Appreciate your dog!

.. and appreciate those who want to help you! 

I spend most of my time encouraging and teaching folk to appreciate their dog, their difficult barking and lunging dog, their frustrating new puppy.

And despite giving a lot of my time, energy, expertise, and resources free of charge, there are always the naysayers! People who’d rather scoff than learn, people whose minds are closed - but sadly not their mouths!

It’s so easy to condemn and badmouth. It’s so easy to flip out a clever but thoughtless reply. Often this is done as a knee-jerk response to what they see as a challenge to their own competence. But no-one is born knowing how to understand and train a dog! No-one is blaming them for their lack of knowledge! The trick is to keep our mind open and accept help in the spirit in which it is offered.

This goes for how you treat your dog as well as yourself and everyone around you.

Blaming the dog for your own shortcomings is not going to move you both forward! A casual remark that your dog never listens, is stupid, is difficult, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy! I know this, because, dear reader, this was once me (l-o-o-o-ng time ago . . .).

Because I now put myself out there in the firing line, I get a lot of this criticism and backchat.

But I know that these remarks usually say more about the speaker than about me! I’m sorry that they’re not going to take advantage of what I can offer their dog. But, as the saying goes - you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink!

There are plenty who WANT to learn!

So today I thought I would celebrate all the LOVELY people who follow me and appreciate me. You never get to see these comments because they’re sent direct to me. So I’m going to bask in the pleasure of printing them 😊.

Hopefully, if you’ve been reading the negative stuff, you’ll see the other side of the picture.

And if you’re one of my “fans”, know that I LOVE hearing from you, and your enthusiasm and appreciation enable me to keep doing what I do.

“We are all reading and enjoying a real live person who clearly loves dogs also. Your empathy with all dogs is clear to see. “ - LK

“Yay! Our walks are SO much more enjoyable for us both. Abby is so much calmer and less reactive. I’m quite excited that we’re both learning to be a better team!.”  - NS, GDCD student*

“I loved your course and have shared the info with many. Our dog continues to amaze us and our friends.”  - SS, BfDA student**

“First thing I must tell you, I love reading your emails. It’s like being with family.” - CH

“Beverley's course is such a help. We've only been doing it a short while but it's made such a difference to our Tallie both indoors and out.” - LB, BfDA student**

“I spoke to you a while back when we struggled to get her to go for a walk with only one of us! Your advice worked and Jenny is now very keen to go for a walk solo! She has become quite the outdoor dog.” - SF

“Thank you! I’m glad to have a place where I don’t feel like I’m the only one who has a reactive dog and where others understand the struggles we’re all going through.” - ZB, GDCD student*

“Rather than bring the family together, she had started to tear us apart, getting more difficult and rebellious. With just one day of using your methods, we are already seeing a happier dog, wanting to come to me and to listen. Thank you so much Beverley, Im looking forward now to the next few weeks with positive, fun learning and the outcome for a happy family dog.” - TD

“Her focus has gone from not great to amazing. Mostly she is calm and well settled. “ - CH, BfDA student**

“Thank you so much for all your hard work. You are valued and appreciated very much by everyone here.” - CF

“I just wanted to say, I joined because in the one hour free Workshop you gave, you talked about her name being precious - it was like you were there in my front room! In just one day she's responding much better. I figured, well if one free workshop can achieve that quick change, the full program has got to be so worth it! Just to compare the prices, when we first got Alina, we had a 50 minute session with a local trainer - it cost us £80. She wanted us to go back for regular weekly sessions, but that was out of our price range. So for less than the cost of 2 sessions with the trainer, the offer of a lifetime’s support and all the workshops and modules seemed such good value.” - GO, BfDA student**

“Thank you for your books, they have given me a feeling of hope for the future.” - SH

“Your courses and advice have already in this short space of time changed my behaviour and in turn Harp's behaviour. It helps of course also that as you have mentioned many times that we should have the same respect and courtesy for our dogs as we would any other member of our family. That's something Harp and I have been working better at.“ - TH

“You have been at our side since our Maxwell (cocker spaniel) was 8 weeks old, and he's now 9 months, and gorgeous.” - PB, BfDA student**

* GDCD student is a person enrolled in the From Growly Dog to Confident online program.

** BfDA student is a person enrolled in the Brilliant Family Dog Academy online program.

Want to find out what they’re getting?

Watch our free Masterclass for Growly Dogs

And here’s our free Workshop on getting your dog to LISTEN!

HOW CAN YOUR WILD PUPPY BECOME YOUR BRILLIANT FAMILY DOG? 8 steps to success

First published on positively.com and reprinted here with permission

You’ve decided now is the time to get a dog for your family. Excitement is running high! Expectations are through the roof. Plans are being laid.

But how realistic are these expectations? How near to reality are the plans?

I find that new puppy-owners tend to fall into two camps - those who expect too much too soon, and those who expect too little for too long! Let’s have a look at this more closely:

1. Expecting too much too soon

When you get your puppy at seven or eight weeks old, he is a baby. His eyes have only been open for six weeks. Everything is new to him - everything. He has to learn to trust you as his guardian and protector first. So shouting SIT SIT SIT at him is mystifying and frightening! There will be plenty of time for learning to sit on cue - but there’s only a short time for so much else that needs to be learnt first.

We have very short memories (why do women give birth to more than one child? If they remembered what they went through the first time they probably wouldn’t!) So remembering how good our old dog was is not helpful. What you’re probably remembering is when he was twelve and fitted your home comfortably like an old pair of slippers. You’ll have forgotten the mayhem and mess of his early weeks and months. Perhaps your old dog grew up in a noisy, busy family, with endless entertainment and learning. Now your home is quieter, but your pup will need the same level of stimulation and novelty.

2. Expecting too little for too long

Then there are those who appreciate that their puppy is a baby - but forget that their development is many times faster than that of a human infant. A pup of six months is something similar to a child of twelve years old in terms of maturity. You have a lot to pack in those first four months with you!

Fortunately young puppies are sponges. They soak up learning. It’s so easy to teach them what you want before they’ve discovered what they want. And like children, they accept the status quo. If feeding is always done in their crate followed immediately by a visit to the garden, this will be the accepted pattern which they will put on autopilot.

3. Start ‘em really young!

It used to be thought that puppies couldn’t start training until they were six months old or more. Imagine teaching absolutely nothing to your child until he reached twelve! The mind truly boggles at what you’d be up against. But with the revelation that force-free training is quicker and more efficient than traditional punitive methods, and that it develops an unbreakable bond between dog and owner, puppy training can start at around five weeks. The pup is still in the litter, of course, but he’s learning! This is where the importance of a conscientious and knowledgeable breeder comes in. Why not let him learn early on that people are good news and interacting with them is to his advantage?

Trainers in the vanguard of scientific thought do much of their teaching through games - every game designed to achieve one key skill. You want to find one of those excellent, thoughtful, kind trainers for your puppy!

4. All things to all men?

Your dog can’t be everything. He can’t fulfil all the roles that dogs are able to perform. Each dog is an individual. He may be unsuited to some activities, sports, ways of life, on account of his size or conformation. He may be temperamentally unsuited: he may be a social butterfly - or he may be a party pooper. While you can improve his perception of the world, tempering his excesses and building his confidence, you have to accept that maybe this dog won’t be your world class agility dog; maybe not the one to go on transalpine treks; perhaps not a cuddly lapdog or people-pleaser.

You can load the dice in your favour by researching your chosen breed and breeder minutely before you make your choice. But there’s still an element of the “luck of the draw”. How many people do you know who are quite unlike their parents? Your challenge will be to find where your dog does shine and develop that to his fullest potential.

5. Give time for the bond to grow

As you go through the early weeks and months, there’s no place for frustration or loss of temper, which will serve only to damage your relationship with your dog. Your puppy is not doing what he does out of stubbornness, naughtiness, defiance. He’s doing it because he’s a dog. And you haven’t yet shown him what you’d like him to do instead.

Punishment rewards the punisher - makes them feel better, more in control through having lost control. It doesn’t help the one who is punished.

It makes them evasive, resentful, untrusting. It won’t change their behaviour - they’ll just make sure you’re not around when they do it. Confusion reigns: think of the puppy who is told off for weeing in the house (who’s in charge of the feeding schedule and the doors here?) then makes sure to leave his next puddle behind the sofa where you can’t catch him and chastise him again.

6. The gift of time

Give your dog the time he needs to learn with you. Your days were already full before your puppy arrived, so you have to make time. Give him time - and undiluted, focussed attention. This is especially important when you already have a dog in the household. Your puppy needs that individual attention you lavished on your first dog if he’s to develop the same bond with you.

7. Expand your dog’s mind

Brainwork - as we all know! - is tiring. Use up some of that boundless energy by getting your puppy to think, to make choices, to assess situations and make good decisions. In order to think and choose, we have to have the freedom to make mistakes. Encourage and welcome those mistakes, which show that your dog is thinking and trying things. Choice-based training means that when your dog makes a poor choice nothing happens, good or bad. When he makes a good choice he gets excitement, treats, games, fun. Which do you think he’s going to choose again?

8. Don’t forget to enjoy your puppy!

Remember why you wanted a dog in the first place. Don’t get bogged down by worrying about whether your puppy is learning quickly enough, whether he’s showing you up at puppy class, whether you look inadequate if he doesn’t come when he’s called. Take the broader view and see it as a giant learning curve for both of you. Enjoy this time - it speeds past!

Find out how to avoid some of the pitfalls of early training in our free Workshop on getting your dog to LISTEN!

Check out our many articles on puppies starting with this one and use the search to find specifics for your new pup!

Do You Dream Of Your Dog Flying Back To You Every Single Time You Call? Start Here!

First published on positively.com and reprinted here with permission

What would it mean to you if you could give one call, and your dog zoomed in and arrived at your feet? Every time!

Hard to imagine? Maybe.

Possible? Most definitely!

Fun? Very much so. (If it’s not fun, your dog won’t do it. So there’s lots of fun!)

Little by little

The problem is that many people think their dog comes with a recall installed.

No! Whether a puppy or a rescue, you’re getting Dog 1.0 - the basic version. Upgrades are installed through hours of fun and games, aka force-free dog training.

When your new little puppy arrives, you may be tempted to think she has a great recall because she quickly finds you. This is just her infant clinginess.

Like a lamb at foot, the young puppy tends to keep close to her minder. Once she starts to grow a bit, in confidence as well as in size, you’ll find that infant clinginess will evaporate.

And if that’s what you’ve been relying on, you are now up the creek without a paddle.

So you need to get in early, ensuring that you use that time when your puppy wants only to be with you, to build a thumping good recall. Naturally, with a puppy of a few weeks old you’re only going to teach through games!

The secret is to keep those games going as your dog gets older, so they will always choose you over the distraction they were about to hurtle towards.

Toddler and pup both doing great recalls. Illustration from "Here Boy!"

Old School training

In days gone by (thankfully), people didn’t start teaching dogs till they were six months old or so - the reason being they had to be tough enough to stand up to the harsh treatment meted out to them.

What a trick they missed!

All those early weeks and months when your puppy is like a sponge soaking up new information!

Why on earth let your pup run wild for months learning to do all kinds of things you don’t want her to do - then say, “Right, now I expect you to behave differently.”?

So with your new puppy, start the day she arrives.

With a new rescue dog you may have a lot of history to work against. The easiest way to achieve what you want is to imagine this is a new puppy and teach the exact same way.

First things first

There are two things you need to be clear on before you start:

1. If you don’t want your dog to do something, then don’t let it happen

So if you have any suspicion your dog may run off and not come straight back - highly likely in a new rescue dog - then you need to learn how to use a long line safely (not an extendable lead) while you teach your super instant recall.

This does not mean you never let your puppy off-lead! This will not teach her anything except to want to get away from you.

Your dog must be free in order to make a choice to come back. But only let her off-lead in an enclosed area. Gradually your dog will earn her freedom in larger areas.

2. Everyone on the planet listens to the same radio station: WII fm

WII fm? That’s “What’s in it for me?”

Your dog will be making a choice whether to hare after the distraction or shoot back to you. What’s in it for her?

You need to make your recall games such fun that her response becomes automatic. And an easy way to train in any kind of knee-jerk reaction - so that her recall goes onto auto-pilot - is to use rhythm and patterning in your games.

Step by step

When you were learning to read, you were not given a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses and told to get on with it!

You were taught shapes of letters or words and their sounds, gradually slotting those jigsaw pieces together till you could hit a line of text running, read it and understand it.

So letting your dog wander off then calling her and expecting her to know what to do is just as mad as giving your toddler Ulysses.

The very first thing your pup needs to learn is that her name means good things, and only good things. You should never use your dog’s name if you are frustrated or annoyed with her. Any other word! - but not her name.

Rollo is happy to be racing back to me! An Illustration from "Here Boy!"

Here’s a simple game to get you started. Watch out for other family members as well as yourself. You may be surprised at how much negativity is being attached to your dog’s name on a daily basis!

1. Say dog’s name once

2. When she responds - by raising an eyebrow or hurtling towards you and crashing into your legs - reward her with something good

3. Repeat at every opportunity throughout the day

4. Enjoy your dog

What should her reward be? That’s something that you should be finding out if you don’t already know!

What does she like?

🐾  A run and laughter?

🐾  A piece of cheese?

🐾  A game with you and a toy?

🐾  A game of chase?

Whatever “is in it for her” is what you use to reward her response to her name.

One day her willing and instant response to her name may save her life. Be sure to take time building that response.

And for a step-by-step guide to a lightning-fast recall - every time - go and take a look at Here Boy! Step-by-step to a Stunning Recall from your Brilliant Family Dog, the fourth in the series of Essential Skills for a Brilliant Family Dog, available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook. Go now, and you can be reading it within minutes!

Picture this: your dog is racing towards another dog, you call her name - once - and she spins and races back to you at the same speed, arriving with a smile on her face and a happy waving tail, saying, “Didn’t I do well?”

This can be you and your dog!

Want to teach your dog to LISTEN?

Enjoy our free Workshop here

Where did Brilliant Family Dog begin?

I can remember it as if it were yesterday.

It was 6.30 in the morning, and I was sitting on the cold pavement outside Battersea Dogs Home, London’s most famous animal shelter. Today was the day the puppy I had chosen became available for re-homing, and I was up - about three hours earlier than usual! - to be sure of getting her.

I was the first there, and I looked anxiously at the others waiting in line. We talked to each other and said which dog we wanted. Nobody else wanted “my” puppy, so I relaxed and focused on keeping warm.

Eventually 9 o’clock came round and I and the handful of other dedicated dogseekers were let in. Everyone rushed to the area they knew “their” dog was in, anxious to be there first. I reached the puppy pens and there she was, sweet and beautiful and ready for the adventure.

A few forms later, and I was out on the street again, this time clutching my precious new puppy to me. Precious, but not materially. She cost all of £9.80, including the collar and lead!

That was how I came to have Poppy. And that’s where my adventure began! There had been dogs at home where I grew up, but Poppy was the first I could call mine.

Want to make the most of your new dog?

Watch our free Workshop on Getting your Dog to Listen! and learn new ways to communicate with each other.

Life with Poppy

Fresh from the streets … thin and anxious

Poppy nearly died over the next few days, having caught some nasty puppy disease, probably on the streets before the Home picked her up. But, showing the spirit for which she would become known, she pulled through and we started our 16-year love affair. The adoration was mutual.

A few months later when I moved from London to rural Ireland, Poppy helped me make new friends. In fact her bright and endearing nature and endlessly-wagging tail got her talent-spotted by a dog training club instructor.

Now a whole new world opened up before us - Obedience, Working Trials, Agility. Oh, the miles we travelled - all over the British Isles - the friends we made, the rosettes we won, the fun we had!

Poppy flies over the 6 foot scale!

The high point of our competition career was when my little Battersea stray became Working Trials Champion Flower of Battersea, CDEx, UDEx, WDEx, TDEx. Why, she had more letters after her name than I did!

Here she is scaling a 6 foot barrier in terrific style! She also held the Irish High Jump record at one stage, clearing 3 foot 6 inches.

What a long way from those London pavements! As one Obedience Judge put it: “Such grace and elegance from humble beginnings as shown by her name.”

Poppy loved everybody

… adults, children, dogs, puppies, cats, chickens, geese, goats, sheep, cows, donkeys - everyone she came across. She “didn’t have a bad bone in her body,” as my Irish neighbours would say.

Of course I don’t think any dogs have bad bones in their body, but that was rather forward-thinking in a time when blaming the dog for the owner’s shortcomings was the standard. And sadly still is, for many folk.

So I tried one dog, then I got another … and another - the story of addiction! There was no stopping me.

Since then I have had many dogs. Mostly Border Collies, but also others including Whippets - linking back to Poppy: one of her 57 varieties was definitely Whippet!

And for many years I competed with all of them - largely in Working Trials (that’s based on nosework and tracking), but also Obedience, Agility, Heelwork to Music. And we carried on the learning - scent discrimination, searching, lots of different types of retrieving, tricks …

But how did Poppy influence Brilliant Family Dog?

I decided to put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard, because I wanted other people to experience some of the immense pleasure I have had from sharing my life with dogs. I started with Good for Dogs, which also served my dog school students in Worcestershire. Then graduated to Brilliant Family Dog, with all its online courses, books, audiobooks, and over 300 articles! Check the navigation bar above.

This site is more than a dog-training resource, it’s a dog-living and dog-loving site - a dog-celebration, you may say!

And it all started with my little Battersea waif, who introduced me to a new world.

Want to teach your dog to LISTEN?

Enjoy our free Workshop here

Pawprints in the snow

As humans we have a tendency to think that we know best.  

But when it comes to working with a dog we don't know best!

They have powers way beyond ours! When there’s snow on the ground you can see all these footprints. They are something that we don't normally see, but your dog is aware of them all the time - snow or no snow.

When he's sniffing and wants to pull over to somewhere and you say “There's nothing there - come on, let's go,” he's right and you're wrong!

You can see here that there’s been a late-night bunny party, heaven for your dog to check out. But normally we have no idea of all this activity. Your dog, though, can “see” this every single day.

Scent in the dog’s brain

Did you know that a third of the dog’s brain is taken up with processing scent? 😳

And look at the size of their hooter compared with ours! (That’s a normal-shaped dog’s nose - not one squashed and altered by designer breeding.)

That nose is meant to work! And in many cases it’s put to work for our benefit.

There are dogs for medical alert and seizure detection, drug dogs, customs dogs, police tracking dogs, hunting dogs, cancer detection dogs, search and rescue dogs, quartering dogs, flushing dogs.

So many useful applications of that wonderful scenting ability!

But there’s also the fun stuff. Scent discrimination in Obedience competitions is highly sophisticated, but taught - or should I say refined - for fun.

And Working Trials is a terrific way for the layperson to enjoy high-performance tracking. In the higher levels of Trials, you and your dog are confronted by upwards of 30 acres of empty space with just a pole to indicate the start of the track. The track will be three hours old, and have three tiny articles (think key, matchbox, metal bolt) somewhere along its half-mile length. In all weathers!

And with dedication and application - and a lot of hard work! - a dog from the humblest beginnings can excel. My little Battersea foundling Poppy became WTChampion Flower of Battersea CDEx UDEx WDEx TDEx.

That’s a very high level of expertise to be exhibited by both dog and handler. It’s genuine teamwork, where the dog is the expert.

Nosework in the home

It’s not necessary to walk the legs off your dog (and you) every day with a view to tiring them out. Using their brains is much more tiring!

Hunting for your lost keys, socks, or wallet is a great way to partner up with your family dog to make life easier for you, and definitely more fun for her!

Just playing hide and seek in the house is a great start.

Here you can see Lacy searching a car for hidden “contraband”. In this case it was a toy rat. You can scent this with a tiny drop of innocuous essential oil, or just with your hands. Even in this still photo, you can see her tail was swishing with excitement as she got into her task.

This post is designed to get you thinking about what your dog can do better than you can - and how you can enhance both your lives by working with your dog, and not against her.

There's so much we can actually learn from our dog if we're prepared to open our minds and look . . . and it's not only about dogs.

If you take off your blinkers (what are they called in America? Blinders!)  you'll begin to see an awful lot in the world that you didn't know was there.

 So start now by incorporating some scent games into your lives!

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CAN MY DOG BE STRESSED? - PART 3

This post was first published on positively.com and is reprinted here with permission.

Here is the third excerpt from my book - Building Confidence in your Growly but Brilliant Family Dog - which points out an area which will be affecting your dog much more than you may imagine. You may want to read the first and second parts of this series first: Can My Dog Be Stressed? - Part 1 and Can My Dog Be Stressed? Part 2 

While you’re doing your best to improve the situation and you take a look at what may be making things worse, you cannot overlook stress.

• Stress causes reactions to be exaggerated

• Stress causes us to snap

• Stress wears us out

And here’s another area of your dog’s life that could be building stress that may surprise you.

3. Daycare or a dogwalker

A very perceptive reader sent me this query recently: “My question is, what do you think of daycare for dogs? Are the dogs actually happy about it, or do dog owners just like to imagine they are?”

Some dogs love daycare. And some people love holiday camps with group activities. I have to say that’s not my kind of holiday, and I would find it very hard to cope and not one bit enjoyable.

I am not going to tar all daycares and dogwalkers with the same brush. There are some excellent ones, with dedicated and knowledgeable owners and good staff education programs. But I will say that you'll have to do extensive research to find a convenient, local one that is truly a safe place for your anxious dog to learn and develop. 

Management skills

Think of the skills you need as a parent to prevent open warfare in your own household! Then picture a gang of dogs being thrown together for a walk - or all day in a confined area - in the care of people who may have no dog training or behaviour qualifications whatever. “I love dogs” may help, but it’s not a qualification. And given how long it takes us to learn how to care for our own species - and that a lot of what people think about dogs is wrong - you’re going to be lucky to find somewhere safe for your dog.

I was recently shown a promotional video for a daycare by someone who’s been sending her very reactive German Shepherd pup there for months. Even in this 30-second video - meant to show how wonderful the place was - I could see bullying and intimidation of this pup by other dogs, and no one going to her aid. Imagine what this sensitive puppy is subjected to for ten hours a day, five days a week! No wonder her reactivity is already extreme at only six months of age. What the owner thought as “being perfectly happy at daycare” was in fact a dog that spent all day trying to avoid the other dogs (quite impossible with those numbers of loose dogs) - shut down, in other words. Not fine at all.

For many dogs, daycare is viewed with the same suspicion I view that holiday camp!

Dogwalkers

If you have a good and responsible dogwalker, you are indeed fortunate! A dogwalker arrived at my regular walking spot recently. She opened her van doors and out flew five or six dogs. One planted his feet on my chest while the others hurtled around the roadside car park alarming other dogs before heading off on their walk. After 20 minutes she returned and drove away again. Would you be happy paying good money for that level of care every day?

My personal solution to an enforced absence from home is to have someone I trust to come in to let the dogs out in the garden and play with them for a while during the day. A “walk” is not needed.

If anything goes wrong in a daycare or with a dogwalker, you will be paying for that for years - possibly the rest of your dog’s life. You can spend time observing at a potential daycare. If they don’t like you quietly watching - move on. Think hard, and do a lot of homework, before handing your dog over.

Regardless of where you live, there will be fantastic, dedicated dogwalkers and daycare facilities that truly put the needs of the dogs in their care above all else. So seek out those above-and-beyond caretakers, and you and your dog will certainly reap the rewards!

Here are excerpt 1 and excerpt 2

Did you find this excerpt interesting? Here's what Book 3 looks like!

Or you can choose to get all three books at once, in paperback or ebook.

For a free e-course to help remove the stress from your life, and your dog’s life go to www.brilliantfamilydog.com/growly

And to get started straight away with lessons to help your Growly Dog, watch our free Masterclass for Growly Dogs