Is your new dog not as easy as your old dog?

Got a new puppy?

Exciting!

All your hopes for the perfect dog rest in this wide-eyed little ball of fluff!

And as soon as you get started with him, he fails.

But how on earth can an 8-week-old puppy be failing? 😱

He wees everywhere, he chews everything, he pulls on the lead, he keeps you awake and barks the house down when you leave …

This may all be true (HINT: it needn’t be! Your new puppy can be sleeping through the night from Day 1, never chew anything you don’t want him to, walk nicely on the lead, and be comfortable in your absence - start the Brilliant Family Dog program by watching this free Workshop)

So - maybe it’s true. But the reason you think your little puppy is failing, being difficult, challenging, awkward, time-consuming, and all the rest - is because you are comparing him with your previous dog!

Your old dog

Your old dog was perfect in every way.

Fitted your household like an old slipper.

• Never chewed anything

• Always asked if he needed to go out

• Walked nicely beside you and never ran off

• Slept like a log and greeted you happily when you came home.

And this too may be true.

But your old dog was 14 (or 12 or 17) when he died. He’d spent his whole life learning how to rub along with you.

And you’ve TOTALLY forgotten the anguish and trouble of his puppyhood!

You are seeing your lovely old pet through rose-tinted spectacles.

 Of course he took time to housetrain!

Of course he chewed things (whether they were things you wanted him to chew or things he stole is entirely down to your supervision at the time)

Of course he hauled you about on the lead (until you taught him different)

Of course the baby cried when you left him, till he learnt to trust you.

This is a NEW puppy

This is a NEW puppy. A NEW person. Yes, he’s a dog, and he may even be the same breed as your previous dog, but he is an individual.

And he needs to be treated and loved as an individual.

Not continually compared with the paragon which was your last dog in his last years.

For me, this is the joy of having a new puppy! A new person to get to know - his fears, his foibles, his character - what he enjoys, what he loves.

Your old dog was wonderful and your new dog will be wonderful too.

Just cut him some slack and learn with him and here’s that free Workshop where you can begin your journey with your new puppy:

Here’s a free Workshop to

get you started.

“Pandemic puppies” are now coming home to roost

Who do you know who became a first-time dog owner during lockdowns? There are about a million in the UK alone, according to evidence being given to a Commons (British Government) Select Committee investigating pet welfare and abuse.

Sadly, the huge demand for dogs when people were feeling lonely in the pandemic led to massive growth in the shadier sides of dog supply, from puppy farming to feed the demand for fashionable “designer dogs” (and there have been some high-profile shockers exposed recently, even in the dog training world) to the wholesale importation of random street dogs from other countries.

In both of these cases, the dogs are the ones who suffered most.

In the puppy farms the bitches and dogs suffer abuse and mistreatment. Along with their puppies they endure a deprived existence. What damage this does to the pups’ state of mind! What hope for them to become a well-adjusted adult dog?

The mass importation of any street-dog that can be netted and caught, mostly from East European countries with a poor reputation for animal treatment, leads to predictable problems of acclimatisation. Dogs who have known only fear and privation do not become perfect British pet dogs overnight!

But now the new owners are suffering!

Many of these first-time dog purchasers had done no homework. They had no idea about dog and puppy developmental stages, dog socialisation and habituation, suitable ways to rear a “normal” dog, and specialist ways to rehabilitate an abused or deprived dog.

They bought into the image of the perfect companion, apparently totally unaware that a dog can take from 18 to 36 months to mature and become anything resembling the finished article.

Many of these folk didn’t do what they should have been doing for their new dog, and this has naturally resulted in problem behaviours in some dogs - anything from separation anxiety to aggressive behaviour, not to mention incomplete housetraining, inappropriate playbiting, hauling them about on the lead, and zero recall.

So it’s no surprise that now people have gone back to work and are no longer lonely, the shelters are bulging with abandoned dogs.

Get a vet check!

One of those giving evidence, Dr. Gaines of the RSPCA, advised “anyone who had seen sudden behaviour changes in their dog to go to a vet, who will be able to rule out any medical causes.

“If the dog gets a clean bill of health, the owner should then seek help from an animal behaviour specialist, preferably one that is a member of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council.” (I’m a member of the ABTC.)

Note that Dr. Gaines does not want you to get behaviour modification advice or training from your vet! Their skills lie elsewhere. It’s a qualified trainer you need!

One of the problems with these pandemic puppies is that prices sky-rocketed due to the headlong rush to grab a dog - any dog - so that as well as getting a poor specimen in many cases, people had no money left for veterinary care or learning how to get the best out of their life with their dog, aka dog training.

Shady practices

Dealing with these heartless people who view dogs as commodities, simply there to make them money for the least amount of effort, is gradually being addressed by the lawmakers.

Puppy farming is a loathsome practice, and results only in distress for the “products” (dogs) and the “consumers” (people).

Capturing feral dogs and transporting them in large numbers across Europe in the back of a van is equally as abhorrent. Many dog trainers earn a lot of their (usually modest) incomes from trying to rehabilitate these unfortunate victims of the demand for dogs.

Dogs can actually learn all through their lives - though the worse the start the harder the change can be to accomplish. But never give up hope! There are wonderful kind and dog-friendly ways to help your dog cope with our strange world.

So where can I get a dog?

You can go to a proper breeder and get a puppy that has been reared with knowledge and with love. This normally means someone who breeds only when they want to keep a puppy themselves. Not someone with sheds full of random bitches kept in the dark.

Remember that in the UK Lucy’s Law requires that the mother should be seen with the puppies. Lots of dog greeders will come up with any excuse for not doing this - along with many other tricks of the trade - and some will park any old dog with the pups in order to deceive. You really do need advice from an experienced dog-person! Here’s an article to help you weave your way through the maze.

The shelters are bulging with rejected dogs right now, and yes, many of them will be foreign imports, so if you’re desperate for some reason to adopt a street-dog or a so-called designer dog, you can still do so without encouraging this dodgy trade.

Need a bit of help?

And if you’re having trouble with your dog, whether a pandemic puppy or not, we can help you! There are over 300 articles here at www.brilliantfamilydog.com and we have free workshops, masterclasses, email courses, books, and guides, along with low-cost online programs and books. Have a look at the menu at the top of this page to see them all.

There’s no need to miss out on getting a great life with your chosen pet, however inauspicious the start!

Here’s a free Workshop to get you started.

Have you lost a beloved dog?

We’ve all been drawn into the love of a dog, and for many of us we have also experienced the loss of a dog.

And sometimes that loss is harder to bear than others.

🐾   Perhaps that dog rescued you when you needed help most.

🐾  Perhaps you bonded with each other in a new and magical way.

🐾   Perhaps you looked forward to waking up every morning, to see that joyous smile.

🐾   Maybe your special dog came with special problems that needed a very special dedication to help her overcome them.

Whatever the reason, losing a dog can be heartbreaking and a lot of people struggle to get over it.

They stay sunk in grief. Grief is an important process, and sometimes, if your dog is old or ill, that process starts a long time before you actually lose them.

But after a time, you owe it to yourself and your dog’s memory to face the world without them.

I’ve always found the best insurance is to have multiple dogs! And it wasn’t too long after Rollo died last year aged 15½ that I found I couldn’t live without a Border Collie in my life and set about researching and finding the right puppy for me.

Talking to your dog

Talking to your lost dog is a very good way to help you over the pain. Yes! I talk to Rollo! And he talks to me.

You may feel shy about mentioning the fact that you too talk to your departed dog/s - you may think people will not understand, and laugh at you.

But we very much understand! Don’t be shy here.

New release!

And to take this to another level entirely, I suggest you take a look at this brand new book from Anya Gore, Life and Soul Dog: An Animal Communicator and her Canine Companion share their Experiences and Wisdom, to Help and Inspire you. 

Here is how Anya describes the reason she wrote her book:

“When my beloved dog Zoe passed away, the grief was so intense I could barely breathe. I cried and cried. She’d been ill for some years, and we’d nursed and saved her many a time, but finally she’d reached the end of the road. Towards the end of her life we started some deep conversations, and these have continued since her passing. She led me through the grieving process step by step and taught me much about how to navigate that, and the blessings to be found beyond the sadness…even because of the sadness. She continues to share her messages of wisdom with me and with others too.”

Anya Gore, Author of Life and Soul Dog

And if this book inspires and helps you, it will be marvellous if you can leave a brief review where you purchased it, so that others may be encouraged to learn about Zoe and Anya, and be inspired and helped in their turn.

Note: The coloured pencil drawings on this page are by me. You can find lots more at www.beverleycourtney.com/drawings

I don’t have time to train my dog!

Do you get to the end of the day - or worse, the end of the week - slump into your armchair and say, “Oh no! Forgot to train the dog!”

I understand. Our lives are already full to bursting with all the things we have to do .. and all the things we think we have to do .. and fitting in lengthy dog training sessions just seems to slip through the cracks.

But the trick is - don’t have lengthy sessions! If you do want to have a training session, then by all means do - but five minutes is the most you’ll normally need. (That is until you get into serious competition or performance training - which perhaps you never will want to do.)

For getting our family dogs and puppies on the same page as us - and becoming the perfect companion we wanted when we went to all the trouble to find them! - you need to use All Day Training.

All Day Training

“Wossat?” you say.

Well, it’s my recipe for getting my dogs trained at the same time as running a couple of businesses and writing books.

It’s how you can manage your family, your work, and your dog!

You see, all day long you are interacting with your dog. Every interaction is a training opportunity - it’s not isolated to lessons or classes.

And all day long you have the chance to ensure that that interaction is moving you forward in life together.

My puppy needed ONE DAY to learn that jumping at the door of the crate or playpen resulted in no escape, while sitting automatically opened the door!

It took another week or so (nine weeks old) to learn that staying sitting when the door is opened is a new requirement to get out.

And then a week (now ten weeks) to learn that this works on house doors too. No door-crashing! No squeezing through cracks!

And how long did this valuable lesson take?

Just a moment.

Just a thoughtful pause in my daily doings.

Instead of throwing the crate door open and being thumped amidships by a wild puppy, I just needed to consider what I would like him to do, then ensure that that was built into our daily round.

The beginnings of an ACE Recall

Another skill your dog can be learning, without effort, all the time, is to respond immediately to his name.

Without this, you’re going to be shrieking and yelling when you want him to bound back to you across a field!

How to get your dog to LURVE his name? You need The Precious Name Game …

.. and you can find out exactly how to play The Precious Name Game in our free Workshop here.

What else?

You can extend this method to everything you want your dog to learn.

You want him to pick things up for you? Incorporate that into your interactions with him.

You want him to greet people politely? Start with teaching him how to greet you politely. And you should have many, many, opportunities in a normal day to do this. Don’t forget to keep this in mind when you’re returning from an outing and he’s going to be extra-excited - this is the ideal time to test your teaching!

You'll find lots more tips and new ideas in my books. And did you know that buying direct from the author can save you money? Go check them out!

What else would you like your dog to learn with so little effort from yourself?

Comment below and let’s take a look at how you can do that!

What do you EXPECT from your dog?

Let’s face it, a lot of what we consider a problem - or get frustrated about our lack of progress in - is down to our expectation. 

Our expectation of how it SHOULD go rather than a realistic acceptance of what is. 

We start out with our dogs with high hopes! And it’s hard if the dog in question doesn’t appear to be fitting in with our exalted expectations!

Where is the perfect puppy I thought I bought?

Why is this older dog not grateful for being rescued?

It can come as a real shock and a disappointment. 

But just like with children, you get the one you’re given - not necessarily the one you wanted, hoped for, or expected!

I’m in the happy position of starting out with a new puppy. My dear old Rollo made it to 15½. I tried to manage without a Border Collie … but I didn’t last long! So I now have a new puppy of just 10 weeks.

Expectation, of the realistic kind

Now there are some things where expectation works really well!

🐾 I EXPECTED him to sleep through the night from Day 1, and that’s exactly what he’s done.

🐾 I EXPECTED him to housetrain easily, and that’s just what’s happening. He’s asking to be let out, and he’s going to our chosen pee-spot in the garden. He’s managing just fine given the initial ground-rules.

Of course he’s still only a baby and there will be times I’m not on the ball, and it all comes upon him fast … but there’s no room here for frustration or annoyance as I clear up.

He’s doing his level puppy-best! And my goodness, one thing he’s brilliant at is cuddles!

But of course this expectation was tempered, in my case, with knowledge!

Knowledge of what I had to put into the relationship to make it work.

I’ve reared twelve of my own puppies now, and worked with thousands of other folks’ pups. So if you’re starting from scratch you need all the help you can get!

One extreme or the other!

I find that new puppy-owners have expectations that are either unrealistically high, or ridiculously low. At 8 months they’ll tell me, “I knew there’d be puppy biting but now it’s really hurting!” (My puppy never bites - see these posts for help: https://www.brilliantfamilydog.com/blog/why-is-my-dog-biting-me https://www.brilliantfamilydog.com/blog/10-ways-to-stop-puppy-biting)

Or at 11 weeks they complain that this puppy is still chewing things up or making puddles. (I give him lots of things he will enjoy chewing and I follow my Errorless Housetraining protocol: https://www.brilliantfamilydog.com/blog/struggling-to-housetrain-your-puppy)

The puppy will do what a puppy does. Any expectations we have MUST be supported by actually training the little mite what it is that you want!

This is where you’ll get masses of personal help - start with this free Workshop.

See what Cilla had to say about her Fox Terrier:
“Many thanks for being you! and for all you have taught me. My puppy is so different to all my expectations, because of you. Your training truly is brilliant!”

Reactive Dogs

Some of us got landed with a reactive dog - with no warning and little knowledge. Whether this was a rehomed dog or your puppy who has unaccountably gone spooky and apparently aggressive.

You’re here - wisely! - to acquire the knowledge to get things working well. But remember to keep the brakes on frustration while you’re doing it.

As Susan Garrett says, “Your dog’s behavior is a reflection of your training.” Your dog is doing his best!

Dog Shock Collars will be illegal in a few months

If you are one of those who was seduced into using an electric shock collar on your dog because

• You were told it’s the only thing that works

• They said it’s the quickest way to control your dog

• It’s only a tickle anyway … it doesn’t hurt at all 😳

what will you do after February 1st 2024?

Because that’s when the new law comes into force. It’s The Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations 2023

“These Regulations make provision for the purpose of preventing the use of electronic collars in England.” (Wales and Scotland have already banned them.) This brings us into line with Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Wales, the province of Quebec in Canada, and some states in Australia. More countries are banning them all the time.

“Regulation 2(1) makes it an offence for a person who is responsible for a cat or dog to attach an electronic collar, or cause an electronic collar to be attached, to the cat or dog in England.”

“Regulation 2(2) provides that a person commits an offence if, at any time when the person is responsible for a cat or dog, the cat or dog is wearing an electronic collar and the person is in possession of a remote-control device in England which is designed or adapted for activating and controlling the electronic collar remotely.”

Hooray!

Now, if you’re reading Brilliant Family Dog, then the chances are high that you wouldn’t dream of using one of these mediaeval instruments of torture on your dog.

Everyone agrees that they should not be used on people, and there have been some well-publicised cases of parents being imprisoned for using them on their children.

How horrifying is that?!

But why is it not just as horrifying for them to be used on an equally innocent creature - a sentient being as is enshrined in law in the UK as in the whole of the EU and increasingly elsewhere?

You may have a different view of electronic collars

It’s a free country - you are entitled to that view, however misguided it may be. 😉

But the fact remains, that if you are currently using a shock collar (e-collar, electronic collar, whatever fancy name you call it) to shock your dog into submission, or alter his behaviour in some way, and you live in the UK, after February 1 2024 you are going to be up a creek without a paddle - up a creek without a “controller”!

• You’re going to have to learn what makes dogs tick.

• You’re going to have to do the training with your dog that you should have done ages ago.

• You’re going to have to build a relationship with your dog so that he wants to please you.

How are you going to do that?

The clock is ticking.

You have a few months before you’ll have to bin your electronic crutch.

But we have the answer for you!

We have the paddle you need to get you out of your creek!

Start here, with our free Workshop on getting your dog to LISTEN! You may be surprised how quickly you can learn new methods, and how very very effective they are!

Here are just a few of the comments I’ve received from people who watched the Workshop:

“Thank you so much. I've enjoyed this workshop, especially the attitude of love.” ST

“I watched the first 25 mins and started working straight away with my puppy sooty Lily ..the result was immediate.. using her name only in a positive way resulted in her engaging with me .. I can’t wait to watch the rest and put it into practice.” PW

“Thank you for your free Workshop .. it was very enlightening and made me realise where I was making mistakes. It has given me food for thought and I will start by putting what we learnt there into practice.” WR

“Enjoyed and learned from the first video. I am on my third puppy and am training her. Liked the positive attitude you have towards dog training. Thank you for the first free video.” HJ

“Thanks for your free video, it’s already working.” CL

“I have watched your free workshop 3 times at least and really enjoy it.” CO

“I've just watched the free Workshop and I can't believe what I've learned already to be honest!” LG

“I watched the whole Workshop and found it really good. Well done on working so hard to provide dog owners with a positive way of working towards creating a happy dog relationship.” WP

“Thank you very much for the link, it was a lovely and excellently delivered workshop, I thoroughly enjoyed it.” HE

So hop over there and find out what these folk found! And just how quickly you can transform your dog, without the need of any cruel (and illegal) devices.

RESOURCES

The Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations 2023

Electronic training collars for cats and dogs in England

Position Statement on Humane Dog Training

Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022

Position statement on electronic and aversive training methods from the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology