Dog school - Manjimup Timber/Heritage Park
Today at dog school we had an absolute ball. It was a lot of planning, but it was totally worth it.
We had our lesson at the Manjimup Timber/Heritage Park for a bit of a trial. We had 11 group members turn up, including one new member (Gary and Rex) and another group member I haven’t seen in 10 years. Kate used to come to dog school with her dogs Ruby and Jasper and now has a beautiful new girl Tilly. It was fantastic to see her (and the adorable Tilly) and she drove all the way from Busselton to attend my class.
We started our class with some basic commands – sit, body block, focus, where is it? to get everyone settled and comfortable. When you practice your basic training at home (where your dog feels comfortable), then you can ‘take it on the road’. That means when you do basic exercises (such as focus, sit, stand, etc) at home where your dog feels safe, it can give them the same feeling when they are a bit overstimulated or anxious outside of the backyard.
Once we finished our basic command exercise, we started exploring! We sniffed, interacted with, jumped on, peed on, became very interested in all aspects of the walking trials. We then visited the Hamlet area of the park and explored that area as well.
It was a great opportunity for me to show everyone what to do when we encounter different stimuli including kids, adults, etc and how to socialise our dogs the right way. Socialisation isn’t just about meeting other dogs; it is also exposing our dogs to different environmental situations in a controlled way.
It is really interesting watching the dogs today experience new environmental stimuli together and how much it bonded them together. They were much more relaxed and accepting of each other.
So today was a total success and I will be adding more locations for us to explore. I will also make a few small changes to how I run dog school lessons at Tigers.
Our next lesson will be at Tigers football ground on the 19th November. I hope to see everyone then!
My blog - Group lessons
Dog school - Tigers football ground
Well, I don't think I have to say what the weather was like today. We had 10 brave souls come to dog school! When everyone arrived there was a bit of excitement happening (some pent up energy due to the terrible weather over the last couple of days), so I had the sensory boxes ready to go! It gets the dog's mind directed on to something other than what is going on around them. It works really well. Also, if they are a bit anxious or get over excited again, they then redirect that energy onto the sensory box and it makes them feel more secure.
While it was raining, we did some focus, touch, body block and stay exercises. Once the rain stopped, off we went!! We went for an adventure around the back of Tigers, sniffing, peeing and doing all the fun things that dogs like to do. But while we were doing that, we were doing some training as well. I asked people to allow their dogs to sniff, then waited until they looked up, looked back at us and/or went to move on to the next fun thing to sniff. When this occurs, call them back to you and give them a treat and make a big deal of it. This is called disengaging. Then the secret is to allow them to go back to sniffing. All relationships need a bit of give and take, and it is no different to the relationship with our dogs. Doing this exercise really strengthens our bond too as you are allowing our dogs to have fun and to be stimulated, while asking them every now and then to check in with us. See, give and take.
Once we finished the sniff walk, we did some weaving exercises and crossovers, then played 'paw pad'. It used to be touch pads, but it gets confusing as we use the cue touch with our dogs putting their nose on our hands. So 'paw pad' it is.
It was great to see everyone and I look forward to our next session at Tiger's on the 3rd December.
Dog school - Tigers Football ground
Today at dog school I had 12 people turn up including 4 new group members. It was fantastic to meet our new members and see everyone again.
We started the lesson with calming activites for our new members as it can be over stimulating on your first day at school! We then did some easy exercises to get the pups focused on a task. Everyone did really well as there was a lot of energy in the group and in times like these, patience is needed. We have all been there!!!
When everyone else arrived, we went for a sniffing walk around the oval. We practiced recall and I gave some tips how to get your dog's attention when they are sniffing something on the ground. Being a leader is a lot of give and take. Not just 'over powering' our dogs, trying to be the Alpha (I personally hate the word 'Alpha').
We did some socialisation exercises including crossovers and weaving. Everyone had calmed at this stage, so fun was occuring with a splash of learning! I think we can all agree that this is the best way to learn.
After we did all that work, I had an obstacle course set up so there were lots of activities to do including weaving, jumps, sniffing, hoops and paw pads. Lots of fun!!!
It was great to see everyone and I hope to see you all in two weeks.
