Another lovely agility afternoon🥰We had the return of @bruce.ebt and @peggy.jrt ❤️ Brucey melts my heart🥹His second lesson and he smashed it! We started to use the lotus ball, which really helped him with his over excitement about food! And Peggy came with her skates on!!! Such a speedy girly today, we worked on rear crosses and her and mum handled it like pros😍Super duper proud!💪And Gus from @whatthe.woof had an amazing session😍He came to the polytunnel with a new confidence and SMASHED his lesson! We managed to piece together pieces of equipment💪So much excitement, he got zoomies and then had to take a lie down in the tunnel🤣Love love love the diversity of breeds that come to see me. These guys prove it’s just not for the collies! #dogagility #dogagilityuk #boxerdog #englishbullterrier #jackrussellterrieruk #jrt #dogtrainingsomerset
Dennis had another agility session today😍Such a superstar!⭐️He’s starting to piece together slightly longer bits and pieces and making it look so easy🥰He also played the bang game on the seesaw and discovered Lotus balls. Well done Dennis😍#dogagility #dogtrainingsomerset #goldendoodle #dogagilityuk
A lovely Agility Friday😍We had Dennis back for his second lesson and started to build some drive. We also talked about toy play and starting to build this with him🥰Then we had Gus from @whatthe.woof come for his first lesson🌟He was a star, we basically did half an hour of toy play. Toy play is so important in agility as it’s a great way for us to be able to give indirect rewards to our dogs❤️He’s a big baby, and he was starting to get the point of bringing a high value toy back to mum for some play🫶If you want to learn agility, we have limited 1-2-1 availability and an agility prep school starting in March. Please message for me details💚 #dogagility #dogtrainingsomerset #somersetdogs #dogtraining #boxerdog #goldendoodle
*SCHEDULED POST* Wilfie came to see me for another agility lesson🥰He’s been coming to me to work on his drive and going forwards as he used to get frustrated and turn and bark at his mum. As you can see from the video, he’s doing a fab job of driving on for a ball👏✨ #cockerspaniel #dogtrainingsomerset #dogagility
Another session for Reggie🤩We added Nessa as a distraction in a place he’s familiar with, both dogs did so well👏Reggie can sometimes struggle with other dogs, so using Nessa is a nice way to slowly build distraction for him. Ness is high energy, and her body language shows it so she can sometimes be a massive distraction for a dog. Reggie didn’t care though, he only wanted the treats from his mum and dad!!! We did a lot of work in his familiar surroundings, then we took him on his usual route to the park. This is where he can pull, but busy using food he did some lovely loose lead walking for his parents😍Such a good boy!🥰#dogtrainingsomerset #dogtrainer #boxerdog
Lottie came back for another agility lesson on Sunday🤩Such a gorgeous girl, we refreshed our skills from last week and also added some start line and jump practice. Lottie was finding 3 jumps hard, so we moved back to just 2 to keep her feeling positive about agility as it’s all just one big game🎾She’s going to be a speedy girl! #bordercollie #dogagility #dogtrainingsomerset
Lottie came to see me today for an agility 1-2-1🥰We’ve seen Lottie before for some recall work, but today was her first agility session and she was a star!✨We worked a lot on toy play as Lottie was getting a bit bored of just tennis balls!🎾And her and my Nessa met eachother at the end and they had a nice run round with each other!🤩#agilitytraining #dogagilityuk #collies #dogtrainingsomerset
🎾TOY PLAY🐾
Toy play is such an amazing way to reward your dog🥰For Nessa, she has higher value in her ball than anything else. So we use it for everything (recall, agility, etc.). As you can see from this video, when you’re doing toy play is effective with your dog, you might look a bit stupid, but i can assure you your dog doesn’t mind!!! I’m often exhausted after a training session, covered in all sorts (mud, scratches, slobber) but I know my dog has had the best reward for her🩷🎾#dogagility #dogtrainer #playingdogs
Skye came to see me today for another 1-2-1 agility lesson. She did superb!🥰Skye loves a tunnel, so we make sure to include quite a lot of those in her lessons to keep it fun for her! Today, we did front crosses, blind crosses as well as some weave work. We also did some rear end awareness as Skye was struggling a bit with the contact equipment. By walking Skye over these poles on the floor, we’re making her think about where she’s putting her feet. This is brilliant for her in general, but means she’s safer on the contact equipment. Well done Skye!☺️❤️ #dogagilityuk #dogtrainingsomerset #samyoedsofinstagram
Thursday Nights❤️We love training at @yeovil.agility ! So lovely to be able to train Nessa in a group environment. Nessa has started to sequence her weaves and her seesaw😍I have some availability for agility lessons on the weekends, so if weekdays/evenings are difficult for you get in touch and we can arrange a lesson⭐️#dogagility #dogagilityuk #dogtrainingsomerset
Nessa and I had so much fun at Watercombe Dogs steeplechase competition⭐️She had a time of 26.25 seconds, standing on her own amongst the collies💪🤣 Thank you to all the team at Watercombe❤️
🐾HANDLING DRILLS⭐️
Handling drills are SO important for your dogs, it helps them to feel more safe when doing handling like ear cleaning, nail trimming, etc! I do this a lot with my puppies and get used to saying the name of the body part (for example ‘ear’ in these videos) and touching it. We normally clean the dogs ears every couple of days. Over the last couple of days, I’ve noticed Nessa head shaking a bit. As ear infections are quite common in our house, I cleaned her ears and popped some solution in. This is only the second time she’s had something like this inside her ear and she did so well. They all enjoyed a bit of cucumber as a reward, in the first video Ness ran off with hers to roll on it🤣#dogtraining #doghandlingtraining #labradors
Little Lily came to see me tonight with her mum Emily. Lily has had loads of fab agility foundations put in since she was tiny, but unfortunately she got really poorly which set her back in training. She was also a lockdown pup, so sometimes finds people/dogs a bit hard. Tonight was her first time playing agility in a LONG time and she showed us that she hadn’t forgotten it!⭐️🐾🥰
We have a weaver🥳We’ve been working on 2 by 2 weaves, now Nessa is a year old we have been stepping up our game getting ready for when she can make her debut🐾Super duper proud of her!🩷#dogagility #dogtraining #labradorretriever
Skye and her parents came back to see me last night for another agility lesson🥰We continued working on building drive and a bit of course running; we also introduced weaving and curved tunnels🐾She did so well, such a superstar!⭐️ #dogagility #dogtrainingsomerset
Gorgeous Jackson came to see me last night for an agility 1-2-1! He did super well! We worked on tunnel drive, start lines, straight jump lines and also talked about shaping and come work. We did have to cut our session short, as he was getting a bit too hot under all his fluff! Always aiming to make sessions enjoyable for your dogs🐾❤️
🐾LOOSE LEAD WALKING⭐️Ness practicing some lovely loose lead walking/heelwork on the way home from our morning run 🏃♀️ If you’d like some help with LLW, send me a message🐾❤️
🐾TOY PLAY🎾When coming to a session with me, the biggest thing I will discuss is finding the right reward for your dog. For Nessa, this is a game of tug with a toy. When I brought home my 8 week old labrador puppy I was expecting her the be OBSESSED with food, but she wants play instead! In this video, I’m just getting some engagement from her in a very exciting environment (helping me set up for an agility lesson at @watercombedogs ) and rewarding her with a game of tug. I was asked last week if games of tug can make dogs aggressive. Only if you don’t play fair!!! You should let a dog win a game of tug because it encourages them to bring it back. As you can see in the video, I’m touching Nessa’s sides and also doing a ‘throw away’. I’ve left the audio on so you can hear my annoying playing voice🤣She has no lead on and isn’t attached to me but chooses to come back and show me her toy. It’s taken us a lot of work to get to this point, but games are so rewarding for both is us🩷It helps me to get her focus in busy environments and give her a reward that she actually wants rather than shovelling food down her throat! If you’d like to learn more about toy play and how enriching it can be for your dog, pop me a message🐾✨
🐾DINNER MANNERS🍽️One of the most important thing my dogs are taught is to sit for their bowl and not take it until released by name. For me, it’s basic manners. They shouldn’t snatch their bowls as I put them down, it makes mealtimes a lot calmer. If we’re calmer and not worried about feeding our dogs together, the dogs will be calmer too. Also, them being able to sit and wait allows me to make sure my dogs are getting the correct food. The youngest has more food than the oldies and one of my older dogs is on medication. It also allows me to make sure they have enough space from each other when eating. Twm (biggest out of the 3) is a rescue and doesn’t really like dogs other than Misty around him when he’s eating. Being able to sit and wait for his dinner allows me to make sure he’s got enough space that he feels happy to eat his tea without being ‘threatened’ by Nessa (who is absolutely no threat as she’s the slowest out of the 3 to eat!!!). Bonus, it also looks very cool to be able to have 3 Labradors not chomping at the bit for their dinner🤣If you’d like some help to achieve this in your household, pop me a message🐾✨
