Time off for you and your dog

I had my first cold in six years a while ago - and boy, did it hit me!

So I had to cut dogwalks right down.

🚶🏼No walks for a couple of days.

🚶🏼🚶🏼Then ten minutes for the youngster.

🚶🏼🚶🏼🚶🏼Next day 15 minutes for the other two

🚶🏼🚶🏼🚶🏼🚶🏼🚶🏼Eventually back up to normal!

But the point is - nobody died!

No dogs got upset. No dogs climbed the walls - I wouldn’t have had the strength to do anything about it anyway!

Everyone was fine. Lots of cuddles, a few gentle games.

All was well.

Time for a break for both you and your dog?

So.

There is no need to feel worried if for some reason your dog isn’t getting the walks they’re used to.

We take care of them, and we know we have to stop walks when they are overwhelmed, injured, or unwell.

We have to take care of us too!

If we’re overwhelmed, injured, or unwell - then maybe walks need to go.

Of course, if you live in beautiful countryside and the weather is wonderful, and you have calm, non-reactive dogs, then it could be just what the doctor ordered.

But, if you’re blessed with a Growly Dog … then give it a miss till you’re feeling stronger.

We’re approaching the busiest and silliest season of the year. Maybe you’ll have a lot going on, with extra financial strain, visitors, travelling …

Don’t make your life harder!

The days are short, more dogs are out in a much smaller window of daylight.

As long as there is some entertainment or stimulation for your dog (and visitors and travelling are plenty of entertainment and definitely plenty of stimulation!) then you’re ok.

Perhaps some puzzles (lickimat, kong, cardboard boxes and tubes with treats inside, actual doggy puzzles).

A bit of Focus Game .. (Don’t know the Focus Game? Ooh - you need to check out the Brilliant Family Dog Academy: start here!)

Have you got a good retrieve? Now is the ideal time to teach it! You can teach the basics sitting or lying down - the dog will be doing the work. Here’s how. 

Then get back on the sofa.

Together.

Stand up for your dog!

Stand up for your growly dog!

Be your dog’s ambassador!

And stand up for yourself while you’re at it! 😊

People will make hurtful remarks to you when your dog kicks off. 

🐾 Maybe he didn’t come back when you called and that annoyed them.

🐾 Maybe he barked frantically as they passed by with their dog.

🐾 Maybe he lunged at their off-lead dog who was in his face.

These people may be know-it-alls who think they could manage things better.

Or they may be blustering because their dog is out of control and caused the immediate issue!

Either way, usually this takes the form of 

🐾 “You should show that dog who’s boss”

🐾 “Don’t let him get away with that”

🐾 “Be the leader” and other such tosh

All punitive, bossy, stuff.

And none of it applies to you!

Glide on, regardless. 

Because YOU know that what you’re doing is right for YOUR dog.

YOU know that your dog is not, as they say, giving you a hard time, he’s having a hard time.

You know how lovely your dog is at home!

They don’t. They have no idea. And they certainly don’t want to be told.

So, say

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind”

OR

“Thanks - I’m off now”

OR

“That’s an interesting point of view …”

OR

just give them a cheery wave as you smile and depart.

You can dismiss them with politeness, and then toss their words out of your mind.

You don’t need them!

Some folk are honest enough to say that it was only when they got their fifth dog that they found out what reactivity was about. Up to then their dogs had been easy, compliant, no bother.

Our dog may be plenty of bother!

(But how rewarding he is for all that.)

We build an unbreakable bond with our growly dogs. We love them with a passion, and they love us with equal devotion.

Enjoy your dog. And pay these people no heed.

Would a stranger say to you,

“You shouldn’t let your husband do that”

Or

“You should keep your children in their place”?

They’d better not!

And you’d disregard their nonsense straight away. None of their beeswax.

Treat these hurtful remarks about your dog with the same contempt.

You’re doing fine!

And if you think you’re not doing fine, and they may have a point, watch our free Masterclass for Growly Dogs and learn some techniques you can put into practice straight away.

What does your dog fear?

Yannick took several minutes to study these new roadworks on our road before venturing nearer. You can see from his shadow how outstretched his neck was.

You don’t throw your frightened toddler into the deep end of the pool. You start by sitting on the steps of the baby pool, your toddler on your lap, and - after many sessions - eventually your child will be wanting to join the other children in the shallow end of the big pool. 

Lessening fears and building confidence is a lengthy process achieved by slow desensitisation to the fear and gradual exposure to cause of that fear in small steps.

But we are human!

We are impatient! 

“Oh, so I introduce my fearful puppy to another dog and it’ll all be fine!”

Nooooooo. 

Not like that.

Confronting the fear full on right off the bat is called “flooding” and is known to make the fear worse!

There’s a right and wrong way to do this, and it seems that even experienced dog trainers can get it wrong if they don’t understand it. 

I recently heard a dog trainer with quite a following, who normally follows a kind training method, reveal her mistake with her dog-fearful puppy.

She took her puppy to a new hall, positioned another owner and puppy at the other end, came in and closed the door behind them.

Chaos! The puppy was terrified and shrieked and they had to decamp fast.

Credit to that trainer for publicly admitting her mistake.

Overwhelming the dog

What went wrong?

• It was a new environment for her puppy

• It was an enclosed space - no escape!

• It was an artificial setup

• It was all or nothing

What should she have done (and I believe did do after her realisation)?

• Choose a familiar place, though not on your own property

• An open outdoor space! No close boundaries of hedges or walls

• Seeing the other dog at a distance as a natural occurrence on a normal walk

• Plenty of opportunity to retreat and regroup 

How to desensitise your fearful dog or puppy

It took a while for puppy Yannick to work his way towards this “goat” in the garden centre

Just how difficult is it to work this system? 

It’s easy! 

All you need is foresight, access to an open space with little opportunity of close contact with other dogs, and somewhere where there aren’t too many dogs, especially off-lead ones.

This may require a bit of research to find a suitable place and a good time to go there.

And it may take quite a while to build your dog’s confidence so they can say, “Hey-ho, another dog. Not to worry.”

But you can achieve this much faster, and without making simple novice errors, by joining us in From Growly Dog to Confident Dog.

You see I’ve been there before you, and so have my carefully-picked team of trainers. 

We know how you feel! 

And we know how to make life better for you and your dog.

Kick off with this free Masterclass and remember to start in “the baby pool”!

RESOURCES:

“Flooding is rarely used, and it can be dangerous.” https://www.simplypsychology.org/flooding.html

Flooding is “highly traumatic for patients and causes a high level of anxiety” https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/treating-phobias-flooding

Your dog can change

I give you loads of ideas.

Lots of how-to’s.

Methods, techniques, strategies. 

And maybe you read it and move on.

Or maybe you read it, give it a half-hearted try, find it didn’t seem to work .. and move on.

Either way, you’re not giving yourself a chance!

It’s so much easier to scroll endlessly on your phone, finding what worked for some people - but not, apparently, for you! - perhaps even signing up for a program and finding it too hard to stay motivated, as there was nowhere to turn when you got stuck? 

Here’s where Brilliant Family Dog comes into its own!

Having the tools, the methods, the sequences - this is all good. 

But what you need is the SUPPORT to make it all work!

What support do I give?

If it doesn’t work, you don’t yet have the knowledge or experience to work out how to make it work.

That’s where, in the Brilliant Family Dog Academy, you jump into the Community and pose your question, including video if you like. 

Then I and our team of professional trainers will help you. Within 24 hours you have a conversation going which will resolve your issue.

Times are hard ..

And I understand why you may hesitate to commit funds to this dog project of yours.

But how long has this been going on?

What level of frustration does your dog bring to your day?

If I could snap my fingers and say, “Give me £xxx or $xxx and your problem will be gone instantly!” wouldn’t you be up for that?

Well .. full disclosure .. I can’t promise that, of course! 

I can teach you; I can show you; I can coach you. But I can’t do it for you! 

You and your lovely dog have to do the work.

But with our support we will get you there.

We won’t give up on you.

See what these students had to say, quite unsolicited.

“Your support and encouragement mean more than I can say.” LB

“Thank you so much for your support which has enabled me to train a 4 year old rescue sprocker the way life should be - fun and running free.  It is credit to you for sharing an easy way to train showing treats, but more importantly the love and trust.” CF

“This support is helping me to really focus on helping my little rescue dog. I few weeks ago I felt like an outcast. All I could see around me was well behaved dogs, and mine was like a Tasmanian devil on the lead! But with support things are starting to look better.” EO

“.. thanks to all the presentations and live training from Beverley but also thanks to the support from other people on this group. it has all been so encouraging and inspiring.” JL

“Thank you for the on going support and wise advice which makes this course so worthwhile!’ JE

“Thank you so much for the course - the main principles and the wonderful support are outstanding.” SM

“Great to have your support and feedback.“ JB

“I just want to say this has been one of the friendliest, most supportive, helpful and responsive courses I’ve taken. It’s felt like family as we have and continue to take this journey together. Franklin and I have benefited greatly.” YF

What course were they talking about? Watch this free Workshop and you’ll find it all out!

Not all dogs are easy

I stand on my soapbox and tell you how to train your dog.

And for 99% of people and dogs out there, this works a treat. 

But sometimes .. just sometimes .. we seem to be dealing with another species entirely - I don’t know what, but not a dog! 

And I have to confess that that’s how it is with my young Border Collie Yannick. He has a boatload of issues, and what worked with my last 11 dogs, doesn’t work with him.

Or, at least, doesn’t work with him when he’s out of the house.

At home all is sweetness and light, quick responses, fun tricks, good manners, ready understanding. But once we’re through the door, Yannick is quite overwhelmed by ‘outside’, and is hard to reach. 

As Grisha Stewart says, “Every dog is a study of one”.

Things are improving

But I’m happy to say that things are gradually getting better. His confidence is growing, and along with that our connection outside is growing.

He’s able to stop panicking enough to talk to me when we’re out.

His walking on lead has grown from the lunatic frantic stage to something approaching togetherness.

His bolting has practically stopped. 

His reactions to other dogs is manageable.

So I’m hopeful that, as we keep going, he’ll become the perfect dog (or at least, he’ll be just as good as all my others have been!).

A Shepherd’s Saw

There’s a great saying from the sheepdog guys: “A dog needs a year under each paw to be any good.”

… we have a couple more years to go! 😁

And a more affectionate dog you couldn’t wish for! 😍

So for all you following my training who say, “But my dog’s not like this!” I do understand. 

And I sympathise.

All I can say is that whatever you achieve will be worth it, and you will never regret the time you dedicate to your “special” dog.

And for everyone, all dogs will enjoy the games I teach in this free Workshop, even if you can only play them at home!

Are you building dog memories for your children?

I was thinking about Simon recently. Don’t know what brought it to mind particularly, but there he was, in my mind. Clear as day.

Simon was my first dog.The same age as me. So when he died aged 11 I was shattered.

I wrote a long essay for a national competition, and so full of feeling was it that I got shortlisted and had to read my essay out to the whole school. 

Writing his story did help me mend, though.

Childhood plus a dog!

What could be better than having a mate to accompany me on all my wanderings? Back in those days, child abduction was not in the front of everyone’s mind, so I had the freedom to go where I liked. Whether on my trusty red bike or on foot, Simon was always there.

Now I look back, it’s a great life for a dog - spending his time loafing about with unpredictable and always fascinating children! My brother and our friends would be with us too. 

Poor Simon had to sit in the back of my brother’s home-made go-kart and hurtle down our hill! I don’t remember him trying to escape, and he always enjoyed car rides, with his spaniel ears straight out behind him in the wind, so I’m guessing (hoping!) he enjoyed it..

Is this what you have for your kids?

So the question is, do you provide this companionship for your children? Do they have the joy of wandering, protected, with their comrade-in-arms? Ready to take on the world as long as their friend is at their side?

I’m sure I told Simon lots of things I woudn’t even have told my friends!

And, as you read above, it was an early introduction to grief for me. It was much worse than even my grandparents dying. 

Whether that shows that I value dogs over people ;-) or simply that long-distance relationships with grandparents (mine always seemed to be very old) were not so real to me, I don’t know. 

But this I do know: this early friendship was seminal. 

Want a child-friendly way to teach your child how to teach their dog? Have a look at this free Workshop. In the program it introduces, you’ll find simple concepts, short videos, easy outcomes. It can cater to your inner child too!