The Twinkle Diaries - Puppy Training

Twinkle & I had a go at Man Trailing last week & absolutely loved it😀

Sorry folks, I haven’t been posting much new stuff lately so here is a little bit on recall 😀

We unexpectedly came across some cattle on our walk today & I was so pleased to see that all of Twinkle’s early training has paid off 😀

This weekend Twinkle went to her first training camp & she was such a little star; lots of firsts for her, she camped in the campervan, trained in a new place, did some new agility foundation exercises & ran & trained for someone else as unfortunately I am quite broken at the moment & cant run! Hopefully she will have a future career as an agility dog but for now I’m just so happy with her great attitude & the way she takes everything in her stride. Thanks Nicky Holden for stepping in to help us out 😘

Buddy needs a home, he is currently with us in Surrey; needs an active home where he can use his energy & brain. Agility, flyball, HTM etc. Experienced owners only please. Homecheck & adoption fee apply 😄

Pulling on the lead often starts even before you leave the house; teaching your dog to leave the house calmly & under control is the first step to teaching them to walk on a loose lead. 😀

A walk on the Heath with big Brother Doyle for company & to add a positive example. This isn’t formal recall training as such, more just encouragement to want to stay with me when there are distractions.

Tonight we are looking at multi dog lead walking & lead grabbing during walks .

A little bit of cat training on our walk tonight; what you can’t see is the cat’s initial reaction before I started filming, it was quite aggressive & didn’t look a particularly healthy individual! Whilst it might be tempting to let such a cat come & have a go at a puppy to ‘teach them a lesson’, beware that can be a ‘kill or cure’ method of training; a tough breed such as an ACD may actually then learn to hate cats & be aggressive towards them rather than avoid them in future. I would rather use caution & just encourage Twinkle to leave the cat alone & come back to me for a reward instead! 😀

So yesterday, Twinkle did her first little bit of media work in a film about walking dogs safely in the countryside; she was a super star & I was really pleased that all her previous training kicked in & she responded brilliantly around the sheep & cattle. She was a little bit unsure about the llamas but finally decided that after giving them a good ‘socially distanced’ checking out that her best plan was to return to me. 😀 Normally, Twinkle would have been exposed to livestock on a near daily basis as the behaviour centre where I work is based on a working farm but of course, I haven’t been to work since Twinkle joined the family so this was the first time she had walked around the farm. I thought I would share a few clips of the filming on here & hopefully I will share the actual film once it is finished.

Puppy play; today Twinkle met Clue for a play date. When puppies are playing it’s really important to ensure the game remains positive for everyone. If you are unsure if your puppy is enjoying the game then try the consent game (as shown in this video). Positive play should include self handicapping (controlled biting, laying down & choosing to back off) & role reversal (switching between who is the chaser & the chased or who’s on top during wrestling). Interrupting games frequently ensures the game doesn’t get too rough & is also excellent recall practice! Check out Clue’s brilliant response to Nicole’s recall cue every time! This just shows that positive consistent training pays dividends. 😀

Teaching your puppy to settle quietly beside you is really useful particularly whilst working from home 😀