background there are other people, dogs and clickers going on and Hector is 100% focused on Julie so can easily move around with her on the lead! ๐๐ผ
๐พ๐
Yesterday was jam packed with lovely clients having lots of fun with their dogs!
From Hoopers and scent work classes to one to one training in both disciplines, as well as life skills training there was a bit of everything ๐
We have a couple of days off now so me and the girls can have our own adventures, then we're back to work with Tracking Club and one to ones on Monday!
Have a great weekend everyone!
๐พ๐
P.S if anyone knows how to turn the flashy image thing off on tiktok videos please can you let me know I don't know how I've put it on ๐ซฃ๐๐ฅด #technophobe
๐ Happy Halloween! ๐
We ran two fun filled Halloween themed scent workshops in October!
Luckily there were more treats than tricks!
Thank you to everyone for attending ๐ค
Have a spook-tactular day!
๐พ๐
