I don’t know what it is about dogs that makes people forget all social boundaries and has them coming at you with their grubby, outstretched hands. To be fair it’s not just dogs that induce this madness in people, it’s pregnancy bumps and babies too – once when I was 6 months pregnant, I was walking an agility course before I was due to run it and some random woman suddenly and without warning, put both her hands on my bump!!! Like, what the actual fuck?? Then when Thea was tiny, I had an older lady who smelled very strongly of cat urine, try to kiss my childs gorgeous head! Worst thing was, I always carried Thea in a sling so her head was always lying just under my chin, next to my (very full and painful) boobs! Anyway, I digress with talk of babies and breasts. Back to dogs! Dogs are classed as property, therefore belonging to the owner in the same way a car does. (It’s not right to dismiss dogs as merely ‘stuff’, but that’s the current law unfortunately) So in the eyes of the law, randomly touching a dog is akin to wanting to have a real close look inside a strangers car or to get their wallet out. You just wouldn’t do it would you (unless you were a theif) so I’m not sure why some folk think it’s perfectly ok or indeed their RIGHT to check out your dog. Look, I get it. When you love dogs you love dogs so much and you get all gooey and high pitched when you see a cute little snuffykins out for a walk, or standing outside a shop or whatever. I get that bit. However progressing to then just sticking your meaty fingers in a random dogs face or indeed sticking your big moon face in a dogs face is at best rude and at worst bloody dangerous! It’s like, do you WANT your nose bitten off?? What’s even worse than not asking, is doing it DESPITE THE OWNER TELLING YOU NOT TO!! I walk a cute little cockapoo called Nelly. Nelly is pretty scared of strangers and would actively be defensive whenever she saw anyone while she was out. As a smaller dog, she can get easily intimidated by people looming over her (I know how she feels!) She would run up to them barking, dancing around them and generally looking a bit crazy (despite her cute, teddy bear appearance!) She hates strangers in her house, she WILL growl, she WILL try to escape your touch and if pushed beyond her threshold, she WILL bite! I started working with Nelly a few months ago and at first, I couldn’t get anywhere near her. She did not trust me and did not want me touching her. When I went to first meet her and her owner, she barked at me, avoided me then sat with her owner giving me a full on death stare. If she could’ve willed me dead, I’d be 6ft under right now! However, I put in A LOT of work with Nelly which included just sitting in her house, throwing her hot dogs and never initiating any real contact. Over the weeks it went from taking me 20 minutes to clip her lead on, to less than 10 seconds. When I first started taking her out, she would bark furiously at anyone who she deemed was too close (one time it was a man in a bus stop, I’d stood in there to escape a down pour!) and was so tense. I couldn’t let her off for fear of her running off/barking at people etc. After months of work, Nelly will now ignore people, choosing instead to look at me. She goes off lead and sticks close to me and when we see someone coming/cyclists etc, I get to the side, she follows me and watches me until the person passes. She’s so relaxed and much happier on walks. The change is amazing and I’m so proud of her. However, the ‘SPACE INVADERS‘ still try to stroke her even when I tell them not to! The other week an older gentleman actively tried to loom over her and stick his hand in her face, even after I’d told him she was scared of strangers and wanted to be left alone!! He then made some comment about how he’d love to get a treat from me, so I vomited in my mouth a little then walked off. Luckily he hadn’t undone all the hard work I’d put in with Nelly because I – A) Stood between him and Nelly to protect her and B) Have trained her to watch me and receive treats when other people are nearby. Would it have been Nelly’s fault if she had bitten that man? No. Would she (and I) have been to blame in the SPCACE INVADERS eyes? Yes. No doubt he’d have wanted my details to pass on to the police. Would I have given him a piece of my mind? No doubt. Moral of the story, JUST STOP TOUCHING OTHER PEOPLE’S DOGS! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY PUPPIES! To end this blog, here’s a testimonial from Nelly’s owner about how much Nelly has progressed since I’ve been walking her. “I did a lot of research when looking for a dog walker and found Tamara on Facebook after asking a lot of friends for recommendations etc. From our first contact I really warmed to Tamara as a person – approachable understanding and very flexible. My lovely Nelly on the other hand was not so taken as she isn’t by any strangers. Over the past few months Tamara has put so much work into Nelly being so patient and kind with her even keeping me involved in all of her progress through videos as I am not around to see it. Now Nelly really likes Tamara and her behaviour is just fantastic, not only new skills have
Don’t Take Dog Training Tips From Ben and Holly!
I shouldn’t have to say it, but DON’T take training advice from a preschoolers TV show. If you have a preschooler, or your kids were born after 2012, you may have seen Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. It’s from the makers of Peppa Pig and it leaves that irritating pig in the dirt, it’s way better in my opinion (however my mind have finally snapped…..) If you’ve never seen it (lucky you!) it’s about Elves and Fairies living in the Little Kingdom. The Elves all live in the Great Elf Tree and the fairies live in the Little Castle. You have King and Queen Thistle, with Princess Holly and her twin sisters (which are surely based on those twins from the shining), with Nanny Plum providing the comic relief. Then you have all the Elves, with The Wise Old Elf in charge of the hard working elves who hate magic. Ben Elf is Holly’s best friend and they have lots of fun together even though they’re very different (do you see the moral of the story?!) Bet you wish you watched it now! But what does that have to do with dog training, I hear you cry?? I’m getting to that bit. It’s a favourite in this house, Thea loves it and to be honest, it has enough jokes aimed at the half crazed parents to keep me entertained too. One episode is called ‘Gaston Goes to School’. Gaston is the lady bird who barks like a dog, that Ben Elf rides. No, I’m not on drugs, it’s all true! In the episode, King Thistle decides that Gaston needs properly training because he jumps up, chews King Thistles slippers and generally just doesn’t listen. Sound familiar? I bet we’ve all met dogs like that! So King Thistle, Ben and Holly go to Miss Jolly’s Training School to train Gaston. Miss Jolly is a Tally Ho type Elf who rides a snail called Trigger (honestly, stay with me, I’m getting to the point!) and is a bit of a dog whisp- err I mean insect/mollusc whisperer who shouts, corrects and bullies the little insects into doing as they’re told. Tut tut, Miss Jolly, tut tut. I’m guessing she’s a fan of that moron on the tv with the goatee. She bullies Gaston into not eating her shoes then declares ‘GASTON IS NOW TRAINED!!’ Is he?? When King Thistle takes him home, Gaston runs in the castle getting muddy footprints all over and eats the Queens slippers. Oh dear Gaston. What went wrong?? Well, firstly Miss Jolly did absolutely no training with him then declared that he didn’t need and more training/non-training!! What sort of message does that send to the next generation of dog handlers and owners?? Training is something that requires lifetime commitment and dedication. To train a dog requires you to guide him and show him what you want him to do, not just shout him down when he’s doing something wrong. Luckily for Thea, she has me to tell her the right way to interact and train our collies. She will grow up knowing how to handle a dog safely and to train the kindest way. She’ll move on from Ben and Holly in the next few years and I’ll have her watching Steve Mann, Victoria Stillwell and Zak George to see how it’s done! And if she grows up to prefer cats, I may need a bit of time to adjust to that absolute betrayal 😉 Luckily for my clients, I ALWAYS train as I walk, little and often. I reinforce the basics plus introduce other things like focus, self control, tricks and more! I keep owners informed and updated on the things we do so that they can do the same at home. Why not check out my Adventure Walks and my Turbo Training Walks to see exactly what I do. There’s also a plethora of videos on my Facebook page to watch too. It’s probably a little more entertaining than Ben and Holly! Thanks for reading folks (and please don’t send me complaints that you’re now addicted to watching those Elves and Fairies!!)
