House-training should prove no problem if you’re quick and alert to your puppy’s needs. He will need to pay frequent visits to his spot in the garden: after each meal, after a sleep and any time you think about it in between. Always pick him up and carry him to the spot. Give him a command. I use the words ‘busy dog‘. Don’t dump him and retreat back to the house and close the door. He hasn’t a clue what he’s been put in the garden for. You must stay with him, repeating your commands over and over again. Whether it’s hailing, blowing a gale or a snowstorm’s on, you must persevere. As soon as he’s been a ‘busy dog‘, give him lots of praise, tell him how clever he is, pick him up and return him to the house. If you are diligent and watch your puppy closely, you will know when he needs to go out. A sure sign will be when he puts his nose to the ground, his tail up in the air and runs round in circles. That is your cue to move speedily with him into the garden. (more…)
Puppy Pet Socialization
Part of the secret of having a well-trained puppy is the ability on your part to think ahead. You won’t be able to take him for a walk outside until he’s completed his injections, at about fourteen to sixteen weeks. This is far too late to introduce your puppy to a collar and lead and the outside world. The socialization of your puppy at an early age is essential if you require a well-adjusted adult dog. I discovered this, to my cost, with Bracken, my first puppy. I never thought of taking him out on to the streets until he was sixteen weeks old. At home, he was perfectly behaved and afraid of nothing and walked well in the garden on a collar and lead. You can imagine my surprise at our first day’s outing. The moment we stepped out of the gate, Bracken flattened himself to the pavement with terror at the sound and sights of traffic. (more…)
Some good reasons for teaching the Send-Away
A dog who is taught the Send-Away exercise correctly will drop into a Down position when he’s running away from his owner. You may find yourself in a situation where you need to be in total control of your dog once he’s off the lead and a recall would be dangerous. For example, you are in a field in the country, your dog is running free and out of nowhere appears a flock of sheep. A farmer has the right to shoot any dog he sees running near his livestock. The farmer may not have seen you, or know that your dog is under control. A recall, in this situation, could give him the impression that the dog is running after livestock and not back to his owner. The fastest and safest way to protect your dog’s life is to drop him on the spot into a Down position. You can then walk up to him and put him on the lead. (more…)
Heidi was never very fond of the other five dogs and she positively hated any strange dog that approached her and would scream at them with dislike and threaten them with blue murder if they so much as sniffed a hair on her body. At the tender age of nine months, she towered above all our dogs and regarded everything in and around the home as her sole possession to be guarded and I could feel aggression growing in her towards the other dogs. I could not face the prospect of constantly separating one dog from the next in case of fights. Our five dogs had always lived in peace until Heidi came. I discussed this problem with Don, who, like myself, was a little reluctant to face the truth of the matter that Heidi did not fit. She was our dog and our responsibility. A dog is not just for a few months but should be for life and that’s what Don and I told each other frequently. But, as sure as I know there will be a tomorrow, I knew Heidi would strike. Her first victim was Buttons. (more…)
I count myself very fortunate to have had a really good relationship with Emma. She was with me twenty-four hours a day and I understood her like I understood part of myself. I had to interpret the movements from the handle when she was working at my side and I had to understand her every little whim when she was off duty at home. A gentle nudge would be, I want to play, and a firmer push with the nose would indicate she wanted to go into the garden. Her little snorts or the way she bounced around me all indicated her needs or thoughts and, in the same way, she was able to interpret my feelings and moods. Although the type of relationship we had only comes once in a lifetime, if you’re very lucky, I feel we should all aim for that perfection with our dogs. (more…)
A cat’s sunning spots or favourite indoor resting places are high on the list of those to which it claims an inalienable right. However, with the demands of other cats in a multi-cat household, or of many close neighbours outdoors, it may not be able to establish an exclusive claim and has to accept that its rights are on a time-share basis, valid only at certain hours.
An animal’s territorial claims are closely related to its food requirements — the hunter must have a wide enough range to provide it with sufficient prey. Both farm cats and ferals in cities usually need a fairly large territory, although their diet may be topped up with snacks from friendly humans or by scavenging in dustbins. (more…)
