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27/03/2024

Reactivity Post!
I experienced an incident with my own dog yesterday. Having recovered from a bout of illness my own dog was finally able to take in a lovely off lead field walk for the first time in ages. On lead walking home she was viciously attacked multiple times by a small dog that slipped its lead, ran full pelt across a road to get at her.

The owner of the dog was shouting at the dog as soon as it had started kicking off before it slipped its lead. Whilst he was very apologetic the incident should not have happened. He stated that he could not find the dog's harness before going for a walk. I shared that I was a qualified trainer and specialise in reactivity. He said the dog was a rescue and he had seen many trainers. Now my message is this. If you have a reactive dog your first port of call must be control and management every day of the week. If you can't find the appropriate equipment don't walk the dog in public until you have said equipment. Secondly I suspect either the training given was incorrect or the owner had not listened or fully taken it on board. This conclusion was drawn because of the initial shouting at his dog. To the dog he was merely joining in and effectively egging on the attack although clearly to us humans this was not his attention. Fortunately no lasting harm appears to have been done to my dog although she will miss a walk today in order to allow her fight/flight hormone levels to subside and reduce the risk of trigger stacking and becoming reactive herself. His dog will have been set back in any training and the whole incident was quite traumatic yet completely avoidable. Please ensure you enlist the help only from qualified trainers and take pains to listen to what they teach you. After all if you are paying good money it makes no sense to take short cuts that will not just halt but at very least set back your dog's training protocol. I think the owner in question won't make the same mistake again and he was quite upset about his mistake.

CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT enough said 👍

18/02/2024

Every Day is a training opportunity!
So what can you do when you're just not feeling it?

If you have places where your dog is safe off lead this is an idea you may wish to try.

Simply shut up and keep quite as you walk. Observe what your dog does. Filming is good if you can manage it so ghat you can watch back later to see anything you may have missed.

This is a useful tool to find out what you may need to work on, what is going well and a good time to health assess for injury or anything that you may not have noticed while you were absorbed in actively training.

Try not to distract your dog in any way when safe to let them just do their own thing.

Simply observe and evaluate.

I this clip I had a nasty cold (excuse the sniffing,) and would really rather have stayed in bed. I was looking for how many times my dog chooses to 'check in.

She was showing lameness in her gait (rest assured we are on top of this with regular vet checks and hydrotherapy). She is an older dog now with various issues but it was a good opportunity to assess. It was a particularly bad day and I am pleased to report is much improved.

You can clearly see the 'check ins' and especially as she asks permission to go into the stream. Although trying to stay quiet you should not miss opportunity to give responses to clear communication like this so she gets the release que to go in the stream.

This is just a short clip but hopefully will give sombody some insight into how you can make the best of a walk that could have felt like a miserable chore.

Happy walking 🙂

22/08/2023

Super quick 10 minute tuna treats.
2 eggs
2 tins tuna with spring water
Plain flour to mix

19/06/2023

We are currently in the process of introducing and integrating these two. They have previously been walked together on lead but not had free interation. As they are two family dogs from different homes they will not be living together 24/7. I wanted to share some thoughts and actions that we considered for the best outcome.

Firstly an appreciation that there is a missmatch of play partners here! The Shepherd is not a youngster and the Vizsla is a youngster approaching adolescence. We must consider each dog as an individual in order to manage the interactions for the best outcome as a pair.

The Shepherd....

The Shepherd has health issues including arthritis in her spine, feet and joints. She has history of TPLO which means she has mobility issues with a knee and no doubt aches and pains. Tbf as much as she would like to play and rough and tumble she really isn't up for it these days. We must consider the effect of too much stress and strain on her joints and not put her in a situation that will cause her suffering through over exertion.

Backed by advice, from her vet, we ensured that she was given a dose of her usual 'as and when' painkiller in ADVANCE of the meet up thus avoiding, as much as possible, any association of pain linked to the puppy that may jeopardise future meet ups. She also had a dose during the evening after the meet to reduce any pain.

She is not 'reactive' and her history indicated that she was unlikely to show much more than a gentle approach and retreat from the pup. Therefore she was free to 'do her own thing' pretty much from the get go with supervision.

The Vizsla...

He is doing well in training but was inevitably over excited at the prospect of a meet. He was on a long line initially under close control. He was allowed to approach when calm. Here we had to consider his frustration levels. Initially they were very high. As soon as he managed a level of calmness to take treats we intermittently scattered small amount of tiny pate sausage pieces ensuring that each dog had a search area not overlapping with the other and they had their own space to sniff and find the sausage.

Making use of the olfactory system (sniffing) has huge benefits in bringing calmness and alleviating frustration levels for the pup.

Both...

Once the food was all found both dogs were in a calm state the Vizsla was quietly unclipped from his line. The dogs enjoyed some nice interation. Closely supervised for body language signals at all times. The session was not too long and this particular session was stopped when the Vizsla began to barge the Shepherd a little too strongly to encourage a fiercer chase. With a younger fitter playmate his enthusiasm would have been allowed to continue for longer but taking into account the disability of the older dog an interruption was necessary in order to close on a good note.

Both dogs retired to the house on good terms for a rest in close proximity but in separate areas.

A successful meet up at this stage.

Other factors.....

The play area was cleared of any items that may have caused injury. Corners were avoided to avoid either dog feeling trapped. Several water bowls were provided. Toys were put away. We ensured that the children in the household did not interact with either dog during the session.

12/06/2023

Just thought I would share a bit of an 'outside the box' walk we took this morning. Mindfull of the heat we left at 6.45am. Off road through fields and woodland. Usually I would have a route plan but this morning I decided to pretty much let my gsd do her thing. Following on a loose long lead I allowed her to go along at her own pace investigating the scents that she wanted to with as little hindrance as possible from me. I just kept quiet following along.

I was closely observed her. For the first half of what turned into an hour long walk she was pretty much absorbed with what she was doing. She is 9 and a half years of age so not too speedy these days. I only had to jog a few steps a couple of times to keep the lead nice and free.

Half way through I noticed there was much more foaming than usual. This is because she was more often accessing the scents that she was drawn to and using a special organ in her olfactory system to process pheromones coupled with the fact that the air was quite dry even early this morning.

Shortly later she did a half yawn and 'checked in' so a little indication of mild concern as to the different feel of her walking companion 😀. She was rewarded for 'checking in' and was soon off in front again but with her ears mostly pointing behind towards me.

The remainder of the walk she checked in regularly and was marked and rewarded. A bit like when she was first learning loose lead all those years ago.

It was interesting observing so closely and rewarding to know that she appreciates my role in directing things on a normal walk. I think it was hugely mentally stimulating for her in a different way from our usual training.

I wondered too, perhaps revisiting the very early learned methods of training from puppyhood, the kindergarten stuff, if you like, this may help her to retain cognitive function for longer 🤔 a sort of underpinning alongside our usual training. Food for thought 🤔.

I admit toward the 40 minute mark I did have to correct direction slightly otherwise we would still be out there heading away from home. 🤣

Have a great day with your dogs everyone.

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Tuesday	10:00 - 19:00
Wednesday	10:00 - 19:00
Thursday	10:00 - 19:00
Friday	10:00 - 19:00
Saturday	10:00 - 19:00

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http://www.andisdogtraining.co.uk/

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Every Day is a training opportunity! So what can you do when you're just not feeling it? If you have places where your dog is safe off lead this is an idea you may wish to try. Simply shut up and keep quite as you walk. Observe what your dog does. Filming is good if you can manage it so ghat you can watch back later to see anything you may have missed. This is a useful tool to find out what you may need to work on, what is going well and a good time to health assess for injury or anything that you may not have noticed while you were absorbed in actively training. Try not to distract your dog in any way when safe to let them just do their own thing. Simply observe and evaluate. I this clip I had a nasty cold (excuse the sniffing,) and would really rather have stayed in bed. I was looking for how many times my dog chooses to 'check in. She was showing lameness in her gait (rest assured we are on top of this with regular vet checks and hydrotherapy). She is an older dog now with various issues but it was a good opportunity to assess. It was a particularly bad day and I am pleased to report is much improved. You can clearly see the 'check ins' and especially as she asks permission to go into the stream. Although trying to stay quiet you should not miss opportunity to give responses to clear communication like this so she gets the release que to go in the stream. This is just a short clip but hopefully will give sombody some insight into how you can make the best of a walk that could have felt like a miserable chore. Happy walking 🙂

Vehicle searches today! Be ready to be directed down to the lower car park when you arrive. Leo can borrow my car. Try and resist the urge to park neatly. There will only be 4 cars so try your best to park like a numpty with plenty of room all around your cars. Look forward to seeing you all later.

For bookings contact:[email protected] book now and enjoy an endless source of enrichment for your dog and have fun learning about UK Sniffer Dogs. The fun doesn’t stop at the end of this 6 week course, there is so much more to UK Sniffer Dogs!

Next classes start 10th August 2019.

So proud of this girl who is a fizz bomb, tackling her obstacles calmly. Sorry about video quality. Using an old camera and try as I might could not load onto computer so had to view on television and film it 😂😂😂

Some search practice for fun. New area with small Kong piece. Interestingly once found I had to wait for a minute before getting an indication. Once she had found it she had a good look about and I just waited it out eventually getting the indication I was waiting for. These little practices show up any areas we need to work on. Mostly we enjoy practising together.

An easy idea for Christmas day enrichment. After the presents reuse the wrapping paper. Take away any ribbon tags or tape and nstead of throwing the paper in the bin, throw the screwed up wrapping in a big box or basket. Simply drop some treats in and your dog will enjoy sniffing them out. A nicely way to calm down after the excitement of Christmas

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