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Making You & Your Dog Happier

Teaching your dog to come back WITH FUN!

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Getting your pooch to come back to you quickly is something all dog owners dream of. Asking their dog to leave behind fox poo, other dogs, rabbits in the hedge, on a single word, takes some teaching. We make the mistake of causing it to be a horrible event. We call the dog to us, clip the lead on and head for home. The words ‘Come’ or ‘Here’ become miserable events for the poor dog.

Instead, let’s work on making the recall a great event!

These are a few training games that have been very successful in keeping the fun involved in calling your dog back. The first principle is to always call your dog back throughout your walk, throughout their play, and throughout the day. Don’t leave it to the one time their fun is going to be spoiled.

‘Chase me, catch me!’ is a great game that means the dog comes to you and chases you, catches you by arriving at your feet in a sit. Not the other way around. Chasing your dog is a really bad idea. Run the other way! Here’s how to play.

Call your dog to the front of you, then as they arrive, reward them with a treat and some happy praise. Then suddenly turn away 90 degrees and say ‘Come’ whilst moving a few steps away. Again, as they catch up at your feet and sit, say Yes! and reward again. Occasionally dash away as they get close to you, so that they can’t always predict what is about to happen. All of a sudden you are much more fun and rewarding to be with.

Repeat with the excited attitude of ‘Can’t catch me!’

Celebrate when your dog does as you ask. Gradually make this more fun and more difficult by turning and dodging away. Get them to chase you and try and follow you in an effort to get to the front finish point.

Remember the three key aims:
– Be exciting
– Use high value rewards (tasty food is always best and make sure you have a hungry dog!)
– Repeat quickly

If your dog becomes over-excited you must ask for a sit before you give them any reward. Enthusiasm is great, but not knocking you flying in their haste.

Stepping things up is easy. Occasionally, as soon as they arrive at your feet, toss the food away so that they have to move away.

Soon your dog will be looking for the next call, their eyes firmly fixed on you. Give it a try this week. Happy training!

Why not look at Karen’s new book, ‘Being a Dog’, to learn more about the world of dog behaviour from your dog’s point of view!

Does my dog need a coat?

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walk in snow fresh start Every time the autumn arrives, I notice the temperature changes quite rapidly. Not for us the late summer in autumn that we have enjoyed in the past! This year we are straight down to business, with colder and damper weather leading us into wintertime.

Coats are on sale everywhere, and not just for humans. After the dressing up costumes of Hallowe’en, we now have the winter jumpers and Christmas gear, but also plenty of dog coats available.

‘They already have coats’ I hear you cry. Yes indeed, our dogs are covered in fur. If you compare a Pinscher or Weimaraner to a Border Collie, however, you can see that those coats vary hugely. A light covering of fur is not going to insulate your pooch as much as the heaviest of Golden Retriever fluffiness.

If you decide your dog might be feeling the cold, aim for a rain-protective and padded coat. Ensure that your dog can still move freely in it, as it can be a little overwhelming for them at first. Fleeces are available, with leg ‘sleeves’ that are brilliant for Greyhounds and others that simply do not have nature’s furry coating.

It is only fair that a very young dog gets additional help in keeping warm especially on damp, rainy days. A puppy’s coat is naturally lighter and fluffier, even if their future fur is going to be thick and warm.

In addition we all know that getting older brings aches and pains in colder weather, so your elderly dog, who may have survived happily through all the preceding years, might start to appreciate another layer.

Dog coats can be bought on a budget, or can be very costly. My advice is to start with a slightly less pricey, or second-hand coat or jumper. They are not great quality but I would not want you to spend a lot of money if your dog dislikes it. Once you have spent time accustoming your dog to the new sensation, they will appreciate it, and you can then purchase something a little more high quality, perhaps.

Waterproof coats can be treated fabric rather than noisy, sweaty, crinkly plastic versions, so shop around!

You may currently be complaining as many dogs appear to moult at this time of year, possibly due to the central heating coming on. Nonetheless, keeping their coat in good condition means that whatever fur they do have will help protect them from the cold. Judging by the amount of coat my little dog Pickles is currently shedding, I could probably knit us both a new one.

How long does it take to train a dog?

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Pawprint puppy class with Karen WildHow long does it take to train a dog?

This is a question I would love to have a set answer to. I was asked recently if I could ‘cure’ a dog of the problems he has picked up over 8 years of his life. He needed a lot of help, but we cannot wipe his memory clean of all those moments he was allowed to do things the human family didn’t like.

If only we could spare a few minutes each day. Two sessions, five minutes each, or three sessions of just a couple of minutes each, every day, can be spent training your dog. Asking your dog to sit for a couple of seconds, paying him with a piece of food, then repeating it again a few times, is plenty of training in a single session and will take only a short time.

If you repeat this, ten minutes in total per day, you have completed over an hour of training in only a week (70 minutes to be exact). Multiply this over a year and we have over sixty hours spent teaching your dog all the good manners you want.

You might say you do not have time. However, how many times do you say ‘no’ to your dog? Do you push him off the sofa or have a miserable walk with him dragging you about? I am sure you spend a lot longer on this.

The answer is easy. Have a plan of working with your canine best friend a little each day. If you need guidance, my book ’21 Days to the Perfect Dog’ will help you as if follows a daily plan.

Whether you have a new pup or an older pooch, start by counting out ten small but tasty treats, and ask for a sit for each one. Those are your dog’s wages. Tomorrow, ask him to sit for a little longer. Once he has this established and is confident, choose to ask him to lie down for the same ten treats each day. Then, do the same thing in the garden. Start in the back garden if this is quieter, then the front. Next, practice it on your walk.

After this, give him a treat for walking at heel. The same ten repetitions will help. Before long you have a nice attentive dog who is earning wages. Not a miserable, fed up dog who cannot understand what you want and hears the word ‘no’ (which basically means, nothing much or that you are cross and fed up).

From now on, the word ‘no’ means ‘I am an impatient, not very good trainer’. Maybe we can work for ten minutes a day on improving your skill, too!

Have fun!

Noel Edmonds supports positive dog training!

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Screen Shot 2016-05-26 at 13.16.59 I am SO excited to have been invited to write about positive dog training for Noel Edmonds’ amazingly positive site, noel.world

My article on positive dog training was invited, and posted, in less than a day.

As we all know, Noel is well-known and much loved, pursuing a noble goal of spreading more positivity in the world with his Positivity Radio app and website, where you can listen to lots of different genres, no adverts, and most of all, always buoyant and happy listening.

Screen Shot 2016-05-26 at 13.13.50

 

Now that lovely Noel has welcomed positive dog training views under his wing, let’s spread the word even further. This is an unstoppable force, a revolution in kindness.

Positive, reward-based training for the world? DEAL!

 

Karen

 

Karen’s new book ‘Being a dog’ is available on PRE-ORDER here!

Being a Dog: The world from your dog’s point of view

 

 

Autumn walks with our dogs

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autumn dogThis time of year is most enjoyable for walking my dogs. Just enough warmth to wear a jumper and scarf, but not so wet and cold that we become the bundled-up Hobbits most dog owners transform into over the winter months.

As the hot sun (well, what we get in this country) fades and golden leaves appear, walks are beautiful as the trees blaze with reds and oranges. Do our dogs appreciate all this, too?

Our dogs seem to enjoy the extra earthy smells that the damper ground offers. The dew lasts longer and our walks might be at dawn or dusk this season.

Dogs vision is particularly attuned to low light conditions. Where we may squint to see where we are going, our dogs can happily trot along without fear of bumping into trees or falling into dips in the ground. Their keen hearing and sense of smell helps them, but as dogs evolved to hunt during the crepuscular hours (early/late) they really can see much more detail at these times. They probably wonder why we are taking so long!

Bright sunlight is a different matter of course, and hopefully our beautiful Autumn leaf colours will last. Our dogs will not appreciate these bright shades of reddish-brown, however. Dogs can see colour, but they only have two kinds of colour detecting cones; similar to a person with red-green colour blindness. This means they will see a range of yellows, blues and a great many shades of grey (not just fifty)!

Next time you have thrown your dog’s red toy into green grass, don’t be surprised if he runs straight past it, using his nose to track back to where it landed.

‘How come’, you ask, ‘my dog can still spot a squirrel dashing through Autumn leaves at 100 feet away, but can’t see his own toy sitting plainly on top of them when I have thrown it?’ This is because dogs can detect motion far better and at much further distances than we can. Some dogs were deliberately bred together and enhanced with this ability meaning their eyes contain a specific visual streak enabling motion detection. Any long-nosed breed is more likely to have this visual set-up.

Conversely, a short-nosed dog such as a Pug or French Bulldog has a different visual configuration, meaning they are more likely to be good at close-up focus. They may still play with toys and chase, but their vision is just not designed for this. They are also a lot closer to the ground on their little sturdy legs. A huge difference to the slender sight hound.

Autumn scent is powerfully interesting as leaves pile up, so be vigilant for hidden creatures on walks and in your garden. Never let your dog bother a poor prickly hedgehog. I recall my Collie doing such a thing and proudly presenting his face to me for a kiss… until I noticed it was absolutely black with fleas.

 

 

Fancy teaching your dog an easy and wide range of useful things? Try one of Karen’s books with carefully designed and easy to follow pet dog training plans.