Puppy with seemingly endless energy?

This isn’t a puppy, it’s a Duracell Bunny!!

Sometimes it can feel like your puppy is always on the go, never wanting to settle quietly and chill out. They are either asleep or awake causing chaos 

It can be tempting to want to get your puppy out for long walks as soon as possible to tire them out, because who doesn’t want a bit of peace and quiet!

We do need to consider the type of exercise we provide our puppies with, as we don’t want to cause any longer-term permanent damage to our puppies developing bodies.

You can read more about why carefully considered exercise matters in Morag’s recent Canicross blog.  

So, what can you do while you wait for your puppy to be ready for lovely long walks?

At home:

Be inventive with your puppy’s daily food ration, you can;

• Use it in food activity toys, have their meals take longer than 20 seconds
• Scatterfeed their food outside now that Spring is here, let them hunt for every last piece
• Use some of their food in your training sessions, tire their brains out with a short clicker training session to practice what you’ve been learning in class. 

Chewing is a great way to provide your puppy with an activity that not only keeps them out of trouble but tires them out too, consider.

• Meaty chews can be a great long lasting activity for you pup, you can get fish, chicken, lamb, beef, pork chews and plenty more besides
• Vegetables  - Summer my Flatcoated Retriever  loves to chew on raw carrot
• Stuffed Kongs  - you can even freeze them to make them last longer!

Play

Tug Games  - a good game of tug can be a brilliant way to tire out a puppy, check out my video on playing tug with puppies

Hide and seek games can be great fun. Run off and hide and encourage your puppy to come and find you. Great for recall practice, be sure to reward your puppy generously when they find you

Ball play - Make sure you’re playing on soft ground, to reduce any impact on growing joints. Short sessions are best, just a couple of minutes so there isn’t too much repetitive play.

Scentwork

Food based scentwork is a really great way to tire your puppy out without lots of physical exercise

.

We have probably  introduced you to the Sniffing Game using cheese in your puppy class, but you can play it absolutely anywhere!

If you want to learn how to harness the power of the nose for good you can book a 121 intro session if you’ve not done any sniffing with us yet

Introduction to Scentwork Session

If you and your dog know the sniffing game (you have a word which means the dog immediately starts looking for cheese) join us at Sniffing School Level 1, you'll learn to work as an effective search team and learn ways to make searches more challenging for your dog. 

Sniffing School Level 1

Out and about:

Match your walk to your puppy’s needs, size, breed and age. Your walks don’t have to be super short but do make sure your puppy is going at their own pace.

Take lots of breaks to allow your puppy to  stop and sniff, explore and observe the world around them.  You can also carry your puppy  some of the way if they are small enough and happy with it.

Buzz being carried in a bag on his walk

Consider where you walk your puppy, softer ground is better for growing joints than hard ground like concrete.

Play sessions with other carefully selected dogs with good social skills can be another appropriate way to provide some physical exercise, while at the same time teaching them some valuable social skills. 

Include some settle practice in new places on your walks, being still on a mat is hard work and very tiring, plus it's a great skill to teach your puppy. 

Happy Training

Clare and the Gang

Puppies – all the toys are mine!!

There’s no getting away from the fact that most puppies like to pick stuff up, sometimes the stuff they pick up is fine, like their own toys and chews. Sometimes they may decide they want the toy that’s in another dogs mouth though…so what do we do then?

This week I’ve met two puppies who have fantastic older siblings, the older dogs are very tolerant of their new little brothers, so tolerant in fact that the puppies are stealing toys right out of their mouths!  

When Summer (Flatcoated Retriever) was a puppy she very quickly learnt that trying to take toys off Poppy (Cocker Spaniel) and Scout (Border Collie) wasn’t a good idea. They would initially try and move away from her but then growl if she persisted. She would then immediately back off and leave them alone. Although I was supervising, Poppy and Scout were doing the teaching.

Spencer (GSD) was a different story, he would show signs he was uncomfortable but he quickly gave the toy up to her.  I soon noticed him start to be reluctant to play with his toys around her and if he had one, he’d drop it as soon as he saw her. So I started to intervene when I noticed Summer attempting to grab the toys in Spencer’s mouth to help him feel more relaxed around her.  

When it’s OK to let your puppy grab the toy

• When the other dog is parading or offering the toy as an invitation to play together
• If the other dog drops the toy and moves away from it
• Any toys on the floor not being played with

How can you tell if the other dog doesn’t want to share?

• They may trying to avoid the puppy taking the toy by turning their head away or moving away
• You may see them stiffen up or go really still

If these signs are ignored you may see…

• Growling or snarling
• Barking and chasing the puppy off

Sometimes the puppy picks up on all these signs and responds accordingly and backs off, but when they don’t we may need to step in.

When should I intervene?

• If your puppy is ignoring the signs the other dog isn’t comfortable and is persistently trying to get the toy
• If the other dog starts to become reluctant to play with their own toys around the puppy or lets go as soon as they see the puppy

How to intervene?

• Call the puppy away using an excited voice and give them another toy to play with, ideally with you.
• Call the older dog to you if they have a more reliable recall and intercept the puppy if they follow
• Create places the other dog can escape to with their toy where the puppy can’t follow
• You can see if the dogs want to play together by holding a long tuggy toy in the middle and encourage them to grab each end and let them tug together.

We don’t want to discourage the puppy from playing, we just want to prevent them learning to take things off other dogs.

Spencer learns that Summer can be a fun playmate after I intervened 

Having two or more dogs who love to play with toys can also be a great way to practice some self-control training

• Teach your dogs to wait their turn for a retrieve.
• One dog can learn to stay settled on their bed while the other dog plays tug.

We often use play in our classes as a way to reward the dogs and also to help teach self-control.

If you’re a recent puppy graduate and looking for your next class then Canine Activity Foundations is a good place to start. We introduce the foundation skills required for activities like; Dog Parkour, Scentwork, Canicross, Gundog training and more…

Our next 5 week class starts  Monday 8^th April at 7.30pm

Canine Activity Foundations

Happy Training and Playing

Clare and the Gang

Play with your puppy!

This week we had our first baby gundog workshop. We worked on retrieve, steadiness and control. One of the things I noticed was that all the puppies weren’t initially interested in playing with the toys we offered them.

This was probably because they were a bit distracted by the other puppies and also because they weren’t used to playing in different places, especially as we knew most of the puppies liked to play at home. But, with some tweaks and changes to our own play style we managed to get most of the puppy’s playing a game of tug with their person.

Not every dog loves playing with toys, but there are some great benefits to playing games of tug with your dog.

You can use play and toys as a reward for behaviour you like

     Toys can be used to help your puppy learn self-control e.g. wait for permission to grab the toy 

Even a short game of tug can tire out a puppy

Tug games can eventually help your puppy to learn to enjoy giving things up, because it’s more fun playing with you than running off with a pair of socks!
The final and most important benefit….it’s really great fun for you both!

Top tips for playing with your puppy

Play can become very exciting very quickly and result in puppies becoming over excited. Keep sessions short (20-30 secs initially) and games of tug gentle  (no sharp and fast tugging on the toy)

Put some effort into it! Some puppies will immediately want to grab any toy offered, but many need to be encouraged.  Start with the toy on the ground and let your puppy chase and pounce on the toy, you may have to do some running about to get them chasing the toy! Most puppies prefer this to having a toy handed to them or wiggled close to their face.

Use toys with long handles so sharp needle teeth can be away from your hands!

Find the toys they love, consider the texture and material of the toy, your puppy has to like having it in their mouth. You can also keep a few ‘special’ toys hidden away they only get when playing with you.

Move away from puppy if you drop the toy, and give your puppy lots of encouragement to bring it back, once they do you can re-start the tug game.

Practice play in different places, some dogs will only play at home, and are reluctant in other environments, but you can help them learn tug is a great game anywhere!

What about chasing balls?

Lots of dogs love to chase a tennis ball, and it can feel like a great way to tire them out and provide lots of exercise in a short space of time.  

If your puppy is ball mad there are a few things to consider;

Repetitive high energy exercise results in the release of the hormone adrenaline, the side effect of lots of this type of play can be an over excited puppy who struggles to settle even after the game has ended. 

The take-off and landing impact for the ball can put additional wear on tear on the puppies developing joints, the long term effect of which may not be seen until later in your dog’s life.

Read more about the effects of ball play https://barksfromtheguild.com/2015/09/25/is-fetching-really-all-that-fetching-for-dogs/

This doesn’t mean you need to ditch the balls, but you may want to consider how you play with them. Perhaps instead of repetitive fetch games, try hiding the ball for your puppy to find!  

The most important thing about play is to have fun with your dog!

Happy Training

Clare and the gang

PS  Don't forget to check out our upcoming classes! 

Classes