Ice creams in the sun

Ready for training

 Yes it has been a lovely spring day again today, well it has been all week really. Today BST swung into action and the clocks went forward an hour-Yes the bad one lol!!

We have had a really good training session today-recall class and Bella continues to do really well and the improvement with each week is really showing now and she is much more reliable to come on command.

chillaxing after walkies, watching daddy in the cafe!!

After our training we went on the social walk and this time we have changed venues and the walk is along the Basingstoke Canal so a great oppertunity  for the dogs to cool off in the water. Madam reagle pants had none of it though and still only went out to her ankles!!

We noticed today just how much Bell has calmed down in the company of other dogs.
Where as once upon a time it was a baying howling bouncing beagle hell bent on getting to the dog in the distance and on getting near by she would go very submissive and often wet herself.

Now she spots another dog and its like "yeah theres another dog, i'll wander over maybe" and on meeting them she sits or greets them but no more submissive behaviour. We also said she gets on with either sex of dog. She def has a soft spot for Hades at training as she is always beside him on the walks and she gets on really well with other bitches too. All in all she is a laid back pupster who likes anyone.

Once the walk was over we stopped at the cafe in the park and got an ice cream each, this is Bella's first encounter with an ice cream and omg did she love it!! First of all she was like, mm whats this, tastes nice, but its cold (I swear she got brain freeze!!) and got it all over her chops :O)

Ice cream bell

BRAIN FREEZE!!!

Recalling from distractions

We were out the house for 4 hours today and bell is now sparko in bed, me and Keith are struggling to stay awake too lol!! Fresh air and sunshine = worn out peeps. But it was a really nice day. x

Spring time fun

We have had a lovely day today out and about in the beautiful sunshine. For a change we went along the river, a walk we havent done for some months and I think I now know why!! Every 2 minutes you bump into someone along the tow path and it can be very frustrating letting her out on the long line only to reel her back in again shortly after to let the joggers and cyclist past. Mind you its all good recall work for her but not much fun for us.

Spring is definatley here as we saw an abundance of daffiodils and various catkins and buds as well as greenery popping up. There is also lots of song birds singing away in every single bush we went passed. Bird watching has become a little hobby of ours as we often see lots of varied birds whilst out and about. We are very lucky in the fact we have so much on our door step practically and often see something exciting. Today we saw several buzzards, mostly being chased by crows with their distinct call echoing around the valley. As well as numerous great tits, blue tits, coal tits, robins, black birds, thrushes and geese.
So to avoid the constant meeting people we turned off from the river and up along the woodland and fields and this was much more fun. We did come across a very excitable black Lab who suffers from the same deaf condition bella has, but both dogs were having far too much fun chasing and playing that we let them for a few minutes and then carried on our ways.

On reaching this part of the walk, we decided to carry out some more training. Keith carried on walking with Bella in the attention exercise (below right) and as you can see she is nicely beside him on the loose line. After he got so far ahead-almost out the picture he let her recall to me and I managed to snap the pic I have been dying to snap for months. A action shot with her in focus :) very impressed.

 Heading home we had a worn out Beagle and for the first time Ive managed to catch her panting, she neevr normally runs about enough to pant but today she has been on the go non stop and in this pic she is almost smiling :O)

Since getting home she has made herself nice and comfy on the sofa and apart from getting up for a little roast dinner, she has been asleep for the last 5 hours :O) what a end to a lovely sunday afternoon. xx

Adolescent Dogs - Group Dog Training Classes. Heelwork, Recall, Jumping ...

Social weekend Pt 2

I totally ran out of time last weekend to sit down and write this so I am attempting tonight!!

Sunday
Recall workshop.

This was a great class and I think the one we have come away from feeling very impressed in Bella and if I'm honest, ourselves too.

How can you ignore this face :O)

Our first task was to let Bella off on a loose lead (long line) and wait for her to loose interest in us and start sniffing about. We then had to call her and if she didn't come straight away, we had to "reel" her in and praise her for coming back so that us = treats. Now I say all this as if it happened the way its meant to but Bella being Bella decided she knew something was up and wouldn't leave my side!! In the end I had to get Keith to recall her to him so I could then recall her back to me to do the task lol!!

Our next task was recall from a distance. I went and stood about 20 foot away from Bella, and called her. She came running, ears flapping and got her reward. The other trainer who was with our regular trainer pointed out something quite important on the recall. As I called her, "Bella hereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" as soon as she started to get near me I started saying good girl. This indicates to her that she has completed the command already as shes been given the good girl signal and so to her coming back means come half way and that's job done. So we make sure we now only say Hereeeeeeeeee and as soon as she starts coming towards us really hype up the excitement and basically make ourselves THE most exciting thing on the planet that she really has to return to so we start saying yeahhaaaaaaaaa woooooooo and clap and bingo every time she comes and once she is at our feet the good girl is given and its like she has got the jack pot treat wise.

To make her more inclined to return to us we call her and run in the opposite direction making sure we keep an eye on her to see the moment she starts towards us which is when we drop and go OTT on the calling. Yes we did feel like ***s lol!! We also got Bella to recall from having a sniff about in the bushes and again this worked very well. I am going to do some separate posts after this one with videos which have been uploaded by our trainer and include footage from classes over recent weeks. I really recommend having a looksie.

We then went on a walk, similar to the social walks we have on the Saturday but this time all dogs remained on the long lines and we practiced recalling a lot. Recalling from playing with another dog, recall from sniffing about, rewarding when the dog returned without calling-just checking in, and we also did some tasks out in the fields so to speak.

We all lined up facing one another about 5ft apart and dogs facing inwards. We then handed our dog over one by one to Jenny and walked to the other end of the "tunnel" and would call for the dog to come through the distractions of the dogs and owners. Bella being Bella decided to do it her way!!. She ran AROUND the tunnel of owners and dogs and came to us LOL!!!! She did however do it properly too and with ease too :)

To make it harder, the owners then dotted themselves around the tunnel with some dogs blocking the view of the owner to recall, the dogs then had to act excited as a distraction to the recalling dog but each and every dog ran through the distractions to their owners. Very well done by all.

OOOOO and before I forget Bella saw a horse walking through the common but didn't howl this time!!!! HUGE improvement on her previous horse spotting's.

We then walked the last part of the walk towards the car park letting the dogs play and continuing the recalling. If we called our dog but ended up with an extra nose and tail at our feet we praised them for returning to command even if it wasn't them we called lol and it soon became a free for all on who could get to the owners first for the best treats!! Bella was really really good and we felt we had much more control with her. She still tried to be lady like (as pic below shows) when it came to the puddles unlike Barry the choc lab who just literally dives face first in and starts snorkeling!

 We all passed the work shop and as its run on a monthly basis we will keep up the lessons to just make sure it all stays fresh in both ours and bells minds. I used the techniques learnt the other day on a walk with her and her recalling was spot on and each and every time.

Another thing we have noticed is bell is much more interested in toys now suddenly. We have managed to have games of fetch both indoors and out in the field!!

Buggle has been chewing on a rawhide chew for the last 90 Min's beside me and she hasn't really got anywhere with it LOL!! I am beginning to get a headache so will leave this here for today. I haven't even begun to talk about today's training session or meeting my friends new little puppy but I shall leave that for next time. xx