General Dog Chat Part III

[BiteyShark]

A new shiny thread for general chat.

Old or new, big or small, everyone is welcome to pop in and chat

BastardPup almost pulled me across the road this morning because he spotted the bloke from our street who always has a pocketful of dog biscuits...

Then when we got in he took himself off to his crate for a kip.

We have DogSchool tonight - missed last week because the weather was awful and am a bit meh about going tonight. They tend to look at me and DS1 like we are doing it all wrong.

I still haven't't done any training with steppedog in a class.
Can't find one I like the look of (well we found one, and she never replied to her emails)

They are all a bit - obedience level 2 = bronze certificate type classes.
When I look at the details, he can do 90% well and the last 10% not at all, so we wouldn't be allowed in the next class up, but a complete waste of time for most of the class.

I'd really like a good local trainer who can work with us and/or and agility/scent class, as I think his brain would benefit.

Daytime, for just me and him.

sigh, I'll just watch the flying pigs go by.....

steppe whilst I do group agility we started with a couple of private 1-1s which sounds like something you are after.

I am really busy for the next 2 weeks but then I intend to investigate scent work classes as I fancy doing that as a 1-1 session.

I know we 'should' be working on the general obedience. He will sit and stay for agility and ball play but won't do that for 5 mins for example in a class. But I decided that actually I would rather have fun doing obedience right now in terms of agility etc as he definitely engages more as he was starting to 'tune out' at the general obedience classes.

When I look back I wish I hadn’t bothered with puppy classes but instead gone straight to the one to one trainer who we ended up with anyway. It is the road I would take if we ever had another pup, my turn to say “pigs might fly”😬

thegirl this has definitely been one hell of a learning curve. I would skip lots of stuff if I ever had to do it again. Some of the 'socialisation' we did at vet parties and puppy classes just meant I ended up trying to counter the whole 'meet and sniff every dog you see' for months. And I agree, apart from agility where he benefits from a break whilst the other dogs have their turn, 1-1 has been far better than group lessons.

How did you find your 1-1 though?

I have a limited budget and the only class I liked was a gun dog basics class at £50 which was a bit much!

The only 1-1 that looked like they would do what I wanted was the one who wouldn't reply to my emails. (she also happens to be located on the nature reserve where we walk, so all very handy)

I found emailing to be a bit hit and miss so any trainers that advertised classes that looked interesting and mentioned 1-1 I phoned up and spoke to them.

The gundog 1-1 was £30 per hour which seemed like the going rate generally for individually sessions around here.

The agility was much the same in that I said I wanted to do 1-1 first to check we liked it before committing to group sessions and that was £15 for 30 mins.

Interestingly the best ones for us have taken some time to find online. The most popular websites have been what I would describe as the general puppy/dog trainers with KC grades etc which didn't suit us at all as they just didn't cater for hunting spaniel traits

yes not interested in KC grades ones.

I'll have another look.
We've done really well with youtube videos, but need some proper input I think. I'd like to get from - ok for a nutty dog, up to mostly well behaved!

just found a lovely lady, looks good, says lots about older dogs/rescues.

one 1 hour session = £65

I'm in the wrong business. Really.
Maybe I should fork out, do the training, and then re-train properly as a dog trainer!

They all want to come to my house to train 121 as well, which doesn't work, as in the garden one half of steppedog's head is going

CHICKENSCHICKENSCHICKENS RABBIT CHICKENSCHICKENS CHICKENSCHICKENSCHICKENS CAT CHICKENSCHICKENS CHICKENS CHICKENS DUCKS CHICKENS CHICKENSCHICKENS

at all times

Goodness, you can tell I am far from lunnon...I paid £50 for an initial 1 to 1 session at the trainers enclosed field, we got tips for making us more interesting to her, handouts with impulse control exercises which have been invaluable, recall exercises and further exercises for bonding with her. We then went on group socialisation walks £7 hour, quite a few of the dogs were reactive and I was worried but calm lead walking and off lead exercises around our local country park taught cocopup a great deal , trainer has always said to me , even when I was finding her difficult in teenage hood, that she is fundamentally confident so we moved her from group walks to agility £9 an hour. Agility for me though isn’t really about agility because she gets mental stimulation on a daily basis, it was more about her learning to control herself around other dogs and distractions.
Steppe, if your trainer isn’t answering emails, it may be because she has enough custom word of mouthIf you know where she operates from, perhaps rock up and ask? Having said that, I run a small business from home and would never not reply to an enquiry, even if I was turning down business. Maybe try asking around other dog owners for a recommendation.

I am in the south but those prices are way more than I paid. However. if it gets you what you need then it's worth every penny.

Me, DH and Cocodog are off on holiday tomorrow. My parents are housesitting. So far, we have a bag each and miscellaneous coats, walking boots etc and our trusty iPads, she has her big bed, throws, towels, a bag of toys, her bag of food and a box with treats etc and the glove compartment filled with poo bags, spare collar and lead. Worse than kids!

Cocodogs contribution to packing is her beloved football, she brought it indoors tonight, never has done that before😬

Enjoy your holiday thegirl. Better not forget her football

We are here! Six hours in the car, short walk before, hours stop at a country park off the M25 and then dump stuff in cottage and hour ramble around the village , we met two dogs with poodle heritage, with obligatory drink in the pub and then back to new home. Tea, we cooked, she got brushed and a treat, is settled, I hope for the night.

I have totally lost the plot.. I dna tested our dog 🤦‍♀️ quite surprised actually! He was given to the rescue as a pure jack Russell I even have 'KC papers' that are plainly bollocks but he's not a Jack Russell at all. It's quite funny actually ❤️

Hope Cocodog likes her holiday cottage. Lots of new sniffs to be had .

Hmmm so do you think NewYoikerDog is masquerading as a jack Russel or the dna is complete load of bollocks?

So much sniffing that I think she forgot to have a wee last night before bedtime. Woke us up whining at 6am which she never does and dashed out madly for a pee. Generally she has a bladder of steel and often doesn’t go until she has been up and pottering around the garden for a while.
Cottage is lovely, there is an Aga which I have had to switch off cos the heat was overwhelming, both me and Cocodog were panting. Poor DH was really looking forward to cooking on it but we will have to come back in mid January I think.
Newyoiker, I love terriers...Cocodogs best friend is a border/Lakeland/patterdale cross.😁

I know someone who had their Labrador-sized dog DNA tested, and it came back as mainly Chihuahua...some extremely dominant minority genes going on there if that’s true!

I think the test is accurate it just made me laugh that the breed we though he might be he's not at all!

You should message the cottage owner to let them know it's off as it can take a few hours to heat back up to temperature and sometimes you need to get an aga engineer out to relight it, ours is a cow like that!

Forgot a photo of the dog!

Definetly not much Jack Russell in him! Aga is electric so I am assuming will simply switch back on. We have been out most of today in t shirts and gilets so no need for heat in the house at the moment.
Cocodog caught a baby squirrel in some bushes and was most miffed when we pulled her away and made her drop it, then she sprang a couple of pheasants. We went to a food festival this afternoon where she hoovered everywhere, pint in the pub where she got lots of fuss, footpath home. Supper and crashed out. Think she is enjoying the holiday.

@newyoiker when was he born? JRTs weren't a KC recognised breed until 2016 so that may be the first big clue that the papers are fake!

I've always thought PestDog would be the death of me.

Last night I fell over while walking him (not his fault, he was off lead) and fractured my arm. FML. I won't be able to drive for weeks, so the boss won't be thrilled.

A dog walking belt is now on order to make life a bit easier. FML.

@AvocadosBeforeMortgages oh no! Ouch! Hope you're okay! Haha! I didn't know that that's hilarious we rescued him in 2010 😂