Ah, she's lovely and it's good that she's a different character from Benson - you wouldn't really want them the same. Really like the sound of your puppy class - small well planned and well controlled, not lots of "play" for puppies. I think it's really important that her early experiences of meeting other dogs are positive so if it were me I would only be happy with dogs I knew at this stage, the risk of own known causing a bad reaction has to be considered particularly is she is more on the sensitive side and not keen. She's got 2 lovely big brothers from whom to learn good manners and bags of time to meet other dogs
Thank you Rosemary, with Benson we just bumbled along, luckily he hasn't been a problem, now I know so much more...but not nearly enough, I think I am actually worrying more!
She is such a love - glad to hear she is doing so well. Teenage Charlie, charging up full pelt, ears flapping, happy "PLAY WITH ME" face, bouncing play bows....would scare a Border Collie witless.
2nd puppy class this time with four puppies.Bramble now 13 weeks old. Still not really meeting each other, but exploring their beds and a bit of nose touching behind a barrier. Introduction to a cue for recall. So this was use the "cue" ie "come" or "here" then click when the puppy turns. This gets them used to the new word, and rewarded for then responding to this cue. We then did this standing up. Homework is to practice this on a loose lead around the house. This is to encourage a quick response and understanding of what the cue means, very much setting the puppy up to succeed and to use when we know the pup isn't too distracted. All good stuff and hopefully will lay some solid foundations. Tine to get my copy of Total Recall out as we somehow have bypassed the "staying close because I am a diddy puppy..and gone straight to watchout the ladette is about!" Introduction to a hand touch cue, and this can help when we need to move our pup away from something. We also talked about the importance of short introductions to new environments, not to overface, but just a few mins here and there while they are still young. We had a chat around the fact that Bramble is very confident when her brothers are around, but to make sure we do take her out to strange places on her own..so Pets at Home tonight! Here you can see she is really sprouting now! The second photo with Casper
Bramble is seriously beautiful Sounds like the puppy classes are going well and Bramble is learning a lot. Good luck at PAH xx
Sounds as if you're enjoying the puppy classes, even if you've been through classes before it's always good to have a different perspective with different trainers. Bramble is getting so big, but a little beauty.
Brambles had some homework from last puppy class, which was to be out and about and meet other dogs, in a public area, park, etc... The plan is to meet them in a controlled fashion, not to over face her or build the expectation that it is OK to play with every dog she meets. The meet and greet should also be brief, not a mad romp and only to 1 in 3 dogs. So off to Bath race track, which has a nice footpath alongside. The dogs there tend to be very well behaved, and it is usually quiet.... so perfect! She was a little star, staying quite close, watching most of the dogs from a distance whilst I C&T for calm and looking at me. Bramble met a gorgeous chocolate lab, and we failed on the brief meet and greet only because he was so lovely! He was mesmerized by her, and although an old gent, went a bit bonkers and bum tucked down the race track! Brambles was delighted! Wish I had my camera, both the owner and the lab were great! We kept the walk to about 30 mins, mostly off lead, with lots of change of direction to keep her focused on where I was going. Some gentle loose lead walking with C&T for looking at me, with the treat given in the position I would like her to be in. At the end of the walk we headed back towards the entrance. Heading towards was a stunning viszla, very excited about his walk, he front legs were not touching the ground, he sounded hoarse from pulling. The owner smiled and headed towards us, so I backed onto some grass and said, we will wait here and let you through, I said this with a friendly smile. To which she replied, no it's OK ,he's friendly and your pup needs to socialise. I was a bit taken aback tbh, and replied quite gruffly no thank you, but bloody hell she looked miffed with me! Apart from that it was a really lovely walk. Other training is going well, she is picking up things really quickly. We have cracked toilet training, and she now asks to be let outside. We are working through total recall, and whistling her to her food bowl, she gets very excited about this new game Previously she was fed in her crate, but has such a positive association with it now, we don't really need to, and using meal times as a powerful motivator for recall training. Not much chance of failure there! Here is a photo of Brambles attacking the agility equipment at the puppy class..
Aw bless her, she's doing so well. I love it when we meet older labs and they have a wonderful zoomie bumtuck with younger dogs. We sometimes meet a 12 year boy, Duke, who has some arthritis in his rear legs but he loves doing zoomies with Juno and playing with her. I think they learn so much from the older dogs as they are more likely to call a stop to play long before our pups are ready to. People like this really annoy me. It's not a matter of socialising my dog or whether the other is friendly, it's a case of I'm trying to teach my dog that we don't meet and greet every dog we see
Totally agree @MaccieD, I know that I made a bit of a mistake with Benson and misunderstood the term socialisation, interpreting it as meeting lots of other dogs. This wasn't helped with the puppy classes we attended with Benson, were rather uncontrolled with puppies having rather too much free playing time. Oh and the old choc boy was just too lovely! He had such a twinkle in his eye
I think we've all made that mistake at some time with puppies unless we've found somewhere like the forum for advise
Bramble looks adorable and you are doing very well with her training and socialisation. You made the right decision re the Viszla.
Brambles is doing really well in her training, 17 weeks old and puppy class number five tomorrow. She is now really leggy and starting to grow out of her puppy body! I guess also out of that critical socialisation period, although on-going socialisation is just as important. She is time consuming..mainly and I guess this the challenge with having other household dogs. Finding time on her training is difficult. We walk her in strange places mostly on her own, as her big brothers do bolster her courage! This is helped by our puppy classes being outside now, lots of opportunity to meet and greet, work on loose lead and recall on long lines, we even had a certain forum member working on a bit of distraction for us! We are working mainly on loose lead and recall now. Recall is good, even with mild distractions,however I am honestly not sure about is how much of that is due to her being slightly timid, so she has a natural desire to stay close, so although looking good I wouldn't be surprised to see this particular behaviour fall apart with growing confidence. So we are keeping this on a verbal cue for now, leaving the whistle for a couple of months, which is helped by the fact I am using a verbal recall cue with Benson for a bit. She also has a what I think is a natural focus, observing me carefully, and always ready for training! I have a feeling she is a dog just as happy with praise as with treats. She just loves attention and her favourite treat is just curling up beside you! We practice skills like a moving handtouch, sit...with a few seconds duration now, then a release cue, down, sit-up. We are also working on mat training and settling. We mix this in with fun retrieving..a soft toy, gentle tuggy. Tossing the toy a few feet and praising when she brings this back. So far she brings everything back to hand, I don't know where she has this from, I guess maybe watching Benson, who brings me EVERYTHING now in the evenings, and I usually end up with quite a collection on the sofa! Bramble is teething now, and looking a bit gappy..s lots of frozen kongs and chew type toys. She also has a huge anco root in her crate she gnaws from time to time, usually when she is grumpy On the crate front she has quite strict times, this is only to help her adjust to when we are not around and her absolute maximum is 2.5 hours in any one day. She then has the odd hour or two in the afternoon.
Bramble now loose lead walk well, she does tend to walk slightly ahead, but doesn't pull. Need to work on reinforcing positioning in heel, and maintain a high level of rewarding checking in on our walks to help build the foundations of a really solid loose lead heel. Recall is just great, although when Bramble gets a surge of independence in adolescence I am sure this will all change! Mat training will evolve into placeboards, they are on order and should arrive mid week...so excited! No doubt will be bombarding those who use them with loads of questions. Few photos from puppy class today...lots of work of reinforcing good behaviours, lead walking with distractions, and also some work on prepare pups for the more unusual handling they might experience at the vets. Bramble and friends...
She's a little star! Most of those puppies are making me feel puppy broody though. Even the Collie and I'm nowhere near bonkers enough to take on a Collie!!!!
