Want to teach your dog an instant recall?

Do you want an instant recall?

I don’t think there’s any sane dog-owner who’d say, “Er, no thanks, I don’t care whether my dog comes back or not.”

Everyone wants an instant recall!

And an instant recall is not hard to teach - in fact it’s great fun to teach! But the operative word here is TEACH.

Your dog does not arrive with an instant recall installed. Whether a tiny puppy or an older dog, he does not have any idea what you want … until you teach him!

So yelling his name, nicely or crossly, stamping your foot, blowing a whistle - none of this will work until you teach him what it means and why he will WANT to do it.

[HINT: if he doesn’t want to do it, you’re wasting your breath yelling and all the rest! This is a two-way thing.]

The first step

So how do you achieve this wonderful Nirvana state of calling your dog, just once, and having him thunder back to you with wild enthusiasm?

The very first step is to teach him that you are nice to be with, you are reliable, and it’s worth his while to keep a close eye on you, and respond when you ask.

This isn’t done in a soggy field, as your dog hurtles off, nose to the ground, on some chase or trail.

This happens at home. In your kitchen. Many times a day. It’s what I call “All Day Training”.

All Day Training

We want to teach our dogs to respond to us every time, not just when they feel like it, or when they have nothing better to do.

And that’s why we need to build up this deep history - that every time they respond to us, they get some kind of reward.

To start with, by far the easiest and most effective reward is to give a treat. Instantly, as soon as their head starts to turn toward you.

And the key is that this reward must be given EVERY time you ask, and they do.

No exceptions!

If you want it to work it has to work every time, without fail. As soon as you start to demand compliance with no semblance of a reward being forthcoming, you are starting to hammer nails into your Recall coffin.

The first step in detail

So your first step is to make your dog’s name precious. Whenever she hears her name, she stops in her tracks and responds to it - whether that means turning round in front of you, or racing back from 50 yards away.

And I go into detail into how you can precisely and positively make your dog’s name precious to her - in two places for your convenience!

The first place is here in Here Boy! Step-by-step to a stunning recall from your Brilliant Family Dog which you can find in ebook or paperback at Amazon and in audiobook direct from the author right here.

And the second is here in our

free Workshop

on getting your dog to LISTEN!

 

Choose your poison! And let me know how this game transforms your relationship with your puppy or dog, and you can see it setting you on the road to having that stellar recall you’d love!

For some dogs, love is not enough

There is a fashion in dogs - well there are a few fashions, but let’s stick to this one for now - that because you have a big heart, and go all gooey inside at the thought, you can pluck a dog off the streets of some foreign land, park it in your living room, and everything will be FINE.

Just seeing that written down shows how nonsensical this may be!

If you adopted a really, really difficult child, one who’d been abused, abandoned, kicked, starved, injured . . . and all the rest, would you expect this child to settle immediately into your family, enjoy school, and never give any problems of any kind?

Of course not!

You’d know that you’d need specialist training, help from professionals. That this child may wring your heart out and leave you desperate.

You would not expect him to fit seamlessly into what we may consider a civilised, well-regulated, life.

What’s sauce for the child is sauce for the dog!

So your damaged street-dog, captured, uprooted from somewhere he knows (albeit possibly a very unpleasant place), transported by strangers thousands of miles in the back of a lorry, is likely to be a bundle of nerves when he arrives in your country.

Add to this that many of the people doing this rehoming have zero training in how to manage damaged dogs, and may resort to yet more brutality and chastisement . . .

When the dog you want to help actually arrives with you, he’s a mess.

All is not lost

This is not to say that things can’t be turned round. I work with many students who’ve found themselves - all unwittingly - in just this situation.

Their generosity has resulted in them taking an unsuitable animal into their home.

And I’m happy to say that in all the cases I’ve worked with, we’ve managed to make huge progress!

While the dog may never be what others may expect of a dog - lollopy, easy-going, loves everyone, enjoys everything - the owner learns so much that makes the whole enterprise rewarding for both human and dog.

It’s all about connection, and the relationship of mutual trust they build.

And, if you take the trouble to learn what these people did, then you too can have a great outcome, with many years of companionship ahead of you!

“He has certainly blossomed from the abused boy he was when he was first fostered! What you taught us about walking on leash, meeting other dogs etc. made a lot of sense and following your advice has worked wonders for our walks - we both now enjoy them and he is a lot less nervous. Once again many thanks - you have been a brilliant help and a breath of fresh air!” ML  

“.. when I got him he was scared of everything. 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.” CF

“Your training is great and makes a lot of sense. Thanks again, what you’re doing is great, you can feel so isolated with these issues and you are providing a much-needed lifeline for people.  Every time I read these lessons I get a renewed sense of calm and my resolve is strengthened. This support is helping me to really focus on helping my little rescue dog. Thank you Beverley, you are amazing.” EO

“This is a radical change in attitude, thanks to you, and has led to an improved relationship.” AH

Want to get some of what they got?

You can start with this free Growly Dog ecourse, enjoy our free Masterclass for anxious dogs

 

And check out this boxset of the whole Growly Dog series of books!

My dog is barking mad!

“My dog is barking - how do I stop him?” is a frequent request.

And while I’d love to say, “Do this, and your dog will be quiet,” it’s actually not possible without a lot more investigation. A diagnostic report is needed! To decode your dog, we need to find the error code!

So the first thing you need to do is note WHEN she’s barking. You need to keep a barking diary for a few days.

When you’ve got this down (and it may surprise you when you look into it) you can now note WHY she’s barking.

What triggers the barking?

• Excitement?

• Pleasure?

• Distress?

• “Aggression”?

• Fear?

• Intruders

• Loneliness?

• Boredom?

• Alarm?

• “Attention-seeking”? (See my recent post on this!)

Until you can work out WHY your dog is barking, there is no quick recipe for changing this.

Find some answers

Once you’ve found out WHEN your dog is barking, WHY she’s barking, and WHAT triggers the barking, now you’re in a position to find out how to change this barking into something you’d prefer. And that’s not necessarily silence!

If your dog is alarm-barking because they can hear an intruder, you don’t want to extinguish this practice! You probably want to be able to acknowledge it, thank your dog, and then for her to hand responsibility over to you, i.e. by shutting her mouth.

Keep in mind that some barking is very useful. I can ask my dogs to bark on cue, which may be just what’s needed to attract someone’s attention, or to communicate to my old, hard-of-hearing, dog.

I can tell you that Lacy, pictured at the top, loves barking. So when we go to an empty beach or forest, she can fly about barking to her heart’s content. It’s how she expresses excitement and pleasure.

Barking isn’t RIGHT or WRONG. If a particular aspect of your dog’s barking does not please you, it may help to see it like we see weeds, as a flower growing in the wrong place!

And if your dog has been practicing this (annoying) barking for years - then you’re going to have to find the cause, and focus on eliminating either the cause, or the response. This may take time - it all depends on how much you want the change!

So, over to you: Find out what’s going on, then we can look at remedies together.

If you discover the barking is from Fear, or what you perceive as Aggression, then hop over to our free Masterclass for Growly Dogs here

And if it’s for anything else at all, this where you want to start:

How can I stop my dog pulling on lead?

As I wrote in my post “How do I stop my dog doing xyz?” back in July, this is a very common question I get. 

And as I wrote … back in July (and many other times!) to have your dog STOP doing one thing, you have to teach him how to START another.

But so many methods of teaching your dog to walk nicely on lead are punishment-based. They don’t involve any teaching at all - just yank, stop, and turn. How can anyone enjoy a walk like that?

This is why people write to me. They’ve tried these daft suggestions - trying to STOP their dog - and have had zero success.

They tend to blame the dog (he’s “stubborn”, “stupid”, and all the rest) and never pause to see that they have to do something themselves to change this unhappy state of affairs!

Let’s Go!

So today I want to give you some of the first chapter of Let’s Go! Enjoy Companionable Walks with your Brilliant Family Dog, Book 3 in the series Essential Skills for your Brilliant Family Dog

“You’re ready for your daily walk. You are full of hope because you know today is going to be the day your dog walks nicely beside you without pulling your arm out of its socket. You are deluded. Yep, it’s going to be just the same as usual.

Lead on = Carthorse mode.

She nearly pulls you over as you step over the threshold. She strains away from you while you try to lock the door. You reach the roadside, and it’s head down, PULL! She’s choking and spluttering, she’s scrab- bling along the pavement. She’s lurching and weaving - this is no fun for either of you!

I know you’ve tried lots of gadgets and methods to try to make things better - things suggested by people in the park, by friends, family members, and even trainers - some against your better judgment. But why aren’t any of them working? You’ve got collars and leads to beat the band - some of them designed to inflict pain or make holes in your dog’s neck. These devices are sold to prevent pulling, but they just seem to encourage her to pull harder. 

I’m guessing that you have been trying to teach your dog not to pull. This is sadly doomed to failure. If there’s one thing dogs don’t under- stand, it’s not doing something.

Dogs are doers. They do things. They can’t not do something. It makes no sense to them. What we have to do is show them something else to do instead of pulling.

Many people - and probably you too - have successfully taught their dog not to jump up for a treat by simply hanging on to the morsel until the dog is sitting. She can’t jump and sit at the same time, so the jumping dies out.

We can use the exact same system for teaching your dog to walk nicely beside you on a loose lead. Like sitting when a treat is on offer, keeping the lead loose becomes the default behaviour for your dog when she’s walking with you. She can’t pull ahead and be by your leg at the same time, so the pulling dies out.

Really, yes! It will work for you too!

I’ve taught this system to hundreds of puppies and dogs, and I’m always amazed at how quickly the dog gets it - once the owner gets it!

You don’t need any funny gadgets or kit - though I do have help for extreme kamikaze pullers - and there is no force, coercion, or intimi- dation involved. You’re not telling your dog, “You’ll do this because I say so.” You’re saying, “You do this because you like doing it!”

You got a dog to be your companion, not to fight with. You wanted to enjoy the great outdoors. You wanted a reason to get out every day to meet people, to visit new places, to get fit, and maybe shift a few pounds.

None of this is going to happen if your walks are a tussle and a misery!”

Go and check this book out - you can read a sample here, or listen to the audiobook here.

But you need to do SOMETHING!

Expecting your dog to change, miraculously, by having the neck pulled off him is never going to work!

Enjoy your walks together, in comfort and harmony.

Yes - even your dog can do this … just try it, as these people did, and see for yourself:

“Lexie is responding to the lead work beautifully - still early days but it's wonderful to walk her without making one arm longer than the other! All I needed was training - once I started doing it right she caught on no problems - thankyou.” LCS and her Cocker-poo

“Dodger is doing really well with his loose lead walking. I am so proud of him, I can't thank you enough for your help and support.” AD and her Staffy

“Lois pulled like a train on the lead, very strong for a little’un - now she has impeccable manners and walks like a dream. Has become the envy of our neighbourhood!” CR and her Mini Schnauzer

“Hi Beverley, I just wanted to tell you that your method of loose lead walking is brilliant! I have struggled for a year and a half with Molly lead walking and finally a method which works!!!!” KS and her Spaniel

How to keep your dog on your property!

This question arises from some I’ve been asked recently - about electric fencing - not the sort round cattle fields, but the secret menace people embed in their gardens to give their dog electric shocks. 😱

For some reason people seem to think this is A-ok. And it’s not! An electric shock, however given, is a punishment. It breaks down the trust your dog and you should have in each other.

And it’s a lazy option.

Regular readers of Brilliant Family Dog will know my opinion on electric shocks! If you wouldn’t do it to a toddler, you shouldn’t do it to a dog.

Teaching by punishment is not teaching. It’s coercion.

And the daft thing is that it’s just as easy to teach your dog to stay on your property without doing this! 

My fencing is just over 3 feet high, with inviting fields beyond.

In one part of the garden there’s just a single wire 2 feet above the ground.

Because I teach matwork from the start, and use crates and playpens and baby gates for my puppies, they understand very early on what boundaries are.

They could easily hop over those fences. But they don’t. The fence is simply an indication that this side is ours and the other side is not.

Once we’ve established the principle of a boundary, they’ve got it! They don’t need to be continually told. And they definitely don’t need to be continually punished.

Invisible fence hazards

It seems to me that there is some very efficient marketing going on with these “invisible fences”. Naturally enough, only the ease - being able to dump your dog in the garden and never having to supervise her - is emphasised.

But there are also hazards with these “invisible” fences. And you should be aware of them!

Only an animal with a collar on will get the shock. So that means ANY dog, cat, coyote, deer, mountain lion, or anything else, can stroll onto your property. Your dog will be at their mercy.

There are documented reports of horrible results from this.

And as any animal can get onto your property, day or night, they could also defecate there, leaving a rich harvest of worms, flukes, tapeworms - all kinds of disease.

There’s also the chance of your dog developing coprophagia. 🤮 OOER! Even if you clear up immediately, the eggs are still there in your grass.

The worst thing about “invisible fences”

The worst thing - and this is something particularly apposite for the people who actually want to work with their dogs, rather than against them - is the fear effect of an electric shock.

If you were eating an ice cream and got a violent shock from it, how soon would you be happily enjoying another ice cream?

(I love Chinese food. And once after a meal I got horribly sick. Despite the fact that I am an intelligent human with strong reasoning powers, I was unable to eat another Chinese meal for a good couple of years! How would this type of aversive experience affect a dog, without our level of knowledge?)

If your dog sees a dog, horse, child, cat - and gets an electric shock at the same time - how is he going to feel about what he was looking at when it happened?

You’re in danger of creating a new fear, a new reactivity, that you will now have to manage and live with.

I understand there are some properties in the world where you are not allowed to build a fence.

This is incomprehensible to me! What about children playing in the garden?

All I can say is that I would never consider living on a property I couldn’t fence and make safe for my family and my animals.

But it only needs to be a low fence! A hint of a fence!

Want to learn how to teach matwork? You’ve got two options - there’s a book and audiobook called Calm Down! here or there’s our free Workshop on getting your Dog to LISTEN! here.

Is your dog attention-seeking?

I often hear it described as “attention-seeking” when a dog is . . . seeking attention!

She may be dropping toys in your lap all day long, she may be resisting sleep during the day, she may be chewing things up, barking . . . There are all manner of things she may do to get your attention.

But why do you think your dog needs to do anything to get your attention, never mind by doing destructive and annoying things?

It’s because it works!

Dogs do what works

And the worst things usually get the most attention. She’s learnt that.

Or perhaps I should say, you’ve taught her that. 😎

And this begs the question, “Why does your dog have to jump through hoops to connect with you?”

Not “attention-seeking” but “connection-seeking”

It would be better if we were to take a different view of this.

How about changing your perception from an “attention-seeking” dog to a “connection-seeking” dog?

🐾 You chose to have a dog.

🐾 You chose this dog.

🐾 Why does she have to try all these things to earn your affection?

Busybusybusy

We are all busy, all the time. We get swept along from one day to the next, and unless something breaks or stops working, we don’t pay it any heed.

It’s a sad state of affairs if this includes the people in your household!

And dogs are people too.

We have to make an effort to fit what is worthwhile into our day. Maybe just two minutes here, three minutes there. That may be enough to give your loyal companion the connection she craves.

Schedule some fun!

So how can you schedule some fun for your dog and you? [HINT: dogs love getting the chance to use their brains - how about some trick training?]

And to start making a better connection with your dog, watch our free Workshop on getting your dog to LISTEN!