What shall we do today?

Today Dylan is away from 9am till 3.30pm so there is SO much that i should be doing. So what did i do...

Spent two hours at Wittering beach with the dogs of course!

When i arrived there wasn't many people there but a few so i got Tig out for a bit of training. There is so much space at Wittering in the winter when its not full of cars, but with Tig i was playing the 'look at that dog' game so i hung around the car park to get plenty of new dog opportunities. Tig is really starting to like this game, its from Leslie McDevitt's book Control Unleashed (if i knew how to do a link i would!). The idea is that rather than always getting the dog to look at you you teach the dog to face his fears in a calm manner. With Tig i click when he looks at a dog calmly and he turns around for his treat. What she describes in her book as the band-aid approach is what i always did with Tig, basically saying he must look at me only me and not explore anything, i must be the centre of his universe, this is all very well but he missed out on valuable socialising. So today we spoke to LOTS of golden retrievers and almost as many spaniels and a labradoodle. Once we've mastered this game we will move on to the game called 'there's a dog in your face' which will help him with his really fear which is a dog rushing up to his space when he is on his lead.

After Tig I got Emmy out. I had to walk quite far away from the van as there was a large flock of geese near and i knew she would disturb them so i couldn't risk letting her off near them. With Emmy I played the 'give me a break' game to help build up her focus. This game is great for Emmy as it allows her to sniff (her favourite past time) but only on my terms. The idea is that you do some play or training that the dog likes for say 30 seconds and then tell them to go. As soon as the dog orientates back to you then the game begins again. With not many distractions around (a few dogs and surfers a little way away) Emmy is at the stage where she is pestering me to keep training her which for those who saw her 3 months ago will agree is a huge improvement!

Once i thought Emmy had done enough and before she decided she was bored of me We got the others out of the van and went in to the dunes. They were all really good, I found the dunes a good place to play hide and seek with Emmy as Helen suggested. She enjoyed the game but not as much as Fizzy who soon worked out if she got to me first there would be cheese! Emmy did go off a couple of times but from a high point on the dunes i could see her, she was just running up and down on her own course. So i didn't call her until she came back down to earth. There is alot of work for me to do on her recall as she just loves to run but she does seem to want to stay with me more than she used to and she certainly comes back quicker from seeing other dogs now.
Whilst we were on the beach Tig got loads more dogs coming up to him but off lead on a walk he is very relaxed. He tried to play with a pack of golden retrievers but they were more interested in the girls and all three had a game of chase with two very brave mini schnauzers! Witterings really is a great walk!





Tig found a quiet spot for some well deserved refreshment

Only to be bombarded by a mad Merle and her trusty sidekick