Hands Off when your dog jumps up

Patricia McConnell has these words of advice about dogs jumping up:
"Avoid doing what comes naturally, which is pushing dogs away with your hands. Dogs respond to this as if you were playing, and leap back with even more enthusiasm. It's so very common for people to say "down" when dogs jump up on them. But think about is: down isn't the problem, it's jumping up in the first place! All dogs are going to go down eventually! Besides, aren't you teaching your dog to lie down to "down?" Using the word to mean two different things -lie down and don't jump up - is just another way to confuse your dog."

Rescued puppies will need homes…potential owners asked to register

Rescued puppies will need homes…potential owners asked to register

Left behind

The Tea Bag as a first aid tool

Approximately a month ago, at a time when all were plagued by flies and horseflies, Boss, one of our horses started showing signs of an infection of sorts in one of his eyes. It looked sore and was an obvious source of irritation to him. It just so happened that the horse dentist called over during that time and recommended I put a used, wet (obviously cold) tea bag on his eye. So without any hesitation I made myself a cuppa and started the tea bag treatment. After 3 applications, voila Boss’s eye showed a great improvement.

You may well ask why I am sharing this with you as this page is all about dogs. The answer is quite obvious, when you have a terrier, that is. Smudge, one of our two terriers just love hunting around in the hedgerows and quite often come home with thorns in her ears and yes, you guessed it, runny and sore eyes.  Two days ago the little princess promptly appeared with extremely sore eyes, more so than usual. So out came the teabags and again, voila, the treatment worked.

I am not suggesting that you ignore what you feel might be worth a trip to the vet and I will never suggest substituting veterinary treatment for layman advice. Should you however find yourself in a situation that the teabag treatment might help until such time as you can get to the vet, why not give it a go.

 Healing properties of the tea bag

Should you be the Alpha Dog?

If this is a topic that is of interest to you this might be a video worth purchasing Alpha dog

One reason why puppy classes are important

For the single pup in a family home it is vital they have access to adult dogs to continue the parenting role and develop good communication skills. More behavioral problems in adult dogs can be traced back to the absence of this lesson more than any other single factor. They simply do not know how to say "hello," or how to say "hi-but-not-today-thank-you." - Kay Laurence

SIRIUS Sniffer Workshop

Saturday and Sunday saw me and Clyde attending a two day SIRIUS Sniffer Workshop at Dog Training Ireland, Blanchardstown. It was a great thrill to see the International trainer, Kelly Dunbar, utilising the natural instinct of dogs to sniff and turn it into a challenging game where the dog has to switch from using its brain to using its nose.  

Instead of stopping your dog to smell, like almost all of us do almost all of the time, why not allow him to use this, his strongest sense, remember that dogs “see” through their noses similar to how we see through our eyes.  You, as handler, can decide what is appropriate in what circumstance but don’t stop your companion from “seeing” his environment totally. 

CIRIUS Training