Training / The Retrieve / Session 1

I've started Shirley Chong's retrieve tonight. We did it with his evening meal of raw mince. I fed him a teaspoon of mince for each treat. I had been wondering how to get round clicker training and him beig BARF fed. This seemed to work really nicely. He was being really careful with his taking of the meat. Another nice touch is that it hasn't been a freebie meal. Each bit of that 445g of meat was hand fed and he was really into doing the training too as it's a high level food.

He quickly moved on from looking, nose bumping to teeth touching and then by the end or taking the bit of his blue chew toy in his mouth. He never chews that toy anyway, so might as well get some use out of it! I don't have a dumbell for him yet, but the chewtoy I'm using is kind of dumbell shaped.

I want to teach him the formal retrieve as he's a little monkey when we're outside and never brings objects back. He claims ownership and runs around with them. I've been advised to stop this and so now have moved on to teaching a formal retrieve. Plan is to do another session late tonight or perhaps in the morning with me holding it in my hand again before hopefully moving on to placing the object on the floor.

The retrieve is also recommended by Jean Donaldson in her excellent book on resource guarding, Mine! I'm going to do more little structured sessions at home now the nights have drawn in. We've moved on to one big walk late morning/lunchtime. Then home for snoozing. So I reckon a nice session in the early morning will fit nicely with this. Seems like not enough hours in the day to fit everything in with walking, snoozing, playing and eating!

Poor poopy's teeth

Well, the next chapter of helping Grey with his teeth problem came upon us. He went in for his op at the specialist dentists on Weds. Poor pupster was really scared when he arrived at the vets and really didn't want to go in. Had to be carried in. He ended up having to have an upper adult canine out because it was obstructing where we want one of the lower canines to grow once they're pushed forward by the plate. The plate is glued to his upper teeth and will be in for at least a month. He had a course of anti-biotics and we have to apply a gel to his gums after each meal.

He was back to his old self the next day. We're supposed to stop him chewing hard stuff, which is er, kind of hard. He's a puppy after all. He sounds a bit like he has false teeth in when he's cleaning himself.

Blowing hot and cold

Friday the weather was bright and lovely, so was Saturday. Then today it was hardly light at all.
Today's walk down Minnis was wet, very windy and really grey. But no matter. We had great run.


We ran through more silky leash training in the house before breakfast. Then again outside in the back garden. All good. I then opened the garde gate so the pavement was accessible. We drifted in and out the gate and the yard a few times, clicking and treating. He did really well. Plan is to be able to build up to going the full length of the street. We tried some more at the car park at the start of the walk which was less good. So it's clear we just have to build up gradually.

Today's training

I tried out a little session in the bathroom of the silky leash method this morning. Went nicely. He had fun, got it and had some bits of hotdog. So all good. Went out to Bekesbourne for a walk. The sun was really out, so a lovely autumn day. Went a slightly different route and so he had to go on the gencon head collar for a stretch of the walk. He got really stressed by this as L kept walking slightly ahead. This really frustrates Grey. We stopped off at the vets, got him weighed: 27.75KG. Walked back to the car across the fields.

At home we ran through more of the silky leash method in the house which again went well. He was then hand fed his dinner as per the RRR DVD.

This evening we've played fetch with two balls to see if that encourages him to give one up any easier. He then took to hiding potatoes from the sack into his bed.

New stuff to try out: He got a large big dog sized nylabone. Also a front fastening harness from Halti.

Turid Rugaas - My Dog Pulls DVD

Interesting that Turid makes a sound to get the dogs attention and to get him to come to you. The previous method, Shirley's seems to teach the dog to follow the direction of any pressure on the lead. I've ordered Turid's DVD from Sheila Harper's online shop anyway.

Silky Leash

Another interesting video of LLW training. This particular method seems to be Shirley Chong's method. Which teaches the dog to move in the direction of a very light lead pressure.

Laid back pupster

Picked Grey up from the boarding kennels yesterday morning. Was really funny to have not seen him for three days. It was like really seeing him for his shape and colour rather than just being used to him, if that makes sense. He was very happy to see me and in a lovely happy mood. He seemed really content trotting around there and he'd made friend's with D's lovely dog, Daisy the SBT. They were all running up and down the runs in a happy go lucky stylee. What made me laugh was D said Grey was contented and very laid back! I suppose he is once he's inside the house, so he must see the kennels as the same thing. I'm really glad I was recommended to try him there. He really likes it and is well looked after.

We went straight to Minnis for a nice walk. I've started going down there as I can park the car near to where I let him off the lead. It's got a mixture of terrain: grass short and long, rough paths, hard tarmac, sand and shingle. Managed to do a spot of LLW too. He slept for the rest of the afternoon. L and I played the name game with him as recommended in the Really Reliable Recall DVD. I also started the programme of hand feeding him to build on the relationship as advised.