h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hiya, can I ask for your doggy wisdom and experience?

Max is 9 monhts old, and we're hopefully doing our bronze award good citizen test next week - you've done that with some of yours, haven't you?

Any tips or advice? His worst habit is pulling on the lead. Most of the other elements he can do fine....but is easily distracted.

Hi there, glad to see you are doing this. Have you done the puppy foundation?

Both my dogs have their bronze, but to get the silver I'd have to join another training club and I haven't got around to that yet. We do something called a 'Good Dog Diploma' at our training club, and they've both got their bronze for that too. I'd like them both to do the silver this year, and hopefully for Fred, the gold too.

Not pulling on the lead is one of the things they do check for, but at 9 months of age they would hopefully give you some leeway for that. They aren't checking for perfect heelwork, but that you can walk with the dog, rather than be dragged along and that he's not lunging at other dogs or people.

I've been told that they don't allow harnesses or head collars so you can't rely on one of those to get you through. You can't use treats for the exercises, but they do normally allow you to carry them so that you can reward after the exercise is over.

The biggest tip I can give is to make sure Max's id tag has the exact details on it that they want - normally that is *your* name and address. It's a shame seeing people fail just for getting that wrong - if the law over there is different and you don't normally have that on max just get a cheap paper/plastic one for the test.

If they ask what the dog should sleep in, it's *his own* bed. I just said 'a bed' then 'a soft bed' then 'with a lovely blanket' as he kept prompting me for a bit more. I missed out that it was a bed of his own...

What do you do to work with him on distractions?

love the "soft bed with a lovely blanket..." answer!


Distractions - well, when we're out walking I'm always doing a bit of "sit" "wait" "down" type stuff, so he's paying me some attention. If I see something up ahead I don't want him to notice we'll do a "twist" whioch he's quite good at.

But even though he'll do a beautiful "sit-wait" for me before a recall on our walks, he's too distracted by the other doggies in the hall to do that on training nights, so the trainer usually holds his collar until I giove the recall command. And I know he can "stay" for over a minute, even if I go to the room next door, but again, in the hall, with other doggies about , that's less reliable.

You can teach dogs to watch your face or hands when you want them not to look at something else. With a small dog I suggest hands, but I think even with big dogs this is a bonus if you use a lot of hand signals, because they will be watching for the next signal. I use 'focus' for Fred to watch my hands, and 'look' if I want him to look at my face - some people use 'watch me' instead. He's also learnt that 'leave' means 'leave that alone and look at me' because I usually give him something else to do to reinforce he shouldn't be touching something.

If you want to translate a 60 second sit/stay from home to the training club you have to lower your expectations. So if he can do 60 seconds at home, aim for ten percent at training, and reward that, increasing the time by 10% when he becomes reliable, aiming for at least 10-20% *over* what you want. So train a 70 second sit/stay if you are going to be tested on 60 secs. Don't introduce distance and duration at the same time, work on one or the other until he gets good at it. On a down stay don't let him sniff, because he may forget what he's doing and get up to follow the smell.

Exercises for the bronze are usually done all together, including the stay, but you can usually pick where you want to do the stay, so try to look out for a couple of calm, older dogs to sit and work near.

And good luck with it! Let me know how you get on.

Yay! we passed!

As I suspected, his walking to heel wasn't great, and we had to do that one twice. Funny how each different dog has a different area that they're not so good at.

His down-stay was brilliant, even though the dog next to him was fidgetting and refusing to lie down.

So, will start the silver classes, and see how they go. And I really want to have a go at agility work.

Well done!

I'd like to do the silver, but it means joining a different training class and I really can't be bothered at the moment.

Agility is great fun, even my greyhound has a bit of a go, but she's not really into it. I'd prefer to try flyball with Fred, because he won't be able to run riot, but he can't catch!

Right - silver this week! I have my doubts as to whether he's really ready for this one - heel work's still not brilliant, although it is getting better. I do a wee skippy dance to get his attention when we start walking. And we're not allowed head collars this time.

I was doing some wait/ stay/ recall training with him last night in the grassy square - it's fully enclosed so it's a great safe outdoor space to work in - and I spotted one of the residents who'd been out watering his plants had stopped to watch us train.

Good luck with your test!

I find people do enjoy watching training sessions. You might start getting doggy people asking questions if it looks as if you know what you are doing.

When training stays/waits and recall, I suggest that you don't train them too close together. I have been told it can confuse the dogs if one minute we walk off and call them, and the next minute we walk off and want them to stay there. I haven't had any problems with it, but I know some dogs do.

I haven't got any tips for lead walking that aren't already in my entry, but it can be one of the hardest things to teach - because even when they know it they can't always control themselves enough to do it! Fred walks so nicely on the lead sometimes - I don't make him walk to heel when we're on a walk unless we're in a busy place, and he will walk without pulling, although he does go to the end of the lead so it's taut. Then other times he'll pull so hard I have no chance of controlling him. Normally there is something he wants he is trying to get to - he's got no self-control that dog!

Will you go on to gold after this?

Oooh, gold might be a bit of a stretch - we'll see how the silver goes.

Our trainer emphasises the difference between "wait" meaning I'm going to give you another command in a minute that will require you to move, and "stay" meaning sit there and do not move a muscle!

I have seen trainers make that distinction, also I heard one trainer say they don't do 'stays' they only do 'waits' in the lower classes but as far as I could see they both have the dog sitting in one position while the owner leaves and then returns, so I couldn't see the difference!

When I first went training with Buster years ago I was taught that if I told the dog to do one thing (ie sit) I shouldn't need any other commands until I told him something else, so I wouldn't need stay commands. I carried it on with Fred and Beauty, and it works.

When I tell Fred to sit, he sits until I give him something else to. If he doesn't, it's because he's a pain in the backside and would have moved no matter what other commands I used. He is better trained than Beauty, but usually she'll stay if she is lying down.

Actually I do use both wait and stay - wait means 'stay where you are' and is usually used to stop them coming across doorways but I have used it to stop them if they are walking and I want to catch up, and I use stay to mean 'I'm going somewhere and you can't come' so effectively I use them as you do - wait I will be asking you to do something else (ie go through the door) and stay means stay there til I come back to you, but neither means the dogs have to stay motionless.

On Saturday both dogs 'stayed' on the beach while I went up to the promenade to dispose of some poop. I was really proud, as they both wanted to follow me. Awww...

As I suspected - "not ready" on the road walk
Also on the controlled greeting - bit unfair this one as we'd never practised the exercise and to throw it at us during the test caught me by surprise. Mind you all the other doggies managed it (and all the other doggies passed, curses - I think I'd feel a bit better if Max hadn't been the ONLY dog not to get the award). the examiner did say all his other elements were great (2 minute stay an' everything!)

Ho hum, off into kennels for 2 weeks while we're having a welcome brak from the 4.44 a.m wake up barking , and after that we'll start refreshed and renewed again on heel walking training. Honestly, the dog on Dog Borstal last night got the hang of it in 2 minutes! Snot fair

That's a shame. What did he do on the greeting that he shouldn't have done?

If you've been paying for a course and they didn't cover this, I'd ask for a partial refund!

Dogs on Dog Borstal are edited. They're not real. They're fake.

Ah good. I'm glad those Dog Borstal dogs aren't real...which reminds me, weren't you auditioning for Trinny and Susanna?

Controlled greeting is basically a sit-stay - but Max is so friendly and socaiable that he finds it hard not to sniff and jump up on a stranger. I'm confident enough about working on that one - walking to heel I just feel we've tried everything and nothing works!

Yes, I was accepted and have done all the filing. Details will be in The Post nearer the time (September) I hope.

Luckily I'm not one of the main 'contestants' so I have no idea whether I will get any telly time or not, but mine and Fred's pictures must get air time cos we were in the middle of a really big photo that T&S were standing in front of to do some filming.

They gave me some completely impractical shoes which will be on ebay soon, possibly with the jeans they gave me as well. I'll keep the top as long as it doesn't need ironing.

"walking to heel I just feel we've tried everything and nothing works!" This is how I got with my previous dog Buster, and never managed to train him. With Fred I tried one method and stuck to it and eventually it worked!

The lead walking works quick on Dog Borstal because of a)edited b)instructor gives confidence to dog and owner c)complete lack of distractions! If you do the technique right it can work really quickly, as long as you don't try to actually walk anywhere.

If you notice when they do the test they are usually not walking with the dog in the same way they practised as they introduce distractions then. Normally the owners are hanging on for grim death, or shaking bottles in the dogs faces.