Hi there, I started to write on JulieT's Training Log thread and then thought better of it.....as this isn't really training,its more preparation.We are flying Dexter back with us next Summer and the last couple of months I've been thinking about how he is going to cope with the change and what we can do to help him (and us) have a nice time together on our hollibobs! Recall from other dogs has always been poor.We've had a couple of 121's at the dog park to work on this and it went ok and we completed yet another Obedience Course in November where we were allowed to work off lead from Week 1 unlike the other dogs and he did amazing at that.My issue is practice opportunites with strange dogs.....I just don't get them ( I see probably 6 dogs a week out in the desert,and that's a busy week!) So we will be taking every opportunity to practice recalls from other dogs and, my Waterloo, The Stop Whistle. The Trainer at the dog park tried to help me and whilst she was one of the best and nicest I've found she was telling me to barge into his space to 'stop' him which i didnt like and was worried I would mess up what I already had.So we left that to concentrate on recall and listening to me around other dogs. Dexter walks nicely in places he is familiar with but can pull in new places so I've been making an effort to walk new routes and areas and he is improving...I'm finding he is pretty steady once hes been to a place 3 or 4 times. At home we walk the same area (it is massive though so loads of different trails and routes) everyday,he doesn't wander and checks in really regularly but I've gone back to rewarding heavily with tasty treats and games in the hope he will stay close when he gets back to the Yorkshire countryside and the distractions will be phenomenal. We are using cats as practice opportunities now and not just counting marching past them as a success.Dexter will still nearly take me off my feet if he sees one unexpectedly when he is on lead but he will come back to heel a lot easier now and can concentrate a lot better on me.....i'm hoping this will help us with little furries we will meet in the fields of the countryside and gardens of our friends! That reminds me,similarly to how we plateaued with walking past cats,the Trainer from our last Obedience Course said I'd done the same with walking Dexter past dogs on lead and handling his reactivity.......basically because I had a strong 'about turn' I hadn't worked on reducing distance ,so we are practising that now too.We can manage us in the road and a dog on the pavement fine unless its a reactive dog....Dexter will get skippy then....to be honest that's close enough for me.....Dexter will tolerate it but hes not having a nice time.It's funny,he is better in busier places, he was really good at the dog show the other week but can be right jumpy if he just sees one dog approaching on a walk..... Dogs are allowed in very few places but I've found a few cafes and restaurants that are tolerating us visiting.I tried the Polo club last week.......nightmare!Not the coffee bit,the getting to the table to order coffee bit.....the smells and the horses sent him strato ,so we are taking a few steps back this week and building up to sitting at the table.I've got a friend with 2 horses so I'll try and make use of that resource too.I want him to be able to come out with us when we go back....we are taking him so hes not as housebound with the heat as he usually is so it would seem a shame if we haven't tried to teach him how to behave if we want to stop for a drink or a bite to eat after a walk.I haven't got a proper settle so thats a goal i can train towards,he will lie on a mat and eat a kong or lie like a Sphinx on high alert waiting for the next instruction or distraction! Dexter has got so excited when we have visited friends houses so I've ordered a fabric travel crate that can travel round with us,my idea being if we call in to somebody and hes a bit 'busy' i can set it up and settle him in..or if hes a bit wet.....like he was here today after the rain we have had...he is crate trained but i'm not leaving him in there on his own for too long as the webbing wouldnt stand up to his claws if he got fed up.....next will be his airline crate..I'll order that in the next week and start getting him used to it with mega rewards...he hated the one that he flew over in at 5 months old ...... So thats what we are thinking about as we've got Christmas and New Year finished,there is a bit of managing expectations too.....I can't see us out in busy places at Peak Times as its unlikely Dexter would be comfortable with that,hes just never had those experiences,but he is older now and he never fails to surprise me......so let's see,all I would say is lock up your chickens,your rabbits,your horses,pigs,cows and sheep when we touch down in July! Happy New Year Everyone x
I can't imagine how overwhelming this must be for you! Trying to find experiences that will mirror those he might have in the UK must be really difficult. Are you staying in Yorkshire or travelling around? I imagine that it will be easier to manage him there than, say, in London parks, where there will be many more dogs. Maybe you could post some videos of your stop whistle so people can give advice? I started off with Pippa's ideas of the stop whistle when on lead, but when I started working at distance, I found it easier to blow the whistle and hold a tennis ball up. This automatically made them stop and sit, and then I faded the ball so it was a hand signal and am now fading the hand - I find that in low-distraction scenarios, the whistle alone works, but when there's more going on, they'll turn and look when I blow, but only sit if I use the hand, but that's a work in progress. There are lots of other methods people use, though, so maybe someone can help you out. I found that rewarding with a chase of a ball, thrown behind them, really helped to strengthen the cue, because the ball is their highest reward. As for all the new smells, I think however much you work on that, he's going to be excited by them. Even if we go a couple of miles down the road to a new walk, the dogs are massively more distracted by the smells, so being on a different continent is bound to be challenging for him!! That said, having a strong checking-in ethos will really help to keep his attention more on you. Make sure you have loads of really good treats! I think I'd be tempted to work on a magic word if you don't have one already. It sounds like you have all your plans in order. He may surprise you; we went on a walk when we were in the UK where my two met more dogs than they had in the entire rest of their lives. There was only one grumble, and that was from a Springer Spaniel rather than from Shadow. We were on high alert the whole time, but the dogs were relaxed and had fun bimbling around. Good luck and let us know how you get on. Dig that GoPro out!
Yes ,need to get the GoPro going ,but be careful what you encourage...you know my ineptitude with IT is not far behind my ipetitude with my Stop! I'll gather my thoughts on my Stop and post that separately....... You must have felt similar,taking your 2 from a quite a quiet place to the busier UK?Its funny for us,we live in a big ,fast city but he's not allowed to see or experience much of it! Something I also forgot to mention is a car harness.....I hardly drive him on proper roads here,its not necessary for the places I take him ,the dog guard keeps him in the boot and is sufficient to bump across the sand...so I need to look up the Harness posts,I know the ones you wanted didn't come in time did they for your first trip? Ideally I'd love one of those proper car crates Julie/Barbara/Heidrun have but we will be renting a car...or buying one at the very last minute so its out of the question until we have something more permanent.So need to get him used to a car harness...which shouldn't be an issue.We won't be travelling around with him too much...I'm more for encouraging folk to come up to us this first visit!!!!!!
Have you got Pippa Mattinson's book "Total Recall"? Would solve your problem You don't neccessarily need other dogs to train your dog to leave them, you just need to make the recal a 'habit'.
I worked through Total Recall Stacia and Dex is really great unless : 1. He sees another dog 2. He sees another animal he can chase 3. If I've let him wander too far and hes found something disgusting to eat it can be 50/50 then....I can fix this one easiest though....... It might be my lack of experience or lack of skill as a Trainer but I cant see how I can proof him if I cant practice around dogs he doesn't know,he just can't seem to transfer the skill he has recalling from a dog he knows easily to a dog hes never met before.....
I bet it's a lot easier than you think it is! I'm not using my stop whistle out on walks all the time, or my recall. I'll use them if I really have to do so, if I've made a mistake or something unexpected has happened, but I manage Charlie by putting him on his lead - my stop and recall are far too precious to be used to manage my dog day to day. So if I'm in a busy park, I'm on 'football watch' and he'll go back on his lead unless I feel like training his stop or recall in which case I'll put myself at the right distance etc. If I take my dog into a new pub etc he is on a short lead and I sit down and get him sorted, concentrating on him until he settles down. In other people's houses, I keep Charlie on his hunting lead - I love that hands free lead - he is just too enthusiastic to let him loose in someone else's house. He bounces round like a squash ball...I ignore people when they say 'he'll be fine' because they have no idea.... Wildlife - I see many more animals in London than I do in the country. I've just spent 2 weeks in Cornwall, and came across pretty much nothing apart from seagulls and a few badgers. The odd couple of game birds. When I walk Charlie this pm in London we'll see foxes, rabbits, squirrels, ducks, swans, maybe deer and cats for sure.
You must get tired of allaying my fears .....You've told me this........ ................Several times!!!!! I guess I'm basing it on my FIL playing hell about the squirels in the garden........he has stopped feeding the wild birds too as that was bringing pheasants in to eat what the birds dropped from the bird table! So I'm imagining squirrels and pheasants everywhere and I guess because we are out so early here,I think hes going to meet lots of dawn bunnies!But maybe I don't have to get out at 5 am in the UK!!! to be honest as long as we aren't near roads the chasing whilst NOT desirable isn't the end of the world but I don't want him running up to on leash dogs,we will both get ourselves in trouble.....Thankfully our baseline isn't zero but we are definately not reliable enough yet..... Also,got to get me one of those hunting leads,somebody gifted me a ROK lead last week,its got such a comfy handle but its too short .....seems my Shopping List grows as well as my To Do List!
Just seen this Angela, you have some work to do but I bet you will surprise yourself when you break it down into smaller chunks it won't seem so bad. If you haven't got it allsorted when you visit the UK you can keep Dexter on lead until you find safer area's for him to have a little off lead time. You face many more challenges in the desert than the rest of us, you will be just fine. I look forward to reading your progress. xx
You probably won't get into trouble. 99% of dog owners (it seems) have dogs that run up to other dogs on lead. I hate it, but no-one else seems to bother that much....
So we are on the countdown.....Dexter's flight is confirmed for 1st July......I'll be on the same flight and Chris is going the day before ........ The travel box has been in my lounge for about 6 weeks.....he seemed reasonably happy with it but I couldn't get him to just lie down and settle....so he's been sleeping in it for the last 3 nights. Everything ok except he was a bit sick in there last night ....I slept in the downstairs bedroom so I wasn't on the couch a few feet away so I hope that it was 'just one of those things ' rather than anything to be concerned about. I don't think the travelling time in the box will worry him but I do think the whole transport thing will unsettle him,I think he will be barking until he is loaded onto the aircraft.....I'm cross with myself that I didn't use the cooler weather to go down and sit with him at the airport to get him used to the noises and smells....that's been a bit of a fail on my part and I hope he doesn't suffer for it. All his things are ready to be packed.....one case has gone already ....with all my things in it :: doesn't matter if that goes astray being unaccompanied,top priority is the case that has all Dexter's things and my daytime dog clothes ,shoes etc....that is coming with me! We are booked in for some Gun Dog training classes....VERY excited but a little nervous.....and I've asked to join an Agility Club for a couple of months ,so beside all the lovely dog walks I hope we get to discover there will be some structure and learning to our trip .... Dexter has a vet check and worming treatment at his own vets 48 hours before travel then he will get collected from home in his travel box 4 hours before the flight and processed by an agent at the airport....I wanted the van to collect his box and me follow down with him in the car but they've convinced me otherwise saying it will be more stressful getting him in the box and leaving him at the cargo terminal .....so I'm going with their advice....it just seems a long time 4+7+2 hours to be in the box.......please god it's all worth it and he's not broken when he gets there ...... I'll be a nervous wreck the night of the flight but as he's a piece of 'cargo' I will get alerts on my phone of exactly where he is in the system and how he's moving through the process.Sadly my friend hasn't been able to be the pilot on the flight ...but he can check to see who is and will drop a line to say there is a VID in the cargo hold of this particular flight ::
Phew Angela, what a lot to sort out for Dexter let alone you and Chris! Will Dexter get anytime out of the box before take off and landing? It does seem a long time 13 hours in a box. You have obviously done lots of 'box' training so hopefully that will help Dexter a lot. We could all think of things we could have done to ease the path for our dogs but it's not always possible so no beating yourself up over the airport training. Exciting that you are doing some gun dog training and agility, I am sure you will both enjoy that so much I really hope you have a fantastic time in the UK catching up with family, friends, forum friends, I bet you can't wait! If you are in our neck of the woods give me a shout I would love to see you So now all there is to do is breath!! xx
He'll be fine. He's done the flight before and he was just fine. You've done heaps of prep (all your cafe training...). But don't look on the trip as the big event you've been training for. Look at it as just another proofing exercise in a new location. With slightly more numerous pheasants.
When he's in a secure area they will open the box up Helen to attach a block of ice for him to have during the flight ...the agent said they don't generally let them out ,I'd say they might not have a choice with my boy...I think he will try to make a break for it ......anyway I'll send him with some favourite food and if they chuck it in he should get back in ! The handling agent at Manchester says it takes 4 hours to process them but 2 people I've spoken to said their dogs were ready within the hour and were out of the box when they arrived to collect them in like a boarding pen....so that should reduce it by a couple of hours hopefully....makes it not much more than a nights sleep which he will be used to doing...... He was fine when we collected him at 5 months ....he wasn't even barking but his paper work did say ' very frightened' in the Comments section .....I'm sure it will be ok...my friend's anxious little desert dog did it to Glasgow and wasn't a bit bothered when she was collected ...she now lives out her days happily in the Highlands of Scotland.This is a trial really to see how he copes,we will be making some decisions on our living arrangements in the next 12 months and if this is manageable it will have some bearing on the decision....
He will be fine! All the dogs we have collected have travelled from Ireland/Cyprus have been on the road and air for around 24 hours and have coped surprisingly well. Such a worry nonetheless!
Kate's right, I forgot that Charlie had travellend from Ireland to Wales. Sorry I'm just a worry wart. Dexter will just drop off to sleep and be in the UK in time for breakfast, that's what David does on all his international flights and he's not a dog xx
I think you've done really well training him with his travel crate. I hope all goes well. I'm sure that now he is a bit older that the trip won't be so stressful for him. Some of the rescues we have fostered have done really well with travel and got settled quickly once in the air xx
All the very best Dexter, not long until you are here in the rain soaked North West! ((many hugs for your mummy, who will worry far more than you do)) xxxx ...
