Bee

7th November 2011                                               Toffee’s eight Months old!

So this means I have had ownership of this little brown dog for 6 months now.

So what has she learnt?

-          Her recalls are good. I can let her off the lead on all the regular walks and only keep her on a flex-lead in a new area. On a walk I have taught her to come back to me without being called, and now she is to good at this game that sometimes I have to send her away again. If she does spot a bird and chases, she does come back and is rewarded with ‘high value’ food. At the moment it is on the third call so a little bit more work needed although she doesn’t commit-and go out of sight.

-          Agility. She has a really good sit wait and knows the word ‘wrap’ (run around to the left of a jump wing) and ‘twist’ (run around to the right of a jump wing), although this is still work in progress. We do a jumping lane which consists of wooden poles as luckily my neighbour says I can use the field whilst the polo horses are not using it.

-          Classes. She goes to a agility class on Sunday to do all her training in front of other dogs. Fortunately all the dogs in the class are really nice and friendly and although at first she was a little worried she has now made some good friend especially a little collie x spaniel called Maya.

-          Courses. Last Saturday she returned to attend Anthony’s Clark’s puppy class. She was very brave to do a sit stay, with all the other puppies behind her, all her recalls were excellent (no running off to the fence boundary this time!) Anthony commented on her being alot more focused this time. Very proud of my little cocker!

So what of the future?

-          She hates it when I train one of my other dogs screams and tries to break it up. I am teaching her to lie still and at the moment and so far I can play tug and throw a ball, for one of my other dogs, whilst she stays. Getting her to remain in the spot whilst I teach them one of the games that she knows is virtually impossible at the moment.

Toffee showing great restraint whilst Puds plays with me.

-          She steals food at every opportunity. My other dogs know that if they lie still and look away at meal times, they will be rewarded with a tipbit. When a piece of food is tossed to one of my other dogs Toffee moves at the speed of lightening and steals it at the disgust of my other dogs. Naughty little Cocker.

-          She is over enthusiastic when she greets dogs she knows and jumps in their face. Fortunately grumpy Gina tells her off and this had made her think a little bit more before she does it to a dog she doesn’t know.

-          She jumps into my lap without any warning, not very good when I have a cup of tea in my hand!

-          She pulls on the lead like a goodun! Might have to think about getting a halti at sometime.

But she has fitted in really well into our household and I look forward to teaching her some new games over the next 6 months.

3rd September 2011                                             Recall, Recall, Recalls

Toffee has entered a new phase in her life which unfortunately involves her hunting side. I have never owned a gundog before and I can only describe that any dog with a strong hunting instinct as like ‘owning two different dogs!’

So far every walk with Toffee has involved me hiding from her several times to teach her to look back for me. This game has gone very well with her, 'Check backs', happening on a regular basis. However when she reaches a certain level of arousal the ‘looking back’ game is totally forgotten.

I can only describe Toffee’s arousal level as like being on a ‘Richter scale’ with recalls from 1-3 very good and from then on poor to non-existent!

So I have been on a mission to create as many recall situations as I can. Now some of these she has found very easy; being called away from dogs, people, even rabbits but I think the reason is that these things aren’t actually very important to her. So we went on a mission to find out what is hard for Toffee.

The first game was food refusal; initially she was very bad at this. I put a piece of food in a bowl and before she got to it I called her. She failed every time so I put her on a line. After several goes with me stepping on the line, calling her back and rewarding with a high value treat, the ‘light bulb’ moment happened. Toffee is now so good at this game that it is difficult to get her to even leave my side so the game is no longer effective.

Now I am presently working on a new game, which seems to hit 5-6 on her Richter scale. I tie her up and throw a toy for one of my other dogs to retrieve and once they have returned I unleash Toffee. She goes off at top speed searching the area in a complete frenzy and when I first started this game her recalls were totally non-existent. Things have improved and now when I do this game Toffee comes straight back, is rewarded, and then is allowed to search the area again. Surprisingly though she isn’t interested in any of the toys that she might find, she just keeps searching. As things were going well the other day I took her to a field where she had never been before. I repeated the game and this time she went up to 8 on the Richter scale and only came back after the third recall!

Other interesting observations I have found so far;

-          however much hiding behind the bushes I have done previously the game isn’t effective once Toffee has reached level 8. It doesn’t even occur to her to look back for me and that I have hidden or gone.

-          However rewarding or big the treats are when Toffee has reached level 8 she isn’t bothered about pork pies, chicken wings, sausage (in fact mash potato seems to be her favourite!)

So our recall games continue and later on I shall add some 8-10 level although I think realistically this will be the distant future; We are a long way off before we can walk, off lead, near the pheasants; if ever!

5th August 2011

First Day at School

Although I was looking forward to Anthony Clark's puppy training day with Toffee I was also rather worried about the unexpected. Although I have done alot of training with Toffee one never knows how the puppy is going to respond in a new situation with new dogs.

Most of my training has involved food and combining this with a little bit of retrieving and when Anthony wanted us to use 'tug toys' for the first exercise (agility recall) I didn't think things would go too well.

Anthony restrained Toffee whilst I ran away calling her and she came dashing towards me at great speed, ignored the tug toy, and ran to the fence searching along it's boundary totally ignoring my recall commands!!! I was so embarrassed that this little brown dog made me look like a 'beginner handler!' Naughty little Cocker.

After a second unsuccessful recall (yes I hoped the first one was a fluke) I then decided to do a quick about turn, ran back the other way, shoved the tuggy in her face and grabbed her quick and put her back in the cage. Phew, talk about avoidance training!

Doing the turn during the recall making sure the little 'b....r' came with me!

We also played independent tuggy games with other puppies around and she just couldn't resist this gorgeous red merle ASD and went up and sniffed his bottom. I called her back and again she totally ignored me! So embarrassment for the second time and I had to go up and grab her by the collar and drag her back to me. Naughty little Cocker.

Fortunately things got better and we did some free shaping with a box and some food. Now Toffee was a completely different dog her focus and concentration was 100% even when another puppy came up and wanted some of the food too. Proud of my greedy little Cocker!

Good concerntration when grub is on offer!

Anyway lessons that I have learned from the day. My tug is very weak, Yes very weak! So I am going to do some work on this. It seems that I have total concentration when food is on offer and whilst I am in close proximity of her. The 'Spaniel moments' tend to happen when we are somewhere new so I am going to have join an agility club later on to expose her to dog distraction. Also they happen during 'free time', the time in-between the exercises, so I am going to teach her a 'Settle' command which will mean lie down and wait until we do something else.

A friend of mine remarked that I liked a training challenge; I don't remember saying that!



13th July 2011

Merging the pack part 2

I am absolutely delighted that it seems that my plan to merge Toffee into the pack has worked.

She had early introductions with individual members who I thought wouldn’t bite her so she was introduced to Sketch, Gina and Bee, each on a one to one basis. As predicted Bee let out a real deep growl, Sketch after some subtle discipline, plays with her and Gina guards the bones and hisses and snaps at her if she gets too close. What has been a surprise to me is, however fierce one of my adults is in disciplining Toffee, she pushes and pushes until they eventually bite her ( or not!). Now Sketch and Bee having great bite inhibition can’t do this and as a result Toffee has little respect for either of them.

Puds was always my greatest concern and after a period of Toffee over exerting herself with the other dogs I decided to let both Puds and Toffee into the back garden together. So the expected happened and Puds nipped Toffee, Toffee screamed and ran away keeping a distance from her and giving Puds fearful looks. I then decided to leave another meeting for 3-4 weeks and then took both Puds and Toffee out for a short walk together. I was really surprised, when unleashed , both dogs did their own thing respecting one anothers space without any threatening or nervous behaviour shown from either dog.. They even shared a smell together.

Puds has recently been on lead walk as she had pulled a muscle in her back and I decided to take all 4 dogs out for a 20 minute walk together for the first time. I can’t say how pleased I was with how this all went; it now seems as if every dog has now merged into one pack. Toffee even braved it enough to lick Puds on the nose!

25th June 2011

A family gathering

Toffee had her first agility lesson with brother 'Boost' yesterday. It was great to see Boost again as I haven't seen him since he was just 5 weeks old. He has turned into a very nice young lad who loves to play tug games and adores his mum 'Becky'.

The wet duo!

Unfortunately after a fine sunny day it decided to rain solidly during the evening for the entire lesson. Both Boost & Toffee did some waits and 'Go ons' before we then let them off lead for some play. However it was very interesting to see what our trainer was teaching her youngster and gave us much valuable insight into future training games.

17th June 2011

Is there any difference between training & behaviour?

Toffee loves to lead me into the sitting room as this is where we play games (do Training). At the moment she can circle a jump wing, stand on a pot and circle to the left and right (the elephant trick), do sits combined with release words and find bits of liver hidden around the sitting room. Now whilst doing these games a few behavioural problems have emerged.

When I have told her she is right she can’t resist jumping up to try and snatch the food! Now to me this kinda undoes the good work that has just been achieved. So a new training vs behaviour game had to be devised. So prior to starting the tricks, Toffee is rewarded for sitting, not lunging at me and also for maintaining that position for a short duration. She cottoned onto this quite quickly until I started to bend down and sit on my knees and she found this very difficult to resist and again started jumping up to snatch the food again. With very gradual rewarding the stages I can now sit on my knees, hold the bag a few inches away, from her nose, and collect small pieces of liver in my hand whilst she is just sitting. I can see Toffee is having to show great restraint whilst I am doing this. Good little cocker.

Well restrained 'Toffee'

I have recently read the book written by Susan Garrett’s book, called ‘Tuff love’. Although the main jist of the book is to turn around the attitude of adult dogs to improve the human/ dog relationship, there is a section for puppies which has kinda set me on the right path. I particularly like her way of recognising that dogs should ask for something rather than taking things believing it to be their right. She uses the phases ‘Hey dude’ (Give it to me now) verses ‘Can’t I please have that’ (respectful ;) This has also been particularly useful when releasing Toffee either from her pen or the cage in the van. When I call her name she instantly jumps up scratching the cages saying, ‘Let me out and now! (Hey dude!)So now after calling her name I wait until she sits before I take one step towards her. This is more than Toffee can resist and she then starts to lunge the caging again so I stop and if she continues I take a step backwards. Toffee wasn’t very good at this game, and it took a whole week to walk the entire kitchen towards her without her jumping up. Now I have got to the stage where I can get to the cage and when I lift one leg over she blows it and starts jumping up again. Maybe this will take another week to crack!

26th May 2011

‘Toffee’ like most puppies is a real biter and thinks sinking her teeth in me is acceptable as this is how she played with her litter mates. Now I wish to stop this undesirable behaviour as it hurts and she also thinks biting other people is OK too!

There are numerous ways to stop puppies biting and I have opted for a mixture of offering her a toy instead (sometimes works) combining with ‘Time outs’

'Good decision' Toffee!

‘Time outs’ can take on many forms from the subtle options of turning your back on the dog, picking your toys up and walking out of the room or putting the puppy in a cage for a short period of time. I have found that putting the pup into a cage is most effective and I combine this with 'pre-words' to give the puppy a chance to correct it’s self with the option of not going into the cage.

I start off by playing tuggy games and it doesn’t usually take very long before Toffee can’t help biting me. As she is just learning, I give her four warnings (the words I use are; ‘That’ll do) and then on the fifth bite I then give the command ‘Out’, pick her up and put her in her cage. I then walk away and count to ten and let her out only if she is quiet. I think where some people go wrong with ‘time outs’ in that they don’t give the essential the 'pre-word' which gives the dog a chance to correct it’s self. This of course also gives the trainer the chance to see if the dog knows that it’s the biting you don’t like. When Toffee has fully learned ‘time outs’ I will reduce the pre-words to three repitions, then two and finally one warning.

Later on I will use ‘time outs’ during regular training using the cage in my van as the place she will then go. I have used ’time outs’ successfully for coming of contacts, breaking sits as well as knocking poles. What is most important though is that I only use ‘time outs’ once I think the dog has thoroughly learned what it is that I want in the first place and when the dog continues to breaks stays, knocks poles the 'time out' becomes a consequence of the behaviour.

15th May 2011

Toffee has been invited to a party at the vets on Thursday to play with some other puppies. Although I think socialisation is important for pups I also feel there are some negatives if this isn’t done properly.

At the moment Toffee thinks she should rush up to every dog she meets and jumps on them. Now I can see that to fellow canine companions this is seen as rather rude. A friend also has a Border collie pup (unfortunately called ‘Tiffee’) who is 14 weeks old and who I have met up with several times. Tiffee lets Toffee know that jumping in her face is not on and snarls and snaps but at the same time unfortunately submits by rolling on her back. Toffee takes full advantage of this and jumps on Tiffee which probably isn’t giving Toffee the right message. I also meet up with some folk who have really nice adult dogs who again allow Toffee to jumps all of them but this isn’t really teaching Toffee any manners.

Toffee likes to be the one on top!

The other day I decided to let Toffee meet Sketch in the back garden although I kept her on a long line. Sketch is the dog in my pack that has the best social skills. As expected Toffee made a bee line for him and lunged at the last moment resulting in Sketch showing his teeth and snapping at her. This had the desired effect with Toffee backing of in astonishment. Sketch then instantly went into the play bow and raced around the garden at top speed. Toffee thought this was great although Sketch forgetting his size accidently and predictably knocked her over. Now that’s something else to work on in the future.

8th May 2011

Toffee is quite a focal young pup and this is most evident at 4.30am in the morning! However it is most difficult to identify the cry, ‘I want to get out, don’t leave me here!’ (attention) and the cry ‘I really need a pee!’ (real need)

Now in my quest to train Toffee not to pee or poo in the house I like most people, try to catch her before the act, and take her into the garden and verbally reward her for this action.

Toffee using toilet paper trying to communicate with me that she really needs a pee!

Although my intentions were that she should please pee outside and not in the house I think Toffee has only learnt, do it anywhere whilst I am about!. So it is no surprise that she howls in the morning as partly she is saying I want to pee and in front of you! But now we have a dilemma as at the same time she has learnt crying in the morning also get mum up and therefore it would be in her interest to get me up earlier and earlier and this has actually happened to a friend’s dog who is now 15 months old! .

Of course everyone knows that pups can’t possibly hold on all night So a little experiment was required. I was able to gauge, after 2/3 nights, how long was reasonable for a 9 week old pup to hold on. I eventually found that for Toffee it seems to be about 7 hours. So Toffee was put to bed at 9.30pm and I set my alarm at 4.30am and got up, (no crying from Toffee) and took her out for a pee. I then put her straight back in her cage and reset my alarm for 5.30am which is then toffee time. She still whimpers between that hour of 4.30am & 5.30am but I know that this cry is just attention seeking and the whimpering is now getting less. Now I know that Toffee can hold on for 7 hours so I plan to gradually increase the time and will set the alarm a minute later each morning eg 4.31am then 4.32am which will make Toffee 60 days older when I have reached the 5.30am goal.

9th May 2011                                                    Introducing into the pack

Well meeting 4 dogs for a 7 week old puppy would be daunting for any pup of any breed. So how does one do it? Well talking to fellow dog trainers there seems to be two main trains of thought.

1)      Let them join as a pack as soon as possible

2)      Separate the pup until it is 6/7 months old.

I can pretty much predict what each of my four dogs would do when meeting Toffee for the first time. Bee would let our an enormous roar, Gina would hiss and show her teeth, Sketch would say come and play, will probably be too rough and end up hurting her and Puds, who is the one that I am most worried about, would snap and will probably nip Toffee.Some of my fellow dog trainers have said that I should allow this to happen, however frightening for both me and the pup, as Toffee would learn essential body language which would teach her to stay away from Puds and also other aggressive dogs in the future. This is of the thinking, ‘let them sort themselves out’, although I have heard that when some peolpe do this it can lead to future fights within the pack.

Looks like your are going to stay in prison a little bit longer Toffee!

I have read and heard the theory that if I was the pack leader then I shouldn’t be bothered by bickering with members of the pack that are lower down the hierarchy than me but I prefer the thinking of ‘Shaun Ellis’ (Wolfman). Shaun Ellis maintains that each member has a useful role and is equally respected by all and that one doesn’t need to be the leader to maintain harmony and respect. In fact I see my role as the diplomat and when I do see situations about to start I step in before thing get out of control. . If my lad Sketch, doesn’t like what one of my other dogs is doing, he comes straight to me and asks me to sort it out. So I like to think that I live in a household where there is harmony and certainly where bulling isn’t allowed and therefore for the time being Toffee has been separated from the others dogs; Of course in time one to one introductions will be necessary.

We will see what happens.