Cows and Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer at Pegwell Nature Reserve Kent

We went out to Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve yesterday. It was a glorious sunny day. Crisp and bright. We had a good trot round. Met a few dogs as usual. Avoided a pack of barking dachsies. Grey saw the buffalo type cows and was good with them. He was happy and had a spring in his step.

Happy Slovak New Year!

We've already been enjoying our new year. We blew away some cobwebs and headed off to some woodland that we've not been to before. It's a 25 minute drive from home; so the same time as we'd normally travel to the other woods we occasionally visit. I think we might end up preferring this area of woodlands to our previous haunt. Mainly because it's less dense and remote. So when I'm on my own, it's less daunting. Also seems very well fenced and no surprise openings onto roads. There are also huge long gravel paths so if its muddy and you're not feeling up to adventuring into the woods it's an easy walk. Also can see other people from a long way off. Oh and no riding of bikes or horses allowed. Phew!

Grey really enjoyed himself. He was relaxed and happy pottering around. I've noticed that he really doesn't go off hunting into the woods. Probably a blessing in disguise seeing as he's a pet and not a worker. But still in this environment he's in his element. I can see us being able to do some nice bits of training in that area. His recalls were lovely. He's been so much more relaxed and tired since trips out there. Much more than the beach trips. It would be nice if we lived nearer than 25 mins each way. That puts almost an hour on top of the walk. But I'd rather have quality time in the right environment than time in an unsuitable environment.

Today we returned and bumped into his brother, Gunner. The boys haven't seen each other in over a year I think, since we did a couple of tracking sessions together. Probably 18 months. Very funny to see how different and how similar they are in all aspects. Grey is a much smaller dog and twice as hairy. I think Gunner looks the more breed standard type with smooth ears. Grey has definitely got the wilder hair do! We'd also met a girlie slovak for a walk at Christmas and that was another example of how much more laid back the girls are from the boys. Grey was a bugger and so over excited. I think he's much better on woods and turf than beach.

Here's some photos and a bit of video of Grey mooching the day before on our own.

Our plans for 2011 are to be happy and stress free. Carry on with training as every good slovak needs an honest days work to be happy. And training really is just every day life. Helping to reinforce habits that make our lives fun and him the confidence to develop skills. We're going to hopefully get a place on the next LADS COLLAR course starting in mid-Jan. Micro-shaping here we come!

Walk in East Blean Woods

We had a lovely time exploring East Blean Woods on our own over the weekend. The sun was out. Really nice to get some time away from work after a really busy easter weekend. Grey sticks very close in the woods.

Minnis Bay walk

Earlier this week we'd been out to Minnis Bay. It's so lovely if the tide is out. Grey's a bit harder to handle there if the tide is in because that forces lots of dog walkers to stick to quite a straight path. Although once past that bit with now the dreaded beach hut and BBQ distraction obstacle course, we're out onto natural ground with a shingle beach on one side, much like Dungeness and rough grassy areas below the sea wall. Perfect for bits of fun scent work. Plus that bit is free of cyclists and a lot of the dog walkers don't go on that path as it's rougher. So we drift between the three areas, rough ground, paved sea wall path and wide wide beach stretching out to infinity. The week days are easier as there are less people about. The winter is bliss here, but then I'm northern so I like that kind of bleak landscape.



Grey was quite hyped up here this week and so we're giving it a break for a while. He's got a wee eye infection too, so a break from the sand will do him good.

Visitors

Looks like we need to do more work with visitors coming to the house. He had a bark at friends on Friday eve who came in while he was behind the baby gate. He didn't know them and one had a hat on. It was handled quite badly by me as I forgot to brief them before they came.

Then we had visitors on Saturday who he has met before. The problem here was the opposite. Grey was very keen. He's over enthusiastic with his crotch sniffing, especially with girls. I've been struggling the last month with his humping and sniffing. Perhaps it's just a phase.

Aside from the sniffing we had a lovely time together and we all went out for a walk in Bekesbourne. It got late and the walk back to the car was almost in the dark. I think I should get Grey a luminous harness or something.

Here are some pics from the last few days.




Enjoying his free gift for ordering tonnes of snacks from Zooplus

Shaping is coooool!

I have started reteaching Grey 'down' but this time by shaping. He was previously taught it by luring and clicker but it was clear he was not getting the vocal cue and more often than not, since he was 6 months old I had to crouch and coax him into a down. I obviously hadn't faded the lure correctly and he was dependent on it. So last night I started shaping him. Purely standing really still, and CT for the littlest movement down of his head and then more and more until he was all the way down. He was so cute and clearly got it. He was so perfectly in the same position each time and I didn;t request this of him. I would have been happy to just reward his down, but he wanted to be in the exact same movement. To me this showed me how much he was thinking about it rather than just going for the treat under his nose. We did a couple of 3 min sessions. By today's I had just started adding the vocal cue. I tried it outside in the courtyard and he didn't get it. So we started again from the beginning and he quickly got to giving full downs. Will try and firm it up tomorrow.

Other than that we did more lead training up on the top at Botany Bay. I had hoped he would find it less distracting on the footpath, but I think it was too close to the field he goes off lead on. I really need to find a boring bit of road, but I don't have one near my house. It's really busy here and everytime I go anywhere in the car it gets him hyped up.

Misty morning walk

Headed out to Botany Bay the last couple of days. The barking has thankfully stopped and we're now just back to excited whining. I always sit and wait for him to stop before I open the door. He's getting much better at waiting before he comes out. He sits and has his lead put on and comes out when he's given the 'ok' release. This morning it was simply stunning on the beach. The weather was much warmer and the mist hung heavy. The beach was more or less deserted. He followed me close today, tracking my footsteps. If I stopped he would arrive at my feet and begin to dig beneath. We ran through the usual series of recalls to whistle which were good. He also did a nice little sit stay in the field up the top to about 5 paces. I didn't want to push it as I didn't have time to really train this if he broke the stay. So left it at that.

I went back out there after lunch. We came across two GSDs pups the same age as Grey. Quite a bit of roughish play. Grey was quite submissive in the beginning and then by the end he let himself down at the end by humping one of the GSDs. Oh dear! While I'm on the subject of humping, since the last two weeks he's taken to humping me and my ugg boots every evening at around teatime. No idea why, unless it's the cats. Funny he only does it at night.

Did quite a long stretch of LLW training all the way up from the beach to the car. I think there is some improvement. But still have a long way to go.

Walks / Bekesbourne to Patrixbourne

Went out looking for new walking routes today with my map in tow. The whining in the car on the way to walks has now escalated into barking all the way there! Very noisy. Set off from the vets on the walk and it was supposed to be part of the North Downs, but my map reading got a bit confused and Grey was a bit spooked when we had to do lead walking round Patrixbourne. Had a real bark at seeing some horses which he'd not done the day before. But then these were mounted so to him very different. I took him aside into the churchyard while they passed. He didn't calm down for ages after that though and was generally upset by traffic and having to have the gencon on. So I cut short the wandering in new territory and headed up to part of our regular walk where I where he can be off lead for a good while. Weighed him in at the vets and he's still steady at just under 30kg. Still did some lovely recalls though.

2nd fear period

It's been suggested that Grey might be going through his second fear period. I think they're right. He's started going a lot more nutso in the car. Also he's been lunging at passing trucks, 4x4s and lorries when on the lead. So back to basics for socialising for a while then. Either that or he's going to turn into a devil dog!

Today we went for a huge walk after heading out with an OS map. Was really nice, if a little flat terrain wise. There's only so much of fields you can get enthused by. Grey came back on all his recall whistles so that's still going well. He came back at speed from ages away. He met a few swans - didn't bark, just looked. A horse, again, just looked. Yay! He had to be put on the Gencon for the last leg of the walk which he hated because we had to go along a road and I was with L so no chance to LLW train.

Ran through some training when we got home. Lead training down the hallway to a plate of chicken. Tight lead we go backwards, loose lead forwards and if he carried on he got the chicken. he did really well. By the 9th and 10th times he loose lead walked all the way.

Then some sitstays. Me just standing in front of him and increasing the count by 1 sec at a time while he was in a sit. We got to 14 secs. Had to restart the count twice to 1 because he offered me a down twice at about 5 secs.

Around and about

Had a busy day of things today. Went out to the top of Botany Bay and walked in stange patterns and directions on the open rough grass there. I'd let him over shoot and then I would go through the longer grass to the other side calling him 'this way!' and up he came running. He had loads of energy today. When we started the walk we had to stand for ages after getting out of the car for him to stop being so excited. Waited for a nice sit and then undid the lead. Off zooming in big circles.

When we came down to the beach there were people at the bottom of the hill with older dogs on leads. Grey had already shot down to say hello, before I managed to get him back. Up I ran back up the hill calling him. Ended up hiding near the public toilets so he'd come looking for me, which he did. We then waited nicely until the group came up the hill and passed us.

The tide was out, so we went all the way round to Kingsgate. I stood in the middle of the beach quite still. Eventually he started to get bored of going round and round and looked liked he'd be into the idea of coming back to me. So I did quite a few reps of getting him to come to me and sit for some garlic sausage.

We also played the two ball game with two tennis balls like I'd done in the house the day before. This worked a little but less well. So when he started to muck around and run off with the ball and drop it far from me, I packed up the balls for another day.

The sun was out and amazing. Beautiful clear day. There was a quad bike on the beach in the distance which Grey looked at but didn't bark or chase it. Good boy!

Back home for lunch (me not him) and then off into town on the GenCon. He did really well. Was still pulling into it alot. But not struggling as much. We went for coffee in a bar. He sat on his blanket and ate a dried turkey neck. Only got off the blanket once and was put back on it nicely. he stood outside a shop with L while I was inside with no shouting and crying.

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.

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.

Windshack cafe, Minnis Bay

This morning we took a walk down the opposite end of the coast we normally go to. We walked from Minnis Bay along the grassy path, which gives Grey lots to scent and is more his natural habitat than the beach and tarmac. I though he could do with a good run after the funday yesterday and the long car journey. The tide was out so on the way back we did the beach route and ended up at the Windshack cafe. Which to our pleasant surprise is super dog friendly, with other dog walkers there enjoying a breezy windswept coffee and the dogs get a biscuit from the owner Dougle (who knows all the dogs' names!). Definitely a recommended dog friendly place.

This reminded me to register a group on Flickr for dog friendly UK places.