So now that Dash was here, it was going to be really interesting to see what he would be like. So far I had seen pretty much only good things. He was very social with other dogs, loved every person he met and greeted them with a wagging tail (I can’t say how much I LOVE that Aussie tail!) and a curl of his body into them. His tongue leapt out of his mouth non-stop when greeting. He met new circumstances or unknown things with interest but not necessarily with excessive exuberance. He was polite, learned quickly, and one of the things I found fascinating was how he was already able to change his play style to match that of the dog he was interacting with. I had not seen that in a puppy before, and it seemed an advanced social skill. If he were with my border collie that demanded submissiveness, he would run and roll, and lick, and run and roll, and throw himself at Skye, and then lick, or dig dirt with him. With Star, my tiny dog who is part terrier and has a very non-contact style, Dash did fast jerky movements, barking, and non-contact. I’ve seen him play with shy dogs, overly rambunctious dogs, and high-contact Aussies.
Recently he said “no” to a puppy friend of his who was being too much for him (keeping him pinned down and doing it frequently), and Dash put him in his place. We gave them a time out and they were fine together after that.
Dash, like many herding dogs, is a very fast learner and enjoys training. Since I got him, we have spent some time most days training either formally or informally. Formal sessions have included the usual behaviors such as sit, down, stay, as well as others like retrieving, crate games, hind end awareness, targeting, and agility obstacles appropriate to his age (no weaving or jumping higher than 8 inches and not too much of that either). Most of all we have worked on recalls- all my dogs have good recall, somewhere in the vicinity of 75-90%. The small dog, Star, has the most distractions ( which we haven’t worked through and likely, won’t), while Pilgrim has the best recall of all the dogs. Though I sometimes think I should be doing more recall work with all of them, really I know that it isn’t on the top of my training list. With 5 dogs you have to prioritize, and while they are pretty darn good, getting that extra near-perfect recall would take time away from other things I want to do with them, like agility, treibball and rally training.
However, getting a puppy as close to a perfect recall as I can IS on top of the list. So Dash and I work on recall in the house, out in the yard, and on walks in the woods. My clicker and a lot of great treats are what I use, and I know not to call him when I know he is too distracted to come to me. Building up his recall with small and intermediate distractions is where we are now. Leaves blowing around yes, we can work with that. The sound of a chipmunk in the woods, we can work with that, too. A chipmunk running in the yard, nope- he goes and chases it and I don’t even bother!
Doing a down contact on the dogwalk
At 5 1/2 months he started taking a class with me at the local Humane Society where I also work. Most people take a class to start their dog’s training, but actually in my mind, starting at home if you know something about what you are doing is really better, and that is what we did. At home you can train without the huge distractions you will get in a class. Then when you have the behaviors down pretty well at home, you can add in the distractions of a class. Dash is proving me right as he is clear what the behaviors are I am asking for in the class, but the distractions are raising the difficulty for him. He is doing great, because he has had such a good foundation of training, socialization and positive reinforcement going all the way back to his start in England.
Copyright © 2011 Diane Gibbons. All Rights Reserved
