🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
Teaching your dog to wait in the boot of the car until they’re released is so important for safety! Whether it be waiting when the boot opens or when you open the crate, it ensures you can release your dog when it’s safe to do so.
Using your stay command, as you open the door slowly make sure your dog waits until you release them. You can reward them for staying with a treat, verbal praise or a little fuss before allowing them to jump out lifting them out.
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
Make sure your dog is responding to the commands you’re giving them, this is particularly useful if you have multiple dogs.
You can do this with recall, retrieving and general commands like sit and down.
If you have multiple dogs you can set up recall like demonstrated in the video and making sure only the dog who is called comes to you and the others hold their position (again build this slowly, if you have more than 2 dogs don’t try and do it with all of the dogs together to begin with start with 2 dogs and introduce more when the first 2 have cracked it!)
If you have one dog you can replicate the exercise by saying things that are not their recall command, to check they’re listening to the command when it is given.
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
Once you have taught your dog to stay, start to increase the distractions.
You can do this using other dogs in the house and holding the stay while you work with one and then the other. Or you can introduce distractions like dropping a toy, running around or touching the ground.
Make sure to build this up slowly one distraction at a time! Dropping 10 tennis balls and expecting the dog to stay might not quite go to plan….
Another proud moment. Alice has worked super hard with her boy, who 5 weeks ago pulled like a train wouldn’t sit or stay - with the added challenge of the fact that he didn’t want to take a treat. Dogs who aren’t motivated by food are more challenging because it’s harder to lure them or reward them for showing us the behaviours we want. With lots of dedication and the help of primular cheese there’s some fabulous healwork now in place.
Good habits take time to develop but Alice is well on the way!
When you’re training distance downs but Mango seems to be training for something else entirely……. 🥷
Full group recall for our obedience class today and they smashed it out of the park! 🤩
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
Teaching your dog door manners and house boundaries is super important for safety, and another reason why teaching stay is so important.
Spend time just opening and closing the door while your dog stays and reward them for not moving, build up to being able to step outside and back in while they stay. When you leave the house you can give your dog a release word like “ok” so they know they are now allowed to cross the threshold.
* we wouldn’t usually let dogs as young as Mango jump into the boot of the car but she seems to have springs in her feet!! (And she’s always lifted out of the boot still)
Big dog agility 🐶
Cane Corso- Bobbi and Bracco Italiano- Roscoe were the big boys of class today, proving that big dogs can do it too!
Their first taste of agility and they were bold and brave and even squeezed themselves into the tunnels.
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
Keep your training sessions fun for your dog!
We love training “go to bed” as it’s a great practical skill in a number of situations, but also we can keep it fun for the dogs when training.
Keeping it fun in training means when we really need it around the house, it happens nice and quickly getting your dog out from under your feet for whatever reason. It’s also a great little training exercise for getting some energy out of your dog too by getting them running and powering towards their bed!
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
Once you have a solid command taught see if you can get them from a distance or whilst on the move.
Give your command and reward your dog, throw a treat to the side to break focus and move them away from you. As they look back towards you, see if you can give the command again while there is some distance between you and the dog and they are slightly moving.
This is a good way to check how responsive your dog is to the command you have taught, and this can build into becoming your emergency stop!
Healwork success. Ally has been working with Cora’s lovely owners Jill and John for 3 months. With some helpful tips and total dedication from her owners Cora is nailing her healwork. Ally has a bit of a soft spot for Cora and is hoping she will like a little Gundog work now we have some basics sorted. Cora is a 10 month old flatcoatretriever
Variety is the spice of life! We love doing a range of things with our dogs from gundog to obedience to agility and it’s no different for our project pupper Mango 🥭 today she’s had her first taste of agility and she’s fearless!
Variety is the spice of life!
We love doing a range of things with our dogs from gundog to obedience to agility and it’s no different for our project pupper Mango 🥭 today she’s had her first taste of agility and it’s safe to say she’s a brave one!
We will be running an “Introduction to agility” workshop on Saturday 20th July at 1:30pm in northwich, message us to register your interest…
Today we have been out doing some training with our own dogs at Roanlodge Gundog Training Facility!
Today we have been out doing some training with our own dogs at Roanlodge Gundog Training Facility!
Despite it being mid summer the big coats were out and to start with we could barely see 15 feet in front of ourselves, thankfully throughout the morning the clouds cleared up.
We were working down in the valley across some tough terrain for the dogs but they were fantastic and did some fabulous retrieving. Lots to work on as always but it’s great to get out to different venues and test the dogs and put their skills into practice.
We love training our dogs and developing their skills with new exercises and challenges. Beats a day in the office anytime!
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
When giving your dog commands that are relatively new to them, give them time to think and process what is being asked of them. Give your command and count to 3, then if the dog hasn’t offered the behaviour ask again.
If they still aren’t getting it go back a step and simplify it for them to allow them to get it right.
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
When teaching your dog to “stay” avoid recalling them out of the stay, instead return to them and reward them for not moving. This helps to create a nice solid understanding of the exercise and reduces the chance of them breaking the stay before you want them to. The fewer commands you can use the better, keep it simple for your dog!
Once you have a good solid stay and you can jump in the air or touch the floor without your dog moving, then start to mix some recalls into the exercise.
(Mango loves to do tappy toes in her stays 🥭)
A very long and busy day today but also a massively rewarding one!
Super group classes this morning with all the dogs and handlers on top form, all showing improvement at their own rate each week.
An afternoon of training our own dogs and making the most of the lovely sunshine and then rounded off by some great heelwork sessions with all the dogs showing huge improvements in the sessions. We had some new faces and some familiar faces today and it’s always a pleasure working with people who want to understand their dog and get the most possible out of them! Lots of homework for our handlers to go at but all making a fantastic start to heelwork perfection 🤩
Running into the weekend like…..
What are your weekend plans with your dogs?
🌟 WEDNESDAY WISDOM 🌟
When training your dog “down”, drop the treat between their front legs to encourage them to hold the down position and reduce the chance of them popping back up to grab a treat out of your hand!
No hot dogs here, only cool kids! We had a nice bit of water retrieve practice in the later classes today as the weather got warmer. We had all manner of swimmers today, from headfirst divers to seal-like gliders and toe dippers but fun was had by all!
No hot dogs here, only cool kids!
We had a nice bit of water retrieve practice in the later classes today as the weather got warmer.
We had all manner of swimmers today, from headfirst divers to seal-like gliders and toe dippers but fun was had by all!
There’s one good way to end a Gundog training session on a hot day !!
