those noisy dogs

1. How do you search for and then choose a trainer?

Word of mouth is the big one. People who know my dogs have recommended certain people (or not recommended, in some cases!), or if someone I know with a similar training standpoint to me says they liked working with a certain trainer, I’d try them. I would ideally like to watch a trainer do their stuff on a training day or session before I took my own dogs to them, but it’s not always possible (audit slots don’t really come up).

Having said that, I can usually watch a potential trainer compete with their dogs. That can tell me a lot about a person; how they handle, and particularly how they treat their dogs before/during/after the run (or, even better, how they treat their students). On a slightly related note, I’m not concerned about a trainer being a World Champ handler. I prefer to look for consistency; one Ag.Ch and seven G3 dogs suggests someone got lucky and can’t reapply the training to different dogs. Someone who has four dogs spread over G5-7 is more appealing, it says to me that they are consistent but adaptable to the different individual dogs. Having worked with different breeds and heights is also a plus.

I prefer trainers who explain why. I find it difficult to change the way I’m doing something or to apply a new technique if the trainer can’t justify why I should. Having me change something because that is how the trainer handles their dog isn’t good enough, I need to know why it will work for me and my dog.

Finally, if I feel intimidated or uncomfortable, I won’t go back to that trainer. I have a low threshold for being shouted at. If I’m on a training day or private lesson and I’m made to feel me or my dog isn’t good enough, that’s not on. It seems like such a simple thing to say but I have actually been on training days where that has happened.

Having read all that I’m obviously a bit picky and probably a horribly awkward student!

2. The dog world is small and… uh… talkative. After choosing a trainer how do you handle those people in your life who don’t believe in that trainer/trainers methods and criticize them to you?

Nod and ignore. If it’s a close friend then I’d probably ask why they don’t like that trainer/training methods, in case they know something I don’t.

3. Do you believe that a person’s personal life should influence your choice of a trainer? (i.e do you believe a person’s choice to be a party animal outside of work would affect your choice?)

As long as their personal life isn’t negatively influencing their training methods and teaching ability, I can’t see it being a problem. I wouldn’t choose to train with someone who had stressed or unhappy dogs as a result of their lifestyle, so assuming that they meet all my criteria for a good trainer, I don’t really care.

4. When you have a break through moment with your dog, do you feel that moment makes your connection stronger with that dog and makes the next step in training easier?

Heh, yes and no. I love the lightbulb moment and we celebrate as a team, but it doesn’t always make the next step easier!

5. Do you stick with just one trainer, or do you go to multiple sources for help?
Multiple. I like having different inputs, different ways of seeing things, but only because I feel confident enough in my own training that I can discard what I don’t like and to apply new things to what we already have.

She grows! We went through a bit of a fatty stage for a few days this week, but her legs have sprouted again (literally overnight, how crazy is this puppy growth businesS?) and she’s gone back to her usual slim self. Just over 17″ now. I’m going to guess that she ends up around 20″.

I have been really lazy the last few weeks about teaching new tricks and getting Rio to new places. I kept expecting to be back at flyball and that was going to be a big lots-of-people/dogs event, but it didn’t happen. Frustrating! We have Hare’n'Hounds next Sunday where she’ll be able to go indoors and interact with other people and dogs, but I want to try and visit the supermarket or at least the centre of the village this week as well.

We did some work on picking up a Yumove pot to try and encourage a nose-touch/pick up behaviour, but then I got impatient. So instead of bridging the gap we have started working directly with a tennis ball instead. We’re at the stage where she will pick up a dead ball and hold it for 1-2s before I clicker it, so I’m pretty pleased. I haven’t made the ball interesting or tried to play with it as a toy, I wanted to see if we could purely shape the hold. So far so good!

Also worked on fetch a lot. Traditional throw a toy and dog fetches it right back fetch. None of my dogs really do this properly, Dylan fetches and then promptly drops it as soon as any other dog approaches and lets them bring it back, and Kim gets snarly about sharing. Mollie will play if there are no other dogs, but that’s no fun. Rio is awesome, thankfully, and it’s crossing over to her other toys too, she will bring me things to interact with now. I really need to get a photo of her serious-play-with-me face, it’s adorable.

We’ve done some foundation agility heelwork stuff (handling on the flat, front crosses etc) which is fun, and I’ve also done a little bit of jump work consisting of 2 stride regulators. So far so good, she’s adjusting her stride and bouncing the bumps nicely. I think I’m going to borrow a jump from agility and see if I can start teaching her turns and adding some height to the jumps. I’m also keeping my eyes peeled for a wobble board or similar that I can buy/borrow/steal.

Late, as always.

1. What is one lesson you’ve learned this week?
Knowing that I’ve done parts of the training doesn’t mean I can assume I’ve done all of the training. Or, don’t be lazy.

2. Who or what might you have been in another life? What might you be in a next life?
Part of me would very much like to believe in past lives and future lives but I can’t. We only get one life. I feel slightly wistful and somewhat pitying that I can’t even pretend anymore, my childhood self would be devastated.

3. What unusual things do you like the smell of but don’t usually admit?
Coffee, Bacon. Those are unusual for me since I don’t like coffee or bacon but I could inhale the smell all day. Petrichor, which is both true and geeky and must be included in all smell questions.

4. What are your thoughts on continuing on vs. retiring when a trial run is going badly? How do you decide? Where do you draw the line?
I very very rarely withdraw from a run. There is always something to be gained, even if it’s just a greater understanding of a boundary or stress level. With Dylan I think I’ve pulled out maybe once or twice when he had clearly reached the tipping point between his stress-enjoyment level for whatever reason.

I’ve pulled from runs before with Kim when I didn’t think she was jumping properly, or when I thought that the course would push her into an uncomfortable frame of mind. But that’s retiring before it gets bad.

Of course, I’ve retired from courses before when both dogs have been happy, enthusiastic and I’ve made a really bad handling mistake. I don’t have the kind of dogs where I can continue to work them for my benefit, so when I’ve done something stupid that I can’t recover from, we take the shortest route over the equipment to exit the ring. If I get lost on course, for example. That’s not a teamwork resolution, that’s me being an idiot. Rather than standing still and panicking about where the numbers are or where I went wrong whilst my dog waits for me to get my brain in gear, I’d rather just leave.

5. This is a call for questions or subjects you’d like to talk about – I’d appreciate suggestions (and please come link up so that I’ll be sure to see your post), so here’s your chance!

Um … so difficult! I like non-specific training questions, or questions that make me think about how I do things in a different way.

I want some snow, we have a lovely covering of heavy frost this morning and it really makes me want some proper winter weather.

Rio and I have been working on her bringing toys to me this week. She’s very toy focused and loves interacting with me and tuggy, or chasing toys when I throw them, but wasn’t too keen on bringing them back. So that was our mission this week! She’s now bringing everything back to within a foot of me and either getting immediate tugs or a “leave” and then tug. Time to take that game on the road I think, we’ll try it at the park next week.

I don’t think I mentioned that we have a right-spin perfected. Rio actually came up with that herself, we were running through tricks and after her left spin she figured a right spin would be appropriate. As suspected she has a tendency to offer right spins more often than lefts now, I need to remember that as we go on!

She also has “go to bed” sorted and will trot off to her crate for a nap. She’s lying in it right now watching my parents build a shed outside, with the door open. She’s also really improved at being left alone whilst we go out (or I think she has, it’s kind of hard to tell when we’re not at home). At any rate, when we come back she’s clearly been asleep, no ripped up bedding or anything so I’m assuming she’s sleeping through it. She is also starting to settle down during the day more which I like!

I am doing a bit of online-window-shopping for dog brushes this week, and also need to flea the big dogs. I’ve been putting it off as I really don’t want Rio to ingest any flea stuff but she has a habit of ragging on Dylan’s ruff when they’re playing and I can’t figure out how to keep them seperate for 2 days.

I have been trying to get Rio to some busier places this week, hence our park trips and village walks. It’s a bit difficult as due to our walking locations, social night-time walks feel too uncomfortably unsafe (even if they’re perfectly safe), so we’re limited to daylight strolls. Sadly, not many people around during the day compared to evening or early morning, and as flyball training was cancelled last week we missed our social weekend too. I’m hoping Rio can come join me at agility on Tuesday for some socialisation but it takes pre-planning as I need to help set up and get Emma to take the Foundation class.

We’re working on shaping a nose-touch (or ideally mouth-grab) behaviour at the moment. Rio loves mouthing people or dogs (yes, need to stop that!) but she has a very strong preference for her paws when we’re shaping with objects. Thanks to some help from Cat (DogRadical) and Vicki (Giruff) we’re making good progress but it’s definitely the most challenging thing we’ve done so far as it’s not really working with her natural inclinations.

Wait training is ongoing, REA is ongoing, but both looking good. Need to start her on the chute for flyball sometime this month.

Almost all her baby teeth have gone, the last few molars went this week. Ears are all over the place, I love watching puppy ears change. Currently we seem to have drop ears in a morning and then by evening we’re back to airplane, but this week the drop ears have been around a lot more. Maybe she will have proper Aussie ears?!

Rio also has a tiny scab just to the right of her nose at the moment, which I have little sympathy for. I accidentally dropped a peice of pasta on Kim, which bounced and landed next to her paw. Rio ran over, shoulder barging Kim out of the way to get to it. Wrong move! Kim did not approve and told her emphatically so. Kim didn’t actually mean to catch her but Rio panicked and tried to reverse unexpectedly. Kim was apologetic to everyone after all the screaming and Rio has reverted to super-respectful behaviour, and I am a terrible owner because I’m not at all sympathetic. They’ll all survive!