Puppy Perfect Training

23/08/2024

https://www.facebook.com/PuppyPerfectTrainingDorset

Puppy and adolescent dog classes are finishing up for the year. I teach outside so winter classes are not an option for us. I recommence classes in March when daylight saving starts again. But training never ends! Having helped to train over 60 dogs over the past year it’s been very rewarding and I keep in touch with most of my clients as friends and for after-hours help, follow-up and advice when needed.

121 sessions will continue without a break through the winter so please do contact me for help with a new puppy, an older dog or any canine issues you may be having. I teach in your own home as well as at our property and out and about for socialisation.

I am fully qualified and undergo continuous professional development with the Institute of Modern Dog Training as well undertaking research to keep my own teaching skills up to date and for new ideas. I am also trained in canine and human first aid, insured and DBS checked.

Please do contact me through my page, by text or by phone, email, WhatsApp or Messenger at any time.

Dog training

23/08/2024

I wonder who enjoys our classes the most? Me, the pups, the owners or Olivia the super assistant! What I can tell you is that last night’s classes were busy with lots of tasks and keeping the dogs engaged and interested with enough downtime in between for them to relax and watch the others.

We covered “send away” round a cone and pole in a figure of 8, connection, scent tasks, hoops, small jumps, recall, sitting quietly on the placeboards and just getting used to being around other dogs.

The dogs were very engaged with everything we did and it really did show how important it is for them to use their brains to keep them interested and not to do any one task too many times.

Thank you to all of you for being so attentive and making my work so easy for me.

I had a lovely evening with two classes and the rain stopped completely for us. Roll on next week when we’ll get some photos.

22/08/2024

A busy day today! This morning I worked with 8-month old Banjo. He was in my puppy classes and did extraordinarily well. Unfortunately a few weeks ago his behaviour changed and he became snappy which is most unlike him as he’s intrinsically a lovely sweet natured dog. I suggested the vet because it did sound possibly pain related. Poor little dog has a genetic condition which caused quite extreme pain in one of his back legs. He had successful surgery but he had to be crated for some weeks. The owners have been diligent and so kind to this pup and his recovery has been great and complete. No sooner is he out and about again and he got stung by a wasp THREE TIMES! So he has become tricky to handle in certain situations and is on steroids which probably doesn’t help. Today I went to do an SOS training session with him and he did so well, dear little soul. We introduced him to a carrot 🥕 which I think will be something he really enjoys. We did a tug game with him (always letting him win for now) and he showed me how very clever he is with his food toy! We discussed his resource guarding (what to do and what not to do), how to deal with people who go up to him and frighten him without realising it and lots of strategies to help him feel safe and secure. His owners are extremely good with him but the memories of the pain he has suffered in such a short life to date will take a long time to dissipate, if ever. There is ALWAYS a reason for a change in a dog’s behaviour and I’m pretty sure we got to the root of the problems today.

21/08/2024

Last night I was with a class of 6 adolescent pups and what a lovely night we had! I taught the group the emergency stop for the first time and every one of those pups achieved it successfully and pretty quickly too. We did a scent game and used the tunnel as well as a couple of jumps. It was such good fun and I enjoyed every moment! Sorry no photos but I’ll put Patrick the photographer back to work again next week!

17/08/2024

15/08/2024

Nature vs nurture. What a very old and lengthy discussion this can create but I think there is no doubt that both play a crucial role in the way in which we and our dogs behave.

Here is a good example of “inherited learning” in our Golden Retriever, Siri. The crossing of her front paws has been passed onto a number of her pups but not all (16 live pups in two litters).

So we have many breeds of dogs, many of which come from working breeds, some of which are pets and some who work in specific areas.

Let’s take our two dogs - a springer spaniel and a golden retriever. Their characters could not be more different and they both work - the spaniel as a gundog and the retriever as a community therapy dog. Primarily both dogs are pets. The spaniel has, from a young puppy, “quartered” the ground, retrieved a ball and returned it to us without being taught. It’s in her DNA. So we have channelled this natural behaviour through play and training(which she sees as play anyway!) to do what we want her to do. The retriever also retrieves but, due to us not training her, she didn’t work as a gundog. However, renowned for their peaceful and people-loving temperament, she works wonderfully with people in distress or who need comforting for whatever reason. Her reward is a reciprocal “arrangement” whereby she receives affection in return. Even though GR’s are originally bred as field dogs, over generations their training has been directed towards being assistance dogs due to their eagerness to please and their innately kind nature.

However I have met a few spaniels and GR’s in my 70 years of life who have been aggressive and don’t show the desirable traits which people assume will emerge regardless of the treatment, training and behaviour offered by their human owners.

Not so! This is where the trainer with experience and background knowledge of the various breeds comes into play. If a dog is not directed quietly, consistently and kindly using play as the “vehicle” to train l, then people can never assume that their dog will simply mould into what they want.

Training is a lengthy process and, for us, never stops. On every walk there is training - recall, “middle”, lead walking, retrieving, appropriate socialisation and so on.

Good luck and I’m always here for support if you need it.

12/08/2024

Oh this heat - not great for dogs (or me!) However training continues, albeit being very careful to train in the shade and under cover. Some dogs don’t react well behaviourally to the heat and we, as owners and trainers, must take this into account and not put pressure on our pups or dogs to always do what we expect them to do. Today I met a new pup - Willow the 7-month old lovely calm springer spaniel. Such a poppet and a joy to start training. I was so absorbed with her I forgot to take a photo!

Then I met up with assistance dog Maisie who was rather distracted but settled after a while and then her owner, Jo, sent me a picture of Maisie lying on her cool mat when she got home - I think Maisie told us exactly how she was feeling!

10/08/2024

Ponk at Ellingham Show today. What a superstar! All that training really does pay off…

09/08/2024

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard!

Steve Grant, Beverley Swann

09/08/2024

Just to let you all know we will be at Ellingham Show tomorrow after lunch with this wonderful little spaniel of ours, Sunny aka Ponk! we will be competing in the scurry event just for fun so do come and say hello. We’d love to see you 😊

09/08/2024

Two puppy classes last night and what an absolute pleasure for me to help owners train such delightful pups. It’s all heading in the right direction! Pups and owners were fully engaged in the process and, despite the soggy conditions, everyone did so well. Thank you to all of my owners and handlers for making mycwork so enjoyable…

07/08/2024

Last night we had two adolescent classes and worked on connection and getting the dog to work a distance away from the handler. We did this by luring the dog around a cone and a pole using a cue word. Everyone did really well but I did note that generally the handlers were not holding the treat close enough to the dog’s nose. This is of paramount importance to guide the dog to where you want by using his acute sense of smell. We also did some recall and they were all fantastic. Here are Rubble, Digby, Ani, Max, Jelly, Basil, Woody and Jazzy. We missed Nellie tonight but she’ll be back next week. See if you can match the dog to the name! 🤣

07/08/2024

Yesterday…

What a busy day yesterday! This is Chloe with Siri (our Golden Retriever who works as a community therapy dog from time to time). Chloe is part of one of my families I support for Helpful Hounds Assistance Dogs - this is the other part of my work as a dog trainer. We met at the garden centre and Chloe’s pup, Pepper, did her Puppy Foundation Certificate which she passed with flying colours.

This is Siri doing DPT (Deep Pressure Therapy) for Chloe to reassure her in a strange environment. Pepper is too small to climb up there so Siri stepped in!

This takes me on to the remarkable insight dogs have, even when untrained, into people’s feelings. I bet anyone reading this would agree and be able to tell us how their dog has helped them. Siri has been so wonderful during my diagnosis and surgery - just putting her head on my knee and being gentle and comforting. She still does some form of training for a few minutes every day and she loves it!

07/08/2024

What a busy day yesterday! This is Chloe with Siri (our Golden Retriever who works as a community therapy dog from time to time). Chloe is part of one of my families I support for Helpful Hounds Assistance Dogs - this is the other part of my work as a dog trainer. We met at the garden centre and Chloe’s pup, Pepper, did her Puppy Foundation Certificate which she passed with flying colours.

This is Siri doing DPT (Deep Pressure Therapy) for Chloe to reassure her in a strange environment. Pepper is too small to climb up there so Siri stepped in!

This takes me on to the remarkable insight dogs have, even when untrained, into people’s feelings. I bet anyone reading this would agree and be able to tell us how their dog has helped them. Siri has been so wonderful during my diagnosis and surgery - just putting her head on my knee and being gentle and comforting. She still does some form of training for a few minutes every day and she loves it!

05/08/2024

Good afternoon everyone. Now my surgery is over and recovery is well on the way I’m using the time very wisely - watching the olympics and eating! Seriously there’s a bit of that but it’s now mostly making my way through a mound of paperwork for Helpful Hounds Assistance dogs, the IMDT (with whom I gained my qualification) and of course Puppy Perfect Training Dorset.

Session plans are so important
for any aspect of teaching and it shouldn’t be any different for dog training. It’s a profession (albeit unregulated…), not a hobby even though it’s what I love doing. The session plans are essential to document progress as it’s impossible to remember what we did in all the previous sessions, especially at the moment when I’m teaching 5 sessions a week as well as 121’s.

I enjoy getting input from my dog owners as to what they would like to do in addition to what I’ve planned. So if you’re one of my clients coming to classes and you’d like me to add something specific to the session or discuss any issues you may be having then please don’t be shy!

Here’s my little workmate woofing me through the day!

03/08/2024

Good morning everybody. I am relieved that the weather is cooler today and so are the dogs. I just thought I’d do a recap of what we cover in our puppy classes.

My classes are usually for 4 pups but as I won’t be running classes over winter I am taking the occasional extra pup - I have an assistant so everyone gets appropriate individual teaching when needed. We run them at our property in Three Legged Cross.

We cover connection, loose lead walking (always the tough one!), recall, cues, markers and rewards. We cover impulse control, socialisation with other pups (on lead and done very carefully and always supervised closely), and basic scentwork. We introduce them to various different bits of equipment such as a tunnel, going between poles and hoops. We discuss any issues at all which owners would like to talk about such as jumping up, resource guarding, separation anxiety and so on.

The cost is £120 for the six-week course.

Classes re-commence in March.

31/07/2024

Good morning everybody. Tomorrow I shall be having an operation so won’t be doing any training until next week when I have 5 classes. Things will return to normal very quickly I hope. In the meantime I am ALWAYS available on the phone, by Whatsapp, Messenger and text (except when I’m under the knife 🤣) for any issues or help you may need (and it’s free of course!) So please do not hesitate to contact me if you need to. I’m looking forward to kicking off with a couple of new clients in a week or so. Life goes on….video just to show Siri on lead with our grandson yesterday 😊

30/07/2024

Tonight I have cancelled classes due to the heat. It was 25 degrees at 7pm last night and that’s too hot for dogs to do classes.

28/07/2024

Sunday socialising