Dogs for Life Essential Training Event - part one

[Elaine]

Went to this even over the weekend in Perth, there was me and Rayne, my sister and her 10 yr old lab Holly and a friend, Steph with her 2 yr old rotty.
We left on Friday whyich was a particularly stressful day as we didnt know if Steph and her dog were going or not because Ziva had developed a "rash" the day before. We had planned to leave around lunchtime and the journey should only have taken an hour to an hour and a half. 2 vehicles, dogs in my sisters van and me in the car with Steph and all our gear.
Steph turned up at 11 am with a flat tyre so we had to get that sorted and my sister, who will be late for her own funeral was ofcourse running late. However we left at 1pm. The directions we had printed out took us cross country through couper angus and hey ho, we got bloody lost . Took us 4 hours to find the bloody place. Got there, got settled in the lodge, took dogs for a short walk and fed them before going to the hotel to meet everyone for a drink before dinner. It's now 6.30pm. Dogs were not allowed to be left in the lodge unatended so they were back in the van. We didnt sit down to dinner till after 8pm and we decided to take our leave at around 10pm from the dinner table. We had been checking on the dogs periodically but they were becomeing a little stressed as they are not used to being confined in the van for such long periods.
Through dinner it was quite clear that the others on the event knew Philipa and her team, had been on many of the "gundog" events, were mostly pretty afluent and quite frankly a little up their own arses, that said, Philipa, Maxine and Amy were very nice and quite plain speaking, down to earth people.
We felt a little out of place and thought that we were not going to fit in or enjoy the following 2 days so we went to bed feeling a little negative about it all and all the money we had shelled out for this.
Rayne was quite whiney and stressed and as a result she had me up through the night with an upset tummy.

[alexgirl73]

and..........

get typing woman Sounds a tad stressful to me. I'd probably have already left for home by bedtime!

[Liz]

Keep going we need more

[angieh]

Waiting for the next instalment ...... not very patiently

[lynz85]

yes, next part please! sounds like you had a bad start to the weekend, hopefully it turned out better!

[Elaine]

Saturday morning we were all feeling less than enthusiastic and had made a pact that if we were not enjoying the day, we would leave that evening and come home. There was a small enclosed wooded area just across from the lodge, so before heading up to the hotel for breakfast we took the dogs over to run around and do their business, put them in the van and headed up for breakfast.
After brekky we all met in one of the hotels lounges rooms and began the introductions. Philippa begtan by explaining a bit about herself and her background, then began telling us that getting the foundation training is paramount, we have to acknowledge how dogs learn and how we communicate with them, observation and timing are also very important.
She had her little black cocker, Secret, with her to demonstrate and began with some clicker training and the importance of breaking each step down for the dog to understand. The following has been taken from her manual.
The clicker marks the precise second of the success, it highlights the exact moment the dog offers a behaviour. The click is the dogs own signal of excellence whereas your voice is used for many other reasons and can lose its clarity. When you use food in conjunction with your voice the dog has gone past the exact action and so the clarity is lost.
The clicker always sounds the same no matter how you feel. Your voice often betrays your emotions, your tired or despondent, or even so pleased that the exhuberance of your praise can confuse the dog to the extent that it only remembers the praise but has forgotten what it has been praised for. Silence is golden.
Make sure the dog is sufficiently interested in the food being offered, it has be of high value such as sausage or cheese. Buscuits or kibble get boring and fill the dog up to quickly and it may then lose interest too soon.
Scatter small pieces on the floor, release the dog and as it hoovers up the food, click each time it takes a piece. Then throw one piece at a time onto the floor and again click each time it finds it. Give food from the hand and click the instant the dog takes it.
Wait until the dog looks away then click and you should see the dogs ears twitch, when it hears the click it knows something enjoyable is coming. Your dog is now tuned into the clicker.
There are different ways to get the behaviour to happen. You can start by using one of the following methods.
Initially lure the dog to produce the desired behaviour,( the sit: hand goes up over the dogs head) for as little as three or four times. Did the dog understand what you wanted? If yes, the dog will offer the behaviour again.
Wait for a behaviour to happen (by accident) then click and treat.
If the dog walks off, let it be as we all need time to digest information.
After lunch we took our dogs round the back of the hotel to a walled lawn where we practiced some heal work. We were shown and then had to practice with our dogs, the principle was that your left leg moving forward was a signal for the dog to walk with you, the right leg was used for blocking and bringing the dog to a stop. Rayne did very well with this excercise. This pretty much took up the afternoon, doing little variations of the same theme. Rayne, myself and every one else really enjoyed it. My sister learned that some of the little excersices may well help with Holly's mobility on her back end. Steph learned that Ziva responded better to physical touch as a reward rather than food as she too has IBS, this was a good thing. I think Rayne and I learned the most about the discipline of the walk. Dogs are all tired, so we took them back to the lodge and relaxed for a while before giving them their dinner and heading back to the hotel for ours.
Over dinner, I found myself getting slightly irritated by one or two people in the group but I did manage to hold my tongue

We ALL, slept well that night and on sunday morning we were all raring to go and full of enthusiasm.
After breakfast we were to meet on the driving range with the dogs for some recall excercises. We arrived, Rayne was yipping and whinning and being a general pain in the ass. I couldnt concentrate on what Philippa was saying or doing for trying to keep Rayne quiet. I was sure people were looking at me with this "Cannt she just shut the bloody dog up" kind of attitude. As my stress levels began to rise, I thought it would be better to take Rayne off for a calming walk. We did this and we practiced some of the things from the previous day. All was fine but every time I tried to take her back to the driving range she'd kick off again. Feeling a little frustrated, I put her back in the van coz it wasnt going to serve any purpose if I lost my temper with her. Gave her some water and just watched every one from the van. My sister came over, asked if I was ok and I fell into a blubbering wreck, got annoyed at myself which only made me feel worse.
I felt so frustrated because I wanted so much for Rayne and I to participate and enjoy the experience. The rain came dinging down, dogs were put back in the vans and we all went to the hotel for some more indoor note taking and discussion. I didnt feel that I had much to contribute and was feeling a little down hearted and stupid tbh. Then Philippa said, so Elaine, what do you think was going on with Rayne down on the driving range? I said I wasnt sure but that I couldnt get her to shut up and couldnt concentrate on what was going on, maybe it was that the big open space was a signal to her that she was going to be allowed to run a mock with the other dogs.
Philippa said yes, I felt that there may have been some kind of association with the wide space and excitement and that she was throwing a paddy because she wanted to do her own thing. She also felt that Rayne was a little overwhelmed by it all. We were about to break for lunch and Philppa said that after lunch we were to meet on the walled lawn again but that she would like for me and Rayne to arrive there first, get her settled and quiet, keep her focus and every one else to arrive shortly after, quietly and calmly. After lunch that's what we did. I took Rayne round to the lawn, sat her down and kept her focus by way of click and treat while every one else arrived. This time she was pretty good, not nearly as much yipping and carrying on. Philippa praised us for that, then she asked for Rayne and I to do a little of the recall work that the others had done on the driving range earlier and showed me how to get Rayne to use a little self control when it comes to balls and retrieving balls. That all went fairly well and then the heavens opened again which meant we all went back inside.
On the summing up part at the end, Philippa asked every one individually what they got out of the training event and to my surprise alot of people said that they had learned ALOT from what was going on with Rayne and I. Philippa explained that Because she is quite a strong willed little terrier, I have to work 5 times harder than the hooray hendry's with their labs and retrievers, it will be a longer journey for me but I will learn so much more from the experience than many of the others. I feel that may well be true and I feel like I have come away with much more awareness as to why Rayne does some of the things she does and I now have more tools in place to work out how to deal with any issues that arise more effectively. I even warmed a little to those who originally got on my wick.
I feel that I, and hopefully Rayne, have benfited from the whole experience. It was expensive but beneficial. Would I go again? I dont know as it was alot of money, but if I could afford it, I would like to visit Philippa for some private instruction. She is very funny, scarey but funny and she gets my black humour, she even suggested that I stick a ball in Raynes mouth and shove a sock over her head
I have put several things into practice today and am already reaping the benefits from it and Rayne is too as she does seem more calm.

[Squirrel]

Ouch! Sounds like a very stressful start to it. Next installment please?!?

[Squirrel]

Hmmm... OK, timing of my last post just a touch out of synch...

That sounds very positive Elaine - like you got a lot out of it.

Did the trip home go smoother than the journey there?

[Tink]

Wow, sounds exhausting but in the end rewarding. What a crazy weekend!

[Kazz]

Sounds like you learnt a lot Elaine......and it raised your confidence levels in that what you are doing with Rayne is right.
Glad you think she is benfiting already from the course

Does she do them in England do you know? And something niggling me why have they held the course in a place that will not let you leave the dogs in the rooms?

Sounds good though. Would it be beneficial to all do you think...?