Someone once asked me "When teaching class or training your own dog, do you think it all out before-hand, or is it an instinct?" It was a question that made me realise I just do what comes naturally, and that question started me thinking.
Some twenty years ago I took my pet dog to the Local Dog Training Club - s·imply because when out walking her, she would not come back when called! Before long I was well and truly hooked on Dog Training. Little did I think that it would become a way of life and one day I would be the proud owner of an Obedience Champion.
Eventually I found myself at Charlie Wyats' famous Dog Training School in Littlebourne, Kent. Oh! the thrill of finally arriving at Littlebourne and driving past those quaint old houses and field upon field of fruit trees just bursting into blossom. Charlie's training hall, which he built himself, and the cinema seats that hugged the walls, the mirrors at strategic angles, so you could check your deportment - and oh!. - the absolute magnetism of Charlie himself. Well I sat in my cinema seat for a week and listened spellbound to the MASTER. Suddenly it all made sense - this so simple, yet logical, method of Dog Training, all written down in my sixpenny Woolworth's exercise book - jokes and all - not forgetting Charlie's famous black bag. He said, "you must be prepared when you go to a show - you will need - Dumbell, knotted rag, etc." and Charlie produced from his cupboard what must have been the original Doctor's Black Bag. Having blown all the layers of dust off it, he finally prized it open to reveal a mouldy sandwich and a packet of woodbines. We all fell about - what a laugh - obviously well used!
The walls of the hall were full of rosettes, photographs of dogs and the hall of fame. All those trained at Littlebourne who won C.C.s gave Charlie their C.C. Certificates, and the dog's name plaque, from Crufts to display. There were some great dogs and handlers from that school.
I remember staying with Judith Gregory (now better known as the breeder of the TONKORY B.C.s) in a minute two berth caravan. We prac-tised our deportment inside the caravan in the evenings - absolutely besotted with Dog Training to the point of eating, thinking and talking Dog Obedience. We certainly didn't have time to sleep! It was a week never to be forgotten and Littlebourne always drew me back like a bear to the honeypot. So armed with Charlie's method, his inspiration and my inter-pretation of his method, I left Little-bourne and headed out into my competitive career.
First stop from Charlie's was Poole Championship Show and guess what? Yes - it rained all day. Poole Show was famous for two things, a super show and the ability to nearly always pro-duce rain. But rain or shine I didn't care, as my Perry (Shepdine Perry) won his first novice and I was on cloud nine!
So to return to my first sentence. A good sound schooling in BASICS is absolutely essential before any serious competition may be attempted. Once the method of teaching your dog has been understood and mastered, then I found the instinctive training became dominent. Rather like learning to drive a car, all fingers and thumbs, no co-ordination etc. until, one day you drive automatically and naturally react to •a driving situation and afterwards realise what you did. The times this occured to me and always I handled and reacted with my dogfollowing my intuition and produced the desired results. So let us go back and re-trace those early steps of learning to train my dog.
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Part Two
Tara, my first dog was acquired as a swop - a friend had a Iitter of pups and I had a litter of Siamese kittens - so we simply swapped. Unfortunately Tara has a handicap • ME! I could not get her to stay in the heel position, or understand why, sometimes she was super and others - well, you'd never have thought she'd been trained. So I BORED her, such repetitive, no incentive, boring training. The result of which was one very reluctant dog who disliked dog training. Dear old Tara, she taught me a valuable lesson, which is, teach your dog to ENJOY working with you. Make it FUN for them. Oh boy, did I make it fun for my next dog, Perry.
How do we teach our dog competitive obedience and make it fun? By PLAY training. Before you teach your dog any exercise a bond must be formed between you. Of course, you can teach by compulsion, but you won't have a happy, keen dog if you do!
Perry came to me at six weeks of age from famous parents - SHEPDINE BONNIE 0FSEALIGHTand SPRING-
FARM MYTH - both Crufts winners.
I didn't choose him, he was the only pup in the litter available. Don't ask me how to choose a puppy. There are various puppy tests devised by so called experts, or the shepherd's advice of "He'll be a good 'un if all the roof of his mouth is black", or "If he has three whiskers under his jaw", and so on. I think it is all in the hands of the Gods. What I do know is that I have to have this "feel" with my dogs. There we are with the intuition again.
The three dogs that I've worked with in Ticket are SHEPDINE PERRY, OB CH PENNHILL KIM and now C0LLALI RICKY (CLEVER DICK).
I've had the most tremendous support and I'm sure this has occurred because
a) each dog has suited my personality
and b) I've taught them by PLAY training.
Hours were spent playing with Perry BEFORE training him. Firstly I taught him to play with me - to love the touch of my hands, to excite him by using my voice, making funny noises, different tones and levels of voice - happy, authoritative, loud or quiet. Many a rough and tumble Perry and I had on the kitchen floor.
At this time my husband, Brian, and I had bought an old derelict school house called Perrymead. When we were in the middle of the renovations I found an old rubber ring. How Perry loved that PLAY toy - tug of war, then a throw - in fact he would do anything for his rubber ring. And so I knew that he was ready to teach; I had that BOND with him. You don't need a huge hall or field to teach your dog in, the kitchen will do. I never taught a dog heelwork, apart from Tara, by the "YANK· HEEL" method. I simply, on a loose lead, with the toy, played a tug of war with Perry, keeping my hands into my body on my left side, which brought him into the heel position.
A few steps forward and then threw the toy for him to fetch, repeating this several times. If you do this and keep the sessions very short, gradually you will find that you are both enjoying yourselves so much that naturally you will increase the number of steps in the heel position. Of course, as a separate exercise, teach your dog to release his play toy on command.
I've never taught my dogs to watch me, as this can be boring. I've taught them to pay attention with a toy as described, so that they WANT to be with me and please me. Most people misunderstand PLAY training. They play with their dogs not in the heel position or in close contact with them and then they start. Heelwork from a halt, and march up and down being very serious. Of course the dog quickly learns that heelwork is a chore. The dog can't wait to be released, so the dog learns to play BEFORE or AFTER the heelwork and not DURING. It should be emphasised that at this stage of early PLAY training you're after a keen, happy, stylish and attentive dog. The precision comes much later.
So I had my happy, keen Perry loving to work because he thought it was a game. BUT, what about DISCIPLINE and RESPECT! Pardon - what's that? Mustn't upset my little Perry, dear me no. I can honestly say I never ever told Perry off during training. We went from Beginners to Ticket C all on PLAY training. He won reserve CC's and many places on PLAY training. If I had a problem, I'd think of another way round. If I'd only taught Perry who was BOSS, he would have been a Champion. Did he lead me a dance!