How long did it take you to fall in love (with your dog)?

The overwhelming feeling of warm fuzzies that melts your heart while you watch them sleep, or the oxytocin burst if you prefer!

Either way, you know what it feels like when you have that rush of sheer love for your dog.

Even if they have just eaten something indescribable...

Apparently it’s #NationalLoveYourPetDay today, which is weird because this topic has been in my head since Saturday!

So how long did it take you to fall in love with your dog?

I mean really fall for them, not just think they were cute?

During our Monday team meeting I asked Laura and Clare what their experiences had been.

Laura adopted Seamus last year as a young adolescent. He’s a Beagle x Cavalier, and it’s fair to say Seamus and his shouting has been a challenge! In those first few weeks Laura phoned me more than once in tears because he just would not stop barking…. But after a few months, there was that solid warm feeling of love.

Scout came to Clare as a wee pup, and apparently his goofy happy face won her over in a couple of weeks!

As for me, it always seems to take me about 6 months or more to really fall for a new dog.

It’s not that I don’t like them or appreciate them to begin with, but it doesn’t feel like I really know who they are. That sense of knowing them deep inside, how their individual personality feels when I think of them. The quiet companionship that has a different flavour depending which dog I’m concentrating on.

Learning about their personality and special quirks is an integral part of falling in love with my dogs.  I will always think of my dogs as individuals first, but breed characteristics can be important too.

Adding in Laird the HPR (hunt point retrieve) to my collie girls has been a whole new challenge, plus he’s an adolescent boy. I think we’re making good progress despite the teenage months...

Breed specific behaviour is a tricky topic – and it’s important not to lose sight of your dog as a unique individual. But we ignore those pre-wired behaviours at our cost….

You can listen to Clare and I chatting about breed specific behaviours in gundogs, doodle/ocker crosses and herding breeds in this wee video – we’d love to know what you think too!

I hope you’re enjoying living with your companion animals (pets!) as much as we are, and don’t forget if you need any help to tweak that relationship we’re always at the end of an email.

Morag, the big beast and the collie girls 

#NationalLoveYourPetDay

PS Want to spend more time working with your dog’s natural instincts rather than fighting against them?

Why not try a half-day workshop with us:

Get focused, get help! (even professional dog trainers need this)

Even when you’re a dog trainer, it helps to have a plan and a second pair of eyes to check it over. 

This Sunday Clare and I swapped some brain time to help each other out, and used the 12 Week Year model to design training plans for our own dogs.

In case I haven’t already raved at you about this model, in brief here’s how it works: 

Principles of the 12 Week Year as adapted for Behaviour Modification/Training

Look at the big picture, what’s your vision for the future? Why does it matter, anchor that vision in a positive emotion. This might be a long term aspirational vision

Now get specific – what will this look like in three years?

And break it down further – what would be a stretch but doable goal within 12 weeks?

• Specific, measurable
• Positive statement
• Realistic but still requires effort
• Set accountability and measure your actions

What are the “tactics” that will get you to achieve this goal? These will become the actions we put into a plan. Some will be one-off activities, others will be repeating. For behaviour change we’re often looking at frequent repeated sessions.

Build these into the 12 week plan – what needs to happen every week, how often, when, where etc. Deadlines and due dates. This isn’t about measuring success so much as tracking implementation!

Discuss what actions are likely to be most challenging, where might the blocks appear and what strategies can we use to overcome them.

(and yes, Clare does tend to call these “Morag years”)

What we're working on:

 

Clare is working with Scout so he can accept and enjoy more handling and husbandry with other people.

I’m working on Laird choosing to give stuff up, and coming away from disgusting things BEFORE he eats them. I know, you’re really surprised to read that right?!

So we’ve set our big focus – the thing we really want to be different, and talked about why it’s important for both us and our dogs.

Then we broke it down into the component parts. What are the small pieces that make up the big picture? How often do we need to practice each thing? How will we know when to move forwards?

Here’s an example of how I use the model for myself and my dogs – this record sheet was from earlier in the year when Freya was learning to love the van again. I had targets each day to meet.

The joy of the 12 Week Year model is that it pushes you into setting concrete tasks, and regularly implementing them. 

We’re not judging our progress based on results (we can’t control those). Instead we’re focused on regularly doing the important tasks, and making those targets.

There’s planned review time each week (are we on track, what’s been difficult this week, what do we need to change for next week), and at the end of the “12 Week Year”. Take a break, celebrate, and then do it all again!

Let me know if you decide to try it for yourself, and there’s some great resources in the book itself too.

Have a good week!

Morag and the beasts

What’s going on in WCC Land from October?

Baby Come Back and Stay By My Side!

Our 3 week intensive classes working on JUST recall OR loose lead walking) have been super popular!  We’ve now added dates for the rest of the year with new blocks starting October 8th, then Oct 29th and Nov 26th (only TWO places available per course)

Not sure if it's the course for you - message me :-)

Book here

Get Fit With Your Dog!

Dark nights don’t have to mean boring walks or leaving your dog at home while you head to the gym. Why not try Canicross – running with your dog – to work on your fitness and teamwork. 

 

You DON’T need to be a runner, or particularly fit to start with! In fact it’s often better to start before you get super fit.

Tuesday evening classes from 16^th October (7pm), we can fit and lend you the kit. Small groups with two qualified running coaches and fitness appropriate sessions around York.

Book a couple of sessions now to try it out (newbies MUST book week 1 or discuss with us) 

OR book the whole block using coupon COMMITEDCANI-X to get one session free!

Choose your class here

When to stop talking (to your dog)

Watching a group of dog trainers and owners struggling to stop talking to their dogs in a full day workshop was the highlight of my weekend. It’s harder than you might think!

Clare and I travelled down to Worcestershire to teach “Living with and training a deaf dog” for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers activity weekend. Some people brought their own deaf dogs, but many were taking the challenge of training their hearing dog without using any spoken commands.

Once everyone chose and practiced a marker sign (the physical version of a clicker), we worked on attention, check-ins, tapping, targeting and then only Rally, Obedience and Agility skills.

What did they learn?

The delegates with hearing dogs could clearly see how much more focused and attentive their dogs were to silent training (apart from the laughter when it went wrong!).

Deaf dog owners came away really thinking hard about consistency with their signs – do they look the same if your dog is by your side versus standing in front? Timing is so important, but so is where you place your hand to make the marker sign.

A wee challenge for you

I want you to try training without talking, really no talking. Hand signals are fine and you probably use them a lot anyway. But no telling your dog to lie down, or to heel, or to give paw. See what happens – does your chatter make any difference? Does shutting up actually improve your dog’s concentration?

I’d love to know how you get on with the challenge.

Have a great week

Morag and the collie girls

PS the marker sign I most commonly teach gained the affectionate name of “spasming starfish”, just ask me to demonstrate next time I see you…

PPS If you want to sharpen up your training skills, I have just two places left on our Dog Training Fundamentals one-day workshop on Saturday 8^th July http://www.wellconnectedcanine.co.uk/events/dog-training-fundamentals/