17/07/2026
When getting a new puppy, I of course want my other dogs to accept the new puppy which quickly happens, but I try my best to ensure the puppy bonds with me first and foremost and not any of the rest of the gang, but of course relationships develop. This is done by rewarding the puppy for its reactions with me on a regular basis. As we compete in competitive obedience, we start to lay the foundations as part of this reward routine generally in regular ten to fifteen minutes sessions every day. We continue this routine in lots of different places as we travel to them so that the puppy gets used to engaging in different surroundings where there are all the things they will come across in their life be that other dogs, livestock, people, vehicles, crowds etc as I learn about the individual dogs character but also being aware of its natural traits. This also has the added benefit that these short trips become a predictor of pleasurable experiences for our puppies, which in turn helps make longer journeys pass with little incident or stress. I do not walk puppies with my older dogs as I certainly don’t want them chasing but want them to develop and experience the world on their own. Once they have mastered the basics including loose leash walking and walking with me off leash, I may let them walk with one of my older dogs. I certainly don’t want them running up to strange dogs or people and don’t allow either dogs or people to approach them either. For me socialisation is about our dogs viewing all the things they encounter in life as normal and of little consequence without being anxious or overexcited. Dogs will generally do what they find most rewarding and avoid things that are the opposite, so in theory it is quite easy to help them make the right choices. My latest puppy could best be described as an Exocet missile and have worked hard on rewarding her for ignoring other dogs and people and turning her attention towards me. We are finally getting there after working out her critical distance when she gets overexcited. Our high spot was walking her off lead and passing several Squirrels running across our path with her checking in and not giving chase much to my surprise, just shows the work we put in is paying dividends. Sometimes just sitting and chilling as the world walks by is a good exercise in itself as of course we want to teach our dogs to chill as well as engage in all the fun bits we do.
We of course teach all these things at Whiteacre especially in the Thursday class where I am pleased to say that all teams are not only perfecting the exercises they do but more importantly engage well with their handlers as well as choose to do most of what we do with joy and gusto. There is no need for corrections or anything harsh but as humans we need to guard against our frustrations. Training should always be fun for both dog and handler and teaching both an on and off switch helps no end as well as blaming ourselves should things go wrong which in my experience it nearly always the cause.
