Week Two at Training Class

Wednesday night saw the second night of the training class. In addition to the two pups from last week, there was also a German Shepherd puppy. Ellie is, by far, the smallest of the pups there.

This week saw the introduction of teaching the pup to pay attention, and to loose-leash walking. The loose leash waking was quite funny in a way. Ellie walks on a loose leash three times a day, all the way to the park, then in it when she's not playing, and all the way home again. In class, she was asked to walk just three paces. She looked a little perplexed at being asked to do something so simple. Her loose-leash walking to heel is, without any doubt, her best command.

However, the next part of the class was some controlled introduction to other dogs. The dogs were effectively paired-up, so Ellie was paired up with the Doberman puppy. When two dogs were meeting up, all other dogs and their owners were put out of the way, to reduce distractions and stress for the pups.

This seems to be Ellie's weakest area. I've already been concerned once or twice about her reaction to other dogs, and the training class hasn't helped my concerns. She was the only dog to bark at the other dog, and the only one to want to hide away. The instructor has told us not to worry, and she has also given us her phone number, so that we can arrange to walk Ellie with her adult dogs, which are 100% reliable. She feels that she needs to learn some confidence from adult dogs. I've no idea why she's funny with other dogs. She certainly hasn't had any incidents with them since we've had her, aside from the Chocolate Labrador I suppose. Maybe it's a size thing, as she is the smallest dog in the class.

When we play in the park and she spots other dogs, she will bark and growl. However, I usually just continue to play with her and she stops. When we meet other dogs close-up, it does seem to depend on the breed. She met a retriever yesterday morning, up close and personal, as we passed one-another on the leash. All she wanted to do was hide behind my legs. On the evening walk, we met another two dogs, which came running up to her, while she was on leash. With them, she seemed fine. They sniffed, and she was a little nervous, but not too bad.

Anyway, we've called the instructor and left a message, so that we can begin to arrange some walks with her dogs. We can't afford to let this issue grow or go untreated, as there are so many other dogs around here. I suppose it's important to keep remembering that she is still only fifteen weeks old. But we certainly need to keep our eye on it.

Otherwise, she's doing great. She's now on twenty minutes alone in the crate and she's finding it so easy that she just falls asleep.

I watched a really inspirational video yesterday.



The author, Yolle555 is the most natural trainer I think I've ever seen. It's worth watching her other videos, particularly those with her Border Collie, Bu. It's impossible to watch them and not feel inspired to work with your own dog.

Another video of her dogs growing up with her. It shows how natural she is with her dogs.



If I can have just 10% of the relationship that she seems to have with her dog(s) then I'd be a very happy camper.

Ellie continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, as does her fur. Her fur is getting coarser and coarser as the weeks pass now. I guess she's preparing for the winter months. Dawn will barely recognise her when she next sees her! In fact Dawn will be better placed to see the changes in her than we are, as we're with her every day, and barely notice the changes.

She's eating well, and her appetite grows as she is playing and walking more and more each day. Next week, she'll start the daily walk that takes her into a more busy town area. We'll be walking from the house to the Pets at Home store each day. That will do her good as it's busy without being too busy for her.

We're looking at taking her to the vet's tomorrow to get her weighed. Of course, we could weigh her at home very easily but we want to take her to the vet each couple of weeks to do it so that she can start to become familiar with the vet building.

Bless her. Earlier this evening, I laid on the living room floor with her. She climbed into my lap, rolled onto her back, and fell asleep on me, her legs akimbo to the world! There's never a camera around when you need one.

We've been rattling our brain as to what trick to teach her for week five of the training class. It's a harmless little competition thing. So we've started teaching her to twirl. That gives us three weeks. Hell, she can walk to heel so I'm sure she can master a twirl. I am so competitive! :)

Clever Girl

The more I experience Ellie, the more I fall in love with Border Collies. They seem to be a simple breed in so far as their primary demand is to be challenged. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's mental or physical challenge (though they seem to prefer it to be mental) just so long as it's fresh and new.

For someone like me who loves to spend time with a dog, Border Collies are heaven-sent. Of course, I might not still be saying that in a few months when my dog is smarter than I am! But for now I am happy to marvel at just how quickly they learn. In fact, I would suggest that they are sometimes a little too smart for their own good. Sitting is an example of this. We made the mistake of trying to teach her to sit and down in the same training sessions. Now, she seems to want to predict what we want. We ask her to sit, and she does. But then she will lay down too, before we've asked, and even if we had no intention of asking.

To keep things fresh for her, I've been teaching her targetting over the past two days. I have a large piece of dowelling. I hold it out, and if she touches it with her nose, I click and treat. I'll do this for another day as she seems to have got the idea now, and then I will add the word "touch" to it. Then, once that sinks in, I'll get her to touch it for longer and longer periods.

The advantage of this is that it helps to teach so many other tricks and behaviours. For example, closing a door.

I've begun to expand her walk this week now. It only adds another five to ten minutes to the walk but it exposes her to a bit more mixed size traffic, cyclists, and people. So far, she seems fine with cyclists and traffic, but she sees a person and begins pulling on the leash, trying to get some full-on hot stroking action from them!

However, at least in the park, I can walk her to heel off-leash, as I did this morning, without issue. I limit the off-leash time however, as she's way too young to be given completley free-reign.

Jan and I took her to the park yesterday evening to play with the Kong Puppy Frisbee. She loved it. I thought she would get bored of trying to catch it, but she never did. She didn't jump for it, as her wee legs are still too fragile for that, but she did love chasing it. However, Jan threw it a little too far, and so we lost it in the nettles. Oh well, we had the backup tennis ball. (We use a bright purple one, as there are often-used tennis courts in the park, and I didn't want to give Ellie a fetish for normal coloured tennis balls -- for obvious reasons.)

Yesterday was bath day and it was much easier than the previous two weeks. She only tried to get out of the bath once, but that was short and once corrected, she stood there quite happily. In fact, I swear she seemed to enjoy it after a short time. Then came the towelling off, and she was very happy to receive that. Then the hair-dryer. Usually she struggles when that is turned on. This week however, there was a very quick attempt to gnaw at it, but then she just laid there and let it happen. I blow-dried her for about five minutes, as I like to quit on a good note.

Then came the claw clipping. She was great! In actual fact, because of the walks, there was only two claws that really needed clipping, so I did those and just touched the others with the clippers so that she could still go through the experience. My guess is that after a couple more sessions, she will be fine with having her claws clipped and being bathed. Victory!

We seem to be falling into a routine now and I think she's much happier for it. She seems to have set sleep time now, and boy is she sleeping more now that she is working at training and chasing balls across fields!

She did her twelve minutes being left alone in her crate at the weekend, and she coasted through it. It will be fourteen minutes today. As per usual, as I write this, she has fallen asleep at my feet under the desk. Bless her, she really does love it there. Ideally I'd like her in her crate but I'm not going to move her now. It's my fault for not putting her in the crate when we had finished earlier. I need to start remembering to do that!

Other Reckless Dogs

I don't mind dogs off the leash. I think it looks great to see a dog off leash and at one with its handler. However, the clue to my post is in that last line -- with its handler.

Once again, Ellie and I became the victim of another dog that could not be controlled by its handler, and another Chocolate Labrador at that! No, I checked, it wasn't the same one as two days ago.

Ellie and I were doing our morning training session in the playing field, as per usual. As we were practising the down command, I spotted something hurtling towards us at speed -- at least as fast as a grossly overweight Chocolate Labrador could run. (Why are all the Chocolate Labrador dogs that I see so grossly overweight?)

Ellie, as is now her custom, let out a little bark, before running behind my legs. I, determined that, despite the odds against us, she will not grow up having to be fearful of other dogs, regained her attention with her favourite tennis ball, and we continued to play, leaving the handler to take control of her dog. "Sorry", she said. Oh, how irritating that word is when you just know that the handler knows they have no control of their dog.

We continued to play, before once again spotting the same damned dog hurtling towards us. Now once I am willing to forgive as an accident perhaps. Twice in the space of five minutes? Not quite. That just tells me that the handler has no respect for other dogs or other dog handlers. I am a placid person up to a point. That point had now been crossed.

"He just wants to play", she told me, obviously believing that would invite a welcome response from me. "So does mine", I replied, "but with me, and you're making that next to impossible. You have a bloody leash, use it if you can't keep your dog under control.". At that point I headed further up the field as I gathered that she had no intention of curbing her dog's reckless behaviour.

It's just so bloody annoying and frustrating. I understand the "he/she just wants to play" dog owners, really I do. However, neither I nor my dog are there as entertainment for other dogs. We are there to enjoy the company of one another. It is not my job to train or socialise other dogs. Sure, I want Ellie to socialise but only with dogs that I have evaluated and in a controlled manner. That is why we spend money on attending training classes and will continue to do so throughout her life.

In fact, I don't really have a plan where Ellie plays with other dogs in fields to be honest with you. I want Jan and I to be the centre of her world, and we try to encourage that by playing interactively with her as much as possible. For me, good dog interaction is where two dogs can pass, perhaps sniff at one another, and then move on. I don't really see a need to go above that. Certainly not with the average dog in a field.

There might come a time when, over a period of several weeks, I see a dog and handler who I feel are in total control and therefore able to play with Ellie, but again, I'd rather that we were the centre of her world.

Anyway, I can't tell you just how perfect her walking to heel is becoming, both around the field, in the street, and at the side of the main road. I feel very proud to be walking her. It beggars belief doesn't it that a young puppy can walk to heel and ignore other dogs, but two consecutive adult Chocolate Labrador dogs cannot. It's no wonder we dog owners get such bad reputations.