It fascinates me just how different Mog and Teasel are in just about everything that they do. Here they are eating yesterdays tea out for their 'snakes'. Teasel is efficient, clean and always finishes hers first, she secures the snake pulls a bit to open the holes and carefully removes the kibble...Mog just works on the 'put it in your mouth, chew and slober it to death' approach 😂. How differently do your dogs approach the same problem?
Ozzie and Bertie test drove the new hoopers chutes yesterday. I think they approved 😁
Recently several people have said to me that their dog can't think once a ball is on show. There are so many games you can do to improve this, and much better ways (mentally, physically and emotionally) to play with a ball than just chucking it for your dog. This is Teasel's favourite ball game at the moment, it really exercises her brain and her self control listening to whether she is stalking it, rushing in to 'get it' or stopping in a down.
Love how joyful the young dogs are in Clicker Class about recalls... and so impressed with their focus on their humans whilst the other dogs are running 😁
It their home too! Teasel often asks to go out into the garden to get a stick to bring in to chew up. This morning she had some cardboard as well as a stick...yes it makes an awful mess but I can clean it up. Our dogs have very little choice in their lives, we decide that they will come and live with us, they can't decide that the environment isn't working for them and leave. Consider allowing them appropriate affordances to meet their own needs...even if it means cleaning more often 😂
I really enjoyed teaching the first session of the first Group Skills Workshop of the year. Well done to all the dogs and their humans, for dogs who have varying challenges with a group environment, they all did brilliantly. I'm really looking forward to seeing them all again in a fortnight (hopefully it'll be a little warmer🤞) for the second part, when we dive deeper into their varying challenges 🙂
Teasel was bored this evening, I've had a busy week and she's not been getting her normal input. My brain wasn't up to anything much so we did a few reps of the focus/look game (which she likes) and then some personal play, so 'play' without a toy as a mediator! I'm sure to those of you with dogs who will happily bounce off of you and chase you it doesn't look like much, but for Teasel this is massive progress. Her arousal has always spiked horribly around any contact, meaning that it ends up not being a pleasant process for either of us🤣. We are slowly working towards these interactions being positive and relationship building. Key points with her(and to consider with any personal play with your dog) are that it's always the dogs choice whether or not to engage (hence with Teasel I'm always moving away from her), if she choses not to approach then respect that decision, and don't go in with over the top play and overwhelm your dog (I have to keep it all very low key, playbows, floor tapping, sudden movements etc produce a big/unpleasant arousal spike!). Teasel is a very good teacher...if I get it wrong I know! She's now happily snoozing 😴🐕🥰
I was talking to some of you at training a couple of weeks ago as to whether or not to use directional cues or a general 'go round'... this video is for you! Can your dog listen to your directional cue from either side of you, middle position and with no body language cues from you? Do you want to invest the time to do this (I did as needed something to work on with Teasel at the time! ) or would you be better to put your efforts into something else? There is no right or wrong answer, just be honest with yourself and fair to your dog.
Still spaces available on this conditioning workshop 4th Nov, 10am-12midday. Arthritis is a leading cause of euthanasia in dogs. Getting started with some appropriate conditioning early gives your dog the best chance of staying active, preventing injury and staying with you for longer.
I'm teaming up with Amy Kings from Win Clinic to run some conditioning workshops. Whether you participate in dog sports, or just want to give your dog the best chance staying active for as long as possible, this is a great chance to have physio advice on appropriate conditioning for your dog, with me there to help you with the 'how' to do the exercises. If you would like to book, or discuss whether this is suitable for your dog, please contact Win Clinic.
Saturday 4th November 10am-12pm at Buckland Farm in West Buckland.
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective! Teasel has always been hard to live with...she is a very strong, true to type, herding dog who has a strong need to control movement. One of our big issues has been me moving around in the kitchen, especially making breakfast! Over the years I have used several different training strategies, all of which help to a degree, but all have just moved the arousal spike to a different part of the routine.
Working through Kim Brophey L.E.G.S. Family Dog Mediation course I had many light bulb moments with regards to Teasel. One being that the reason breaksfast time is quite so hard is that I am on a mission, my movements around the kitchen make sense to me but to Teasel must seem incredibly erratic. I've started using Kim's Mr Rodgers Hack ( her hacks aren't training as such , but are simple solutions, easily implemented and help our dogs make sense of the world they find themselves in). This video shows how much this helps Teasel (and therefore me!), video in comments of me not using it...obviously didn't leave that going for long as it would only deteriorate!
Sometimes we are so busy implementing a complicated training plan that we miss the simple, and most meaningful to our dog, solutions. I so wish I had known about Kim's approach when Teasel was a pup!
A bit of proprioception/ confidence building with Teasel today 🙂.
Teasel loves to chew a stick up (doesn't eat it or I would be more concerned about her gut health but pulls it apart and spits it out). I don't play with sticks with my dogs (far too risky) and ideally I would like her to chew on the many chew toys provided rather than risk splinters in her mouth, but she finds chewing a stick meets her needs a way that chewing other things doesn't. She sometimes asks to go into the garden just to find a bit of stick to bring in. I would also rather not have a load of chewed up stick all over the floor...but Teasel has taught me more than any of my previous dogs how important compromise is, if I let her meet her own needs in that moment the rest of our day will be much more harmonious! I now leave bits of stick (means I can choose the slightly better ones) in the garden for her so that when she feels the need she can find one. Video in the comments of how a couple of minutes later she was content and able to settle. These days we have an ever increasing list of things we shouldn't let our dogs do and yes we do need to do our best to keep them safe. However we also need to balance risk and let them find their own solutions sometimes (within reason), in order that they can cope with this increasingly strange environment in which they have found themselves.
People often worry that their dogs will forget their agility or hoopers skills if they have to have a break...here are Mog and Teasel demonstrating that often our dogs memories are better than our own 🤣. A couple of weeks ago Mog reminded me of this trick (knock the cone over then stick nose in it) when I was trying to do something different with him with a cone. I had completely forgotten that we ever did this! I also couldn't remember ever doing this with Teasel but thought I'd just see what she did...I had obviously worked on this with her too! Thank you Mog for reminding me of this trick...we had fun playing with it last week in clicker class...and thank you for the reminder that we should really be worrying about our own memory rather than our dogs!
I love it when a lot of hard work from both dog and handler all starts to come together. Hoopers can look like the handler doesn't do a lot...it's deceptive. Here Charlotte and Murray are absolutely working as a team. Charlotte's worked hard on the timing of her cues, and not using excessive cues, leaving Murray confident in getting on with his job. Hoopers isn't easy but it's so much fun 😁
I have emailed details of the next block of group classes to those of you currently in groups. If you haven't received the email please let me know🙂.
Video of Teasel enjoying having me to herself out on walks... just to make this a bit more interesting 🤣.
1 hide clip... for some reason it won't add the post!
