Dog Training, A Year in Review & Unexpected Learning

So, today, in a damp and drizzly field in the wilds of Lincolnshire, it became all too apparent that Sherlock Saluki puppy’s adolescence was kicking in!  I haven’t blogged since Sherlock joined us (in fact, I hardly blogged at all during 2015), so let’s get the introductions and updates out of the way…

Events of 2015:

In a nutshell, 2015 had its fair share of ups and downs.  Here are some of them:

March:

Ava discovers TDS

TDS Scentwork - I was lucky enough to host Pam Mackinnon of Talking Dogs Scentwork (TDS), for a scent 1 workshop. Where Ava was introduced to the joy of scentwork.

Rescue Me - I took part in the first ‘Puppy School – Rescue Me’ course, where I got to spend a week at Cheltenham Animal Shelter and work with a dog to help them achieve their Kennel Club GCDS bronze award.  I got to work with the lovely Cookie – a Saluki cross – and we managed to achieve both bronze and silver.  And the icing on the cake was that he was adopted!

RIP Tula

RIP Tula – After coming back from the Puppy School course, I was brought down to earth with a bump.  My beloved Tula (the cat who was named thanks to Twitter), died very suddenly.  She developed saddle thrombus – a fatal blood clot – and passed away in minutes.  My heart was broken.







Speaking & Scentwork

Scentwork demo with Roo

On 29 March, I spoke at the GRWE annual conference and provided a demonstration of scentwork – it was lovely to be with so many like-minded people and to see the interest that my scentwork demo generated in TDS.

May

Dissertation Deadline! I finished my dissertation “Impulsivity in retired racing greyhounds (Canis familiaris): Is racing status a predictor or increased levels of impulsivity?”  and handed it in, just before going on a well-earned break to Europe.

June:

Morris Minor -  On June 15, we gave a home to Morris – a beautiful tabby and white kitten.  Little did we know it, but Morris’ time with us was very short.  I had to make the heart-breaking decision to say goodbye to him on 23 June.  He spent the last few days of his life at the vets, extremely poorly, but was certainly well-loved in the short time he was with us.

Trying something new with Ava-  I went on the APDT,UK activity weekend with Ava. We both learned loads.

July

Introducing Dennis – On 4 July we welcomed Dennis, a stunning tabby kitty, into our lives (our home isn’t complete without a cat).  Dennis soon earned the nickname of Ninja Kitty.

Learning about Life Skills - I attended the week-long Life Skills for Puppies, train the trainers, course at the University of Lincoln.  Great week, great course, where I added more skills to my repertoire and got to work with and train some red-footed tortoises.

August

Saluki Sherlock joins the family - Yep, after years of admiring Salukis from afar, a 13 week old Saluki puppy joined us.  Born with the rather posh name of Fernlark Birra Moretti (named after an Italian beer), this (then) little bundle of coffee and cream coloured puppy joined us (and threw up in the car journey home).  And, wow! What a learning curve I’ve been on since then.  More of which, later…

September

University Degree -I finally received the final notification of my university degree marks.  It was official, I was a Bachelor of Science, with Honours, in Canine Behaviour and Training – woohoo!

November

Graduation – In the historic surrounds of Beverley Minister I was very proud to receive my degree and had the privilege of giving the students’ vote of thanks speech (in which I acknowledged the role that Mina had played in my education and journey).  I was also very honoured and proud to receive the BSc Best Student Award – rounding off a hard 5 years of part-time university study.

2016 and the point of today’s post!

December whizzed by, and before I knew it we were in 2016 and more precisely, on 2 January, Sherlock provided the inspiration for me to break my blogging hiatus.

Today I found myself uttering the words that many dog owners hate to hear, especially if their dog is on a lead.  What are these words, I hear you cry?  I hate to say it but I uttered the infamous phrase:

 “It’s ok my dog is friendly!”

Now, before I’m shot down in flames about being an irresponsible dog owner, do let me explain…

Off-lead training and management

I exercise the hounds in a local playing field.  It’s ideal for the hounds as it is flat, enclosed, fenced in and I can see other dog walkers coming, so have time to pop the hounds back on the lead.  It’s where most of my off-lead videos are filmed and in our village, there’s a tacit (yet unstated) agreement between most dog walkers, not to come into the field if there are dogs off lead.  Hmmmm

So, today, it’s damp, it’s drizzly and I’m up the top end of the field with my hood up (obscuring my view).  Ava and Sherlock have been happily playing fetch and Jasper’s been ambling along in his inimitable style.  Suddenly, all three hounds stop and in a split second, Sherlock shoots off at 30mph across the field. I turn and my heart sinks…Across the field is a farmer with his on-lead, German Shepherd Dog (GSD).

Oh b*gger! I think. I hurriedly put Jasper back on his lead and call Ava back to me, as she’s started to follow Sherlock.  Ava’s recall is great, so she’s back in a flash and back on her lead.  Then I find myself haring across the field, 2 greyhounds in tow, calling Sherlock back and uttering the dreaded words “It’s ok, he’s friendly” to the farmer.

The uncrowned Queen of Reinforcers

Now, Sherlock is a true training challenge. We’ve been to several puppy training courses and follow-on classes, and I continue training at home and around and about.  However, Sherlock is not food motivated in the slightest and by not food motivated, I mean you could wave Wagyu steak under his nose and he wouldn’t be interested.  He loves to play and I’ve certainly been using a lot of toys in our training but in the ‘real world’ not many toys ‘cut it’ either.

It's fair to say, that the best reinforcers for Sherlock are those with a heartbeat (he certainly doesn't live up to the Saluki breed standard of being 'aloof').  I have to be creative in my reinforcers and often find myself using Premack/Life Rewards in everyday situations.

A small selection of reinforcers

I have become the uncrowned Queen of Reinforcers in my quest to find the one reinforcer that Sherlock would ‘sell his soul for’ (and I’m still looking)!  Fresh meat, dried meat, liver cake, dried liver, special dried treats, dried fish, leanlix, cheese, hotdogs, cocktail sausage, tubi dog pastes are just the tip of the reinforcer iceberg that I have tried.  Rabbit skin toys are generally the ones that work but on this occasion, all the rabbit toys in the kingdom could not match the allure of the young GSD.

Sherlock just wanted to play.  He ran rings around the GSD and farmer, and me and the hounds. Trying to catch a flying Saluki who thinks this is the best game in the world and to which no reinforcer can match the thrill of chasing, play-bowing, jumping and barking at the GSD, is a challenge to say the least.

I used all the tools in my training toolkit to encourage Sherlock back and eventually, after what seemed like hours – but in reality was only a few minutes (if that), Sherlock came back and I was able to pop his lead back on.

Training & Honesty (aka Sh*t happens!)

So what have I learned from this?  Does it make me a cr*p trainer? Am I an irresponsible owner?  The short answer is no!

It makes me honest.  Life happens and no matter how hard you try to manage your training environment, there will be occasions where the training goes awry.  Rather than beat myself up about it. I’ve chalked it up to experience and made a mental note to work even harder on Sherlock’s recall, and plan in more one on one training sessions.

All too often we focus on both our and our dogs' failures and forget about the successes.  I may not be interested in competing in or training for any dog sports, and I have and love breeds that many people (some trainers included) like to think of as un-trainable and 'stubborn.'  Some things may take longer to train but I focus on the successes.

I train my dogs for the life I lead, and for what I feel is important, as well as ensuring that they have an enriching environment to live in and the tools to cope with life as a dog in the 21st century.

Training Challenges

And, as for Sherlock? Did he have an inkling that he had done anything wrong? Was he told off or corrected? No! He had a whale of a time!  Nothing bad happened, the number of deposits going into his training bank account rocketed (off lead running and play are huge reinforcers), it was ‘just another day in the park’ as far as Sherlock was concerned. Playtime was over and his lead went on.

On the flip side to this, I should also add that the GSD was not fearful or aggressive, his body language suggested he wanted to play too – although I suspect that there was some frustration as the lead was restricting him - but he managed his frustration. The farmer was also very understanding and calm throughout the process.

Sherlock is a challenge and not all puppies are blank slates.  However, I promise that (when time permits), I’ll share the details of our training challenges – warts and all – and end with one of my favourite sayings:

"Remember, there’s no such thing as a mistake/failure.  It’s all unexpected learning”

Here's to all the unexpected learning that 2016 will bring and the adventures we'll have on the way.

Here's to Sherlock & training challenges.

Introducing Our Greyhound Puppy

Puppy Love

So, in case you've missed it, our greyhound gang has a new member... Ava.

Ava's first day

Ava is a pure-bred greyhound puppy who was the result of an accidental mating in racing kennels.  I found out about her, purely by chance, through facebook and my friend, Jenny, who runs the South Lakes branch of the Retired Greyhound Trust.  Jenny posted about some greyhound pups looking for a home and within minutes of her posting, I was on the phone enquiring about the puppies.  This all happened on Thursday 5 June and before I knew it, my name was down as a potential owner...

...however, firstly I needed to convince hubby and secondly, I wanted to make sure that the puppy (she wasn't named at that point) wasn't a nervous wreck and petrified of life in general. On the Friday, I casually mentioned about the availability of a greyhound puppy and I fully expected hubby to say a firm 'no, we're not ready.'  Sometimes, however, fate can play a funny old role and instead of 'no', the answer was 'yes, let's go and see her'  and so the scene was set.

Ava's first car journey

After several phone calls to Jenny and the then nameless pup's racing owner, we arranged to go and see her on Sunday 8th June. Stevie and Jasper joined us, as we made our way across the Pennines to meet the potential new member of our gang.

 One of the reasons I was so keen to meet her was because she was already 13 weeks old.  Most puppies (especially those destined to be pets) leave their dam at around 8 weeks old and it's generally accepted that the critical period for socialisation and habituation is between 8-12 weeks of age.  After this period, the window starts to shut...

Thankfully, the little black bundle of greyhound legginess we encountered wasn't fazed by me, hubby or Steve & Jasper.  She took food from me, tried to solicit play (albeit unsuccessfully) from Jasper & Stevie and seemed pretty responsive.  Her fate was sealed.  She was coming home with us, then and there. Paper work was signed and we left with a slightly wriggly, extremely cute puppy.

The journey home resulted in me and hubby agreeing on her name - Ava - and talking about how we were going to manage things back at home.  All the time this was going on Ava slept - remaining completely unaware of the new life she was about to embark on.


 

Stevie hums it & Ava sings it!

Puppy power - growing fast & gaining fans

Fast forward 5 weeks and our puppy isn't looking quite so puppy-ish.  Ava's growing at an amazing rate of knots and seems to steal the hearts of everyone she meets.  

In the UK, you don't tend to see many greyhound puppies (most are born and remain within the racing industry until they retire), so she certainly gets her fair share of attention.

Getting it right - an education all-round

Perhaps, more importantly, these past 5 weeks have highlighted to me just what hard work having a puppy is - especially if you want to get things right. 

It can be so easy to mess things up (albeit unwittingly) and, in doing so, create problems for the future.  I want to make sure that this doesn't happen for Ava and that she gets the best shot at having a happy, healthy and balanced life where nothing really fazes her. 

My memories of Mina are still very clear - she came to me with established problem behaviours, many of which could have probably been avoided had she had the 'right start' in life.  

I do not want Ava to experience the fears that drove Mina to react to other dogs.  I do not want her to have the fears that Jasper has - making him freeze in his tracks when he's afraid and I don't want her to feel like Stevie, who shakes, salivates and runs to hide when he hears loud noises, crashes and bangs and fireworks. 

Jasper & Ava cosy up

Like many trainers and behaviourists, I spend a lot of my time working with dogs that have behaviour problems - often borne out of a lack of early socialisation and the use of inappropriate and/or harsh training techniques.  Most can be avoided if we give our puppies the right start in life. We need to educate our puppies how to live in our world and educate ourselves on how to achieve this.


Ava is being educated and guided by me all the time. I manage her environment so she can't learn unwanted behaviours (I'll share details of this in another blog post), I make sure that her learning is positive and if she's worried or scared, I give her the space, distance and reduction in intensity that she needs - along with comfort and food reinforcers.  I tell her 'yes' not 'no.'  If she is behaving in a way I don't want her to, I'll interrupt the behaviour and divert her to another behaviour that I want to see.

Say 'goodbye' to a tidy house - puppy toys rule!

I provide her with outlets for her needs (our house looks like a bomb has hit it) - plenty of toys, chews, appropriate exercise - and I provide her with love and security.

I'll be sharing our adventures and the lessons we learn over the coming weeks and months and hope you'll join us...

Finding my 'fido fix'

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know that I recently started working in London, which means that in the week I'm living away from my husband, hounds and Taz, the cat.

Most weekends I plan to come home to Lincolnshire as I really miss the hounds in the week and by the time the weekend arrives, I can't wait to see them again (and hubby of course)! It also means that I can't help the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust, the charity which I work for on a voluntary basis.

Last weekend, I spent the weekend 'down South' and by the Friday, I was really missing my 'Fido Fix.' So, thanks to the power of the Internet, I Googled to see if there were any local dog rescues nearby who allowed volunteers to come and walk dogs. Luckily I came across the wonderful Stokenchurch Dog Rescue and after a quick phone call on the Friday I was all set to walk Echo, a four month old Collie/Lurcher cross, at 10.30am on the Saturday.

So, Saturday morning - with the sun streaming down -  I found myself travelling down the M40 to Stokenchurch Dog Rescue. Despite all the years I lived down South and travelled this route, I'd never really noticed the rescue until now, or maybe it's just my memory playing tricks on me! After introducing myself, and filling in a volunteer form I was introduced to Echo - a four month old, Collie/Lurcher cross - who'd been found as a stray pup.

As you can see from his picture, Echo was a little bundle of absolute loveliness.  I was asked to walk Echo for 20 minutes, as being a pup they didn't want to overtire him.

I checked whether I could use treats before we set off and then we started our walk together. I'm generally used to walking dogs the size of my greyhounds and a bouncy puppy was certainly a different kettle of fish.  Echo was very excitable, but soon calmed down and took everything in his stride.

When he didn't pay any attention to the cyclists or the fire engine that passed, I made a big fuss of him and gave him a treat. However, when he showed too much interest in some of the other dogs (I'd been warned about this), we just walked calmly by (well I did, anyway) without a word from me.


At the end of the walk, I handed Echo back to the centre staff and was asked if I'd like to walk another dog. I readily accepted and was then introduced to Ben.

Ben was a 2 year old Patterdale Terrier, who had been rescued from his abusive owners. I was informed that Ben was afraid of men with deep voices and was wearing a muzzle to prevent any mishaps.

Ben was lovely but I could see how fearful he was, particularly of men. He'd obviously been trained to basic commands as he knew "sit" and "wait" but at the beginning of the walk he had a tendency to stop, drop to the ground and flatten himself out; not wanting to move or go on.

With gentle persuasion, and the use of some tasty treats, Ben became more accustomed to me. I used the treats as a reward for him coming to me when called and ignoring cyclists (there were a lot of cyclists out that weekend and apparently Ben's terrier instincts generally kicked in when he saw cyclists)! By the end of our walk, I felt I had gained a little bit of Ben's trust as he did allow me to stroke him without tensing up, or showing signs of stress.

The next weekend I stay down South I'll certainly volunteer my dog-walking services again. It was the perfect way to get my 'fido fix' and to build on my studies,  but more importantly it gave these rescue dogs the chance of a good walk, time away from the kennel environment and the opportunity to socialise with more humans.

Many dog rescues can't survive without the help of volunteers and if you have a few hours a week to spare, why not consider helping a local rescue centre? There may be no pay, but the satisfaction of knowing you've helped a dog in need is worth its weight in gold.