Happy Pets

The biggest problem most dog owners have is getting their dogs to return to them on command once the dog is off the lead. But so many owners cause their own problems on this exercise, I’m not surprised their dogs don’t wish to return to them. Let us first view the faults, in the hope of preventing you from making the same mistakes.

Why your dog won’t come back to you

The first and simplest reason your dog will not return to you on command is that you haven’t trained him thoroughly in the garden. If he won’t come when called in the confined space of his own home, he certainly won’t in the freedom of the fields. In the main, owners with untrained dogs are full of excuses. (more…)

We all make mistakes, but do we learn by them? I certainly have learnt by the many mistakes I have made with dogs and I would like to tell you about the biggest mistake I have ever made. There may be dog trainers who think they know everything. These are the people to avoid, for if they have not had problems or made mistakes, they cannot understand other people’s difficulties and, after all, nobody’s perfect.

A couple of years ago, we had a space in our dog population. Rather than treat myself to another Labrador, I bought Don a breed I knew he fancied. I don’t wish to tell you what breed Heidi was, as I feel this would prejudice you against the breed. Far too many people read a little of a wrongdoer—a biter or a chaser or a so-called untrainable dog—and label the whole breed with those attributes. I think that’s very unfair. No breed is all bad or all good and I will not accept the responsibility of Heidi’s breed suffering through my mistake, as I make no bones about it—it was my fault. (more…)