6 months old and getting better!

Marley is 6 months old this week and as he moves from puppyhood to adolescence life is getting a little easier!  There’s still some biting but ignoring him is getting results. In the past week there’s only been one night of particularly challenging behaviour. Let’s hope we’re over the worst.  Crating at night has gone out the window after a few sleepless nights...he’s not particularly destructive so has the run of the kitchen now at night and also access to the sofa. He still hasn’t really discovered upstairs, which is good!

Walks are typically short and local and I’m trying not to go too far beyond the 5 minutes a month rule.  The docks was good to teach him some self restraint around joggers. Worden Park is wonderful as always, and he was happily off lead there on Sunday.

I’m still looking forward to longer walks and to get back on the moors. Won’t be long now I think before we head a little further.

Having big problems with waxy ears, and he won’t let me do a deep clean, so we are well used to the vets.  Next week he will be sedated to get them checked out and cleaned properly. Hope that sorts them!

Longton Brickcroft and the Marshes

A bit of a bitter sweet day today.  12 years ago the Preston Walkies Blog was born, the day the clocks went back. It was a fantastic morning in Malham which we repeated on the 10th anniversary. Sadly no Finney to walk with today but happily Marley also awoke early so there was no excuse not to take him on a lovely walk around Brickcroft and down to Longton Marshes.

With not a cloud in the sky and plenty of autumn leaves still on the trees, Brickcroft was stunning.  By the time we’d walked past the Dolphin Inn it was still glorious, with the sounds of wildfoul drifting across the marshes.  As there were no other walkers nearby it was a good moment to give Marley his first countryside off-lead experience.  All went well, with a little play and happily a good recall.

It was good to be back out in the countryside.  Not a lot has changed (and that’s good) since our last visit, except the various stiles have been replaced with gates making life much easier. Think Marley enjoyed it and he’s now asleep on the sofa!

Puppy days

Puppies can be hard work!  Yes, they can give loads of joy and love, but they can also be snarling biting monsters. It really has been a rollercoaster month. Most of the time Marley is a joy. He is really sharp, keen to learn and increasingly affectionate.  He does though have a demon side which normally appears after a walk or some kind of excitement, when he just goes off the rails jumping and biting, and sometimes barking wildly to go with it.  I guess it’s just over excitement and sometimes, when it’s particularly bad, must be related to pain as on several occasions we’ve found one of his little milk teeth a short time afterwards.  It’s bloody hard work though keeping your calm and remembering all the positive reinforcement training techniques when you really just want to roar at him.  On the plus side, the last of his fangs fell out last week so now we have proper teeth that tend to bruise skin rather than break it. I think maybe he is getting better as time goes on. There are some peaceful days,  but some are very very hard.

So, enough of my moaning, let’s focus on the positives of this nearly 5 month old pup, and there are meany.  His training is coming on well.  Sits, downs, stands and recalls are all pretty good. Stays need a little word. Heel work is good most of the time.  He can do a sendaway to his bed and a drop on recall.  He knows ‘give me 5’ (left paw) and give me 10 (right paw). He can restrain himself with ‘yer choice’ in the hand or with treats on the floor (mostly) and accidents are rare, and when they do happen it’s generally because he’s over excited or we’ve missed the signs.  He sleeps well in his crate.  He is good with other dogs (although he is usually on lead) and people (but he jumps). 

We’ve just returned from 10 days in Cornwall during which he came on so much. We went to the pub most days and his boundary training came in to play with his target mat and a pocket full of treats.  When we arrived he kicked off being in close proximity to a couple of very well behaved dogs in the beer garden. On our last meal out he remained calm(ish) whilst the pub dog came over to say hello. His long line has been a godsend.  On the beach every day he was able to run free but I had the confidence I could get home back relatively easily as surfers or joggers ran past, before he decided to taste their legs!  It’s been great to spend lots of time with him and expose him to lots of new situations. Biggest lesson for me has been to be patient and try to understand what makes him go in to crazy mode, then work out how to train a different reaction.  Ditch the bowl has been a great concept as have ‘calming’ and ‘distraction’ games.

Re-learning how to train a dog

For much of the past 10 years I helped out at the volunteer run Gregson Lane dog training club, which closed due to a change in circumstances for most of us, in 2017.  During that time hundreds of dogs and their owners came through the doors and most left happy, with confident owners and dogs who were well behaved having gained their gold or platinum awards.  I rarely got involved with the puppy classes, having what I now realise is the much easier job of the bronze, silver or gold classes where most of the time the dogs have already settled down a little and owners generally have some clue as to what they are doing.  The approach to training was very much about encouraging and praising your dog, but generally ‘telling’ it what to do rather than letting it figure it out.

For the past 6 weeks I’ve attended puppy classes, reading books and watching videos of positive reinforcement training. It is different in concept.  Essentially getting your dog to figure out what you want, marking then rewarding positive behaviour.  There is no leading your dog to heel with a treat or checking on the lead.  It’s more a case of encouraging the heel with a treat dropped behind your heel and continuing to do so, on a slack lead, until he gets it.  It’s a very rewarding approach and is certainly working for most things.  Biting is still an issue but there are days when i don’t get a hard bite! Much of the time my focus has been on things which will calm him, and ditching the food bowl so I have masses of food to reward good behaviour has been a bit of a revelation.

Marley loves people. He is interested in other dogs but not had that much opportunity to properly play with dogs his own size.  I need to find more opportunities to do that I think, in part so he wears himself out a bit but more so that he learns more about ‘play’ and what’s acceptable. 

Walks have been short, much shorter than I did with Finney at the same age, as I now know that it’s not necessary or particularly good for puppies to walk too far. 5 minutes for each month of age until they are grown, a couple of times a day, is the conservative approach.  I’ve not stuck entirely to that but he’s not walked more than a mile in one go.  Mental stimulation is equally good to tire him out. 

Not been off lead yet but I bought a long line today so we will start some training on that tomorrow, maybe at the beach at St Annes if the weather is good.  I might even get my camera out again!

The first 6 weeks with Marley

To be honest the first week is a bit of a blur but I think it was good! Nights were little or broken sleep, although he did sleep better each night in his crate.  I chose to sleep on the sofa for a few days, near his crate, whilst he settled in. That also made it slightly less of an ordeal to get him out for a wee at 2am.  6 weeks later it feels like a good move....he can go 7 to 8 hours overnight without a fuss!

Week two was good. I took over the holiday shift and inbetween household jobs spent loads of time playing and a bit of early training. It was so hot though that the vigorous play was confined to early morning and evening.

Week three better still. Second set of injections in the second week involved a ring round of local vets to find one who stocked the same type of vaccination as his first. Got there in the end though and MyVets cane to the rescue. It was great to get out a week later exploring the local environment. He is so confident at home but less so out and about. I am sure it will come though.

Week four I was back at work and my better half resumed doggy daycare. Accidents became a little less frequent and he’s pretty much mastered sits, downs, paw, wait and a half decent recall. On the down side he’s a real biter. Hands and arms are covered in scratches and small bite marks. He is getting a little better but think it will be a hard task to stop him!

Week five was tougher...he continued to jump and bite more than wanted and several times was described as devil dog! We did lots of positive reinforcement training though which was good at calming him down.  Puppy classes were great too.

Week six has been better...the training is paying off!

Loving time with him though. Reminds me of Finney in lots of ways, all good, but he has his own character of course. Hope one day he will enjoy the moors and coastline of Lancashire as much as he did.

Hello Marley

Last week Marley, an 8 week old Springer, joined the family. He really is a bundle of joy despite the needle teeth and sleepless nights.  I think Finney would be happy that the empty sadness we felt when we lost him has been replaced by love for life and hope for another lifetime of adventures. I can’t put in to words how sad the past 4 months has been but I knew that the only way that sadness would be beaten was to welcome a new pup in to our lives.  The best advice I took was to accept that the hole in your heart left when you lose your best friend will never go but your love for the other things in your life will grow, if you let it, so the hole feels smaller. I can’t wait to show Marley some of our favourite places.

Thank you for the memories

The saying goes that only one thing in life is inevitable, that one day it will end. We were blessed to have such an amazing and loving dog and he has been our world for nearly 12 years. I think I captured most of the highs and lows of our journey together. When I started this blog to see what ‘blogs’ were about all those years ago I had no idea what a treasure it would be. I did wonder a few times what I’d write for the last post. I think the following says it all “Thank you for the memories Finney.”