General dog chat

[BiteyShark]

Anyone fancy a general dog chat thread?

BiteyDog is now almost 15 months old and it's about time we ditched the puppy survival thread for general chit chat but it's still nice to chat about our doggie dilemmas and days so if anyone wants to join me in wittering on saves BiteyDog having the listen to my incessant talking at him then welcome aboard.

How's all the dogs coping with the snow in the northern parts? I am sick of the rain and I guess fortunate enough that BiteyDog doesn't like it much either so apart from a 20 min ball run we are snuggled up in the house today.

Hi Bitey, thanks for calling me over!

I am nervous about the whiste because we walk in an area where a lot of other dogs walk. It is huge (nature reserve) and not crowded, but it seems a bit antisocial to use a whistle in the lovely quiet nature reserve!

I would prefer not to have to use a whistel for basic commands. Mind you, I am often calling him out loud, more than other people seem to. (not necessarily recall, just if he is running round and I turn off, I give him a 'steppedog THIS way' and he runs up to me and turns the corner with me and then runs on ahead)

As to 'leave it' the site says:

It is useful, although not essential, if your puppy can demonstrate:

<strong>Sit</strong>
<strong>Wait/Stay (for a short duration)</strong>
<strong>Recall</strong>
<strong>An ability to ignore/leave certain objects</strong>

His sit and wait are amazing. He can wait even with a bird flying past his nose (proud mummy emoticon). His recall is OK in a training context, medium in an open field, and poor out in a forest /on a walk.

His leave/ignore is non existant, especially if it is food/bird. And while I have managed to get him to exchange a ball for a treat, and to bring it back to me most times, I have not managed to get him to learn 'drop' at all.

I am still only doing the novice gun dog training because the next step is intermediate/expert and we are no where near that because we don't practice enough. We use the whistle for sit/stop and recall. For bringing back items we still call them by voice and whilst out walking I only ever use my whistle for recall.

For the other commands it sounds like you would actually be great as they don't want them to drop the article they retrieve as they want you to gently take it out of their mouth (because if it was a bird on a shoot and not quite dead you wouldn't want the dog dropping it before you could dispatch it). As for the leave it i wouldn't worry too much as it depends on the context (so I have to ask him to leave a thrown dummy which he will do but if I ask him to leave a tasty bit of food on the pavement he won't).

Are you able to give the lessons a try without committing to many?

I've emailed and asked about the lessons, cost, timing etc. I'd like to give it a go. Apart from anything, most of the training classes I can find seem to concentrate on stuff he can do, or stuff I'm not bothered about. I am not, for example, interested in teaching him to walk to heel, I want him to walk on loose lease.

I am also going to do an agility taster.
Actually, we are going to set up some agility stuff in our garden too, and get the kids doing it. They are very keen. But that might be a summer thing. I'll need to find out a bit more (more youtube!)

I can't do both, but I will see how we get on, (and how much they are) he has done SO well over the last few months, and I could do with some help as to how to train him further. He runs like a greyhound, so part of me wants to do flyball, but all the groups are 30 minutes drive away, so we'll put that on the back burner for now. I think the things they teach in gundog will be better for him and us overall if you know what I mean. (focus and listening etc)

Hmm, whistle recall might just be the thing we need!

The drop thing - trouble is, once he has it in his mouth, (and actually he does soft mouth it) I can't get him to let go, and I have tried prizing his mouth open, but his jaw muscles are too strong. He actually caught one of our chickens in his first month here, and we literally had to get a stick and jammy his jaws open . Chicken fluffed off unhurt in a ruffle of angry feathers, steppedog looked crestfallen at the loss of his prize and Dh and I, covered in mud where we had been on the ground with him, pinning him down and trying to rescue the chicken; were in a state of nervous exhaustion!

For emergencies have you tried blowing in his nose/face. I find that usually gets them to drop something if you are in a must drop situation. For non emergencies (and probably not recommended for chicken prizes ) perhaps try rolling the object slightly as you try and take it away.

I have a few bits of agility equipment in my garden. Weave, mini jumps and occasionally a tunnel (although it's too big, I need to purchase a smaller one).

dh is now tasked with making some jumps stands and maybe even an A frame. We have lots of scrap wood and bamboo poles (for weaving)

Out in the woods he can jump onto a log about 3 feet off the ground, and over smaller logs about 2 feet up. Springer is definitely the word!

Will try the face blow.

This has just reminded me about the tunnel being too long for our garden so just ordered a smaller one

At the moment I am trying to get him to learn to walk backwards for the agility touchpoints and I am finding it really quite hard. Looked at all the YouTube stuff but BiteyDog really doesn't like going backwards (will sit, lie down or twirl around instead).

Walk backwards!! Oh dear, our agility might be over before it has begun

Well it's more step back than walk back but he really really doesn't like it. It's so hard not to get frustrated when he twirls around or parks his bottom on the floor instead and looks at me as if to say 'I have no idea what you want from me' 😬

We have just got home from agility class, first one since mid December due to weather, cocos stomach infection and me being unsure about the benefits of going. Giving it another try and i did enjoy it today.

Glad you enjoyed it. Do you think you will continue now?

I am in two minds about continuing the gundog training as BiteyDog doesn't like it as much and I find it hard to practice as much as I need to (prefer to practice the agility as it's easier to do). However, I do like chatting to the people and it gets us both out of the house hence the hesitating (although you can drop in and out of the training as it's pay per go)

I stopped going because she is easily over excited and over tired and I wanted to experiment with a mix of longer and shorter walks, mental stimulation and find a good balance for her. Her stomach problems just after Christmas helped me realise that sometimes doing much less was better for her. You know how some dogs chew excessively or dig or hump to relieve stress, well Coco bolts...I realised this only happens after a stay at her home boarder, who she loves but always loads going on, or after an unfriendly encounter with another dog or not enough rest. I now know what her triggers are and we have cut bolting episodes right down and have been having happier walks for a while now. I thought going back to agility might help us both practice focusing on each other despite distractions. We have three reactive collies in the group and today we did well, only one fly off with a good recall but she was lunging excitedly every time it was other dogs go. She is restless this evening and taking a long time to come down off the adrenaline high. I am going to persevere for the next couple of months and see if she gets calmer. She does enjoy it though and has a better sit, wait when it is her go than most in the class.

If you ever sort the lunging out let me know your secret as he is terrible for that and it often hurts my hands.

Maybe ‘‘tis the exerburance of youth. Coco knows what calm means and doesn’t lunge excitedly at other dogs on lead any more so I guess we just have to persevere in a very exciting environment. As I type she is on her back in her basket legs akimbo...so I guess she is happy with her day 😁

It's a good job DF is a forgiving sort. In retrospect I was a bit overgenerous with his dinner. Staying with him over the weekend and I found PestDog in an odd corner. I went to investigate and found he'd thrown up on a pile of DF's clean laundry and had then attempted to cover up the evidence with more clean laundry.

I'd like to say he was embarrassed, or trying to preserve the carpet, but in reality I think he was saving the delicacy for later. Or as DF put it when he was spotted licking the previously vomit covered skirting board later "perps always return to the scene of the crime"

Haha PestDog was probably hoping you wouldn't spot it so he could have it later [boak]

Oh God it is revolting when they do that.

I’d really like to do gundog training with SquirrelDog (Brittany, ex-Spanish hunting dog). At the moment he never gets to go off lead because his recall is shit. We’ve done several recall classes that were really good, but just didn’t really work for him. I can’t find one that’s close enough/ suitable though. Also they all seem quite intimidating and I’m scared of taking my idiot dog.

Squirrel26 we have a few dogs at our gundog training with awful recall (BiteyDog does come back normally but at training he dances about me for a bit to show me up). They either put them on a long lead OR several of us do the pincer movement to get them back . Honestly I stopped worrying about how bad mine was in comparison to others. I would say go for it if you can find one close enough.

we had recently had real success with lunging.
A lot of the last 4 months have been spent on lead control to be honest (since we got him) It has been really hard work, and along slog. At first I was really please with the progress, but recently realised that going from 'pulling you over' to' mostly not pulling you over, unless he sees a bird', wasn't enough!

So, I watched a few youtube videos. There was one with a dog that lunged at everything on the morning walk. The trainer stopped him, turned round and walked back to a place where he was calm, got his attention on him again, and then tried to walk past the obstacle once more. He stopped and turned round and re-focussed as many times as needed until the dog could walk past the obstacle.

Now steppedog's obstacles are often moving! He lunges at birds mainly. But there are a few places where he lunges at a gateway, or a hedge. So I have been doing some lead training walks on pavement and footpaths, all on a short lead, mostly on new roads where he is over excited and lunging at new smells, and all really consitant and firm with the lunging and hard pulling. Making him walk on a loose lead and stopping, or turning back when he didn't.
It seems to be paying off. Today we had a pigeon on the path ahead of us, he went to lunge, I called his name and he stood still, and watched the pigeon walk towards us and then fly off, and DIDN'T lunge for it, or chase it. I was so proud. He then did it AGAIN at the end of our walk with a blackbird. He has also stopped lunging at his favourite hedge (full of birds) and stopped lunging at our back gate when he gets home.

Obviously today was a good day, but there is definite improvement.
(I'm not mentioning the 10 minutes I spent trying to catch him as he stood under a tree barking at a squirrel who sat and watched him from on high )

I think the main problem I have is that I don't lead walk him enough and when I do I am in a hurry. The lunging is for people and dogs (ironically off a lead he doesn't bother with them but when he is on a lead he does). I clearly need a kick up the arse to put more effort into lead training.

I can't recommend the total recall book enough! We are still working though the early stages but 6 months ago I really thought recall was beyond our reach!
Still buzzing from Crufts. Not placed but a big class (for wolfhounds!) and she didn't put a paw wrong. Also lots of people wanting to cuddle her and take photos. She never flinched. We even managed a spot of shopping!

Wolfiefan so glad to hear you and the big girl enjoyed your time at crufts. Well done wolfiedog.

Did you see the thread title on here asking how you had done???

BiteyDogs recall is great on a walk, comes straight back to the whistle (because he knows I have a ball and that's his reward). When we are at gun dog training we can't use a ball as a reward and he gets bored so runs around me in a bloody circle to basically say 'where's the ball then' before I can finally do a dive to grab him 😬.

No sorry I didn't see. We weren't placed but she behaved superbly. I only have pics with me and other people and dogs in so can't share!
I had to do the grab recently! If we are out I find running away from her or hiding extremely effective. Does make me look like a loon tho!

I've bumped the thread for you so should be at the top now. Just doing what you did at crufts is such an achievement especially as it was your first time, you must be so proud of her.

I just commented on there. TBH being called a cunt kind of turned me off MN a fair bit. I have to deal with enough in RL without people being bullying and horrid on here. I've stayed away recently.
I am stupidly and ridiculously proud of her. This is a dog who was called uncontrollable by a member of the public when she was a pup. She couldn't be let off lead and I couldn't show her on a proper show lead for fear she would break it. I wish you could've seen us. I couldn't stop grinning. Before I went in I did a pep talk. "It doesn't matter what the judge says. You're my favourite and my best!" And I kissed her nose! She stood in that ring, surrounded by noise and people and dogs, and she gazed into my eyes.
I love her. Completely smitten.