“In dog culture, when someone
calls you, you should absolutely not
come if that results in the ending of something you like or initiation of something you don’t like.”
Jean Donaldson
Having a great off lead dog
The Fairydogmother Ultimate off lead course is on one to one basis with all my clients so our training is tailored to the specific off lead problems you are having with your dog. The problems people have with their dogs vary: from the the dogs that just completely ignore their owners and do their own thing to the squirrel chasers and the infuriating dogs who dance around ten feet away not quite close enough to get that lead on.
During the course I will focus on teaching you things that will be of most benefit to you and your dog’s breed and the issues you are having. After each lesson with me look in the training vault for the specific things we have gone through in person during that session.
Introduction
Walks with your dog should be fun and relaxing – not stressful and frustrating. It’s a time to bond, chill out together, relax, enjoy each other’s company and have fun together; not worry and stress over the fact that you just can’t get him back when you need to – or worse: that he might run away and get lost, injured, stolen or hit by a car!
I see people all the time wandering along, faffing with their phones, daydreaming, chatting to mates they have met up with along the course of their usual walk – the same walk they do every day with their dog – leaving their dogs to go do their own thing… and when it comes to wanting to get their dog back they are either nowhere to be seen or way too busy enjoying themselves to want to come back and have seemingly ‘gone deaf’.
The simple fact is – you need to up your BMF game …. BE MORE FUN … so you can keep your dog from disappearing and finding his own fun without you and going completely deaf to your desperate, increasingly irate yet fruitless shouting at him to come back to you. You dog is off enjoying himself because you are, quite simply, boring as hell. You might be the life and soul in the pub on a Saturday night, you may be inspirational at work and colleagues hang off your every word but to your dog you are dull as dishwater compared to all the other fun to be had out there.
So, along with learning to influence your dog’s dopamine rush I will give you lots of ways to make yourself a whole lot more interesting to your dog – so he wants to be with you
I know you love your dog, you feed him, make sure he is healthy and comfortable. You may play with him at home and give him endless cuddles on the sofa while you watch the soaps. But out there, in the big exciting world of smells, other dogs, rabbits and squirrels you are boring. And that is what we will change.
Why do I teach this?
Because I see so many people who tell me they don’t enjoy walking their dogs. In fact, many people actually dread walking their dog. Sometimes this means their dog is getting fewer, shorter and less enjoyable walks themselves because it is a chore for their owner. People are then left with an under-exercised, understimulated dog who is bouncing off the walls at home. This can cause all kinds of other behaviour problems.
Sometimes owners really start to feel like they have lost control with the ‘nightmare’ walks and now all kinds of behaviour problems to boot because of it and if they don’t get help and change things for the better dogs get re-homed or sent to a rescue…. and this all started simply because their dog was embarrassing or frustrating out on walks, this may seem extreme – but it happens.
When and why did it all go wrong?
Think back to when it all started to go wrong, the likelihood is that it was probably during your dog’s teenage phase between six and 14 months. If only I had a pound for everyone who has said to me “when he was a puppy his recall was great, he just stayed with me all the time, he never went too far away and usually came back when I asked him to …. then it all went wrong”
It’s not even because the owner did anything particularly wrong, they may have been to puppy classes, spent ooodles of time training their puppy to sit, stay and lie down, making sure they were sociable with other dogs and people and made sure their puppy came back to them.
There are exceptions with particularly confident pups, but young puppies generally lack the confidence to leave us and go off and explore that big world around them, especially when they are taken to new places. They stick with us like glue, we are their everything and it’s all wonderful and lovely and owners think they’ve cracked it and their dog is amazing.
…. Then BANG, your dog hits adolescence and it all seems to go wrong. Your ‘wonderful’ puppy is now ignoring you and going ‘deaf’ out on walks. It’s as though you aren’t even there anymore and that once perfect puppy who adored being near you is now a source of embarrassment, frustration and sometimes utter panic outdoors as you stand there screaming your head off to no avail as you watch your dog do as he pleases, or worse he legs it way too far away chasing a squirrel or going to say hi to a dog he has seen in the distance.
The two C’s are what makes it all go wrong. During adolescence they hit a peak of confidence and curiosity. They are suddenly brave enough to go off exploring without you at their side and they are having plenty of fun on their own thank you very much, so they don’t need you as they are happy to get out there and do it on their own.
So, if your little four-legged friend is still a puppy – take note – it may happen to you unless you are very careful!!
If you have a puppy reaching 6 months (earlier for small breeds) and you notice him start to ignore you when you call him back as though he had never ever heard the words “here Fido!” get him back on that lead. It only lasts a few weeks so don’t worry, get on with this training, ride it out and all will be fine.
The reason it happens; they go through a ‘flight period’ during that tough old time called adolescence. It correlates with the age when the wolf pups had to leave their summer den where they were born so they can follow the herd (their food source) to their new winter home. Moving to a new house requires more independence and confidence to explore their environment on their own so the adolescent wolf (and your adolescent dog) becomes far more interested in exploring.
Your dog also goes through a second fear impact period during this time, but that is a topic for another day.
Basically, your dog now feels like a big brave boy who can do it all on his own without you to hold his hand – he is a teenager! and if you have a human version at home, which I have, you will know exactly what I mean, dogs and kids can be surprisingly similar.
If you are reading this because you already have an adolescent or adult dog that has gone through the flight period and it all went wrong when you came out of the other side, don’t panic. It takes time and patience but it’s also lots of fun, for both you and your dog, and worth it so you can actually enjoy your walks together again.
Why do you need to BE MORE FUN
…. Because fun is infectious
From Darwin onwards there have been studies about something we call emotional contagion. The fact that through facial expression and body language the emotional state of a person (or animal) can influence the emotional state of another.
Emotions are contagious – and that includes cross species. Your dog knows when you are happy and having fun or miserable and dull. Your dog can read facial expressions as well as your whole body language.
Human studies have shown that when we greet each other or communicate face-to-face we gaze to the left, so we are looking at the right side of the other person’s face. The right side of our faces shows emotion and so fixing our gaze on that side enables us to read each other’s emotions easier and more accurately. All humans to do this unconsciously and it is a built-in social behaviour. Adam Miklosi did a study on eye tracking in dogs when they are looking at humans. It was discovered that the dogs do exactly the same. As people are unaware that they do this is not possible that we have taught dogs to also do this. They don’t do it when engaging with other dogs or with any other animals only with humans. Dogs can read human communication such as pointing or gazing in the direction of something, they can also pick up a human’s emotional state for example fear, anger or happiness: Another study by Guo, Meints, Hall and Mills in 2009 showed evidence of left gaze bias in humans, rhesus monkeys and domestic dogs).
So being fun is important as there are so many things out there on walks that are fun and interesting, and you have to compete with them all!! And win the war on fun.
This is especially important for dogs who don’t know how to play, I meet loads of dogs from rescue who just don’t know how to play because they have never been played with. Which is really sad.
Your dog's name
Question…
Do you give your dog a reward EVERY TIME you say his name?
I don’t
Have a think – how many times a day do you say your dog’s name?
For the rest of today keep a tally of how many times you use your dogs name
I probably use my dogs names maybe 30 times a day on average, to get their attention or when I am giving them praise and telling them how lovely they are, or to ask just one of my dogs to do something like sit as I have multiple dogs.
I have met clients who used thier dog’s name a zillion times in an hour!
Their dog also didn’t get a treat every time they spoke to their dog using his name.
Your dog needs to know that you want him to come back
His name doesn’t mean ‘come here’
His name doesn’t mean he will get a reward
He hears his name all the time and gts no reward.
So why do you shout your dogs name to try and get him to come back?
HIs name doesn’t mean that if he comes rushing up to you he will get handsomely rewarded as he hears it loads of times every day and gets nothing.
So why would he?
One of my dogs Lola was a perfect example, she came back beautifully when I uses a specific recall cue but if I shouted her name she would generally stop, stand still, and look at me with a kind of “yeah what do you want?” look on her face. She didn’t come rushing up to me to find out what I wanted.
The same way that when of my boys shouted “Muuuuuuummmmm!” from upstairs when they were much younger I didn’t immediately go running up the two flights of steps to their bedrooms. I shouted back “what do you want?”
If they had shouted “Quick I’ve a present for you!” – I’d have beeen more inclined to rush up and find out what it was.
Poison Cues
Sometimes you will use your dog’s name negatively – some people much more than others … “Tilly No!!!!”. If “Tilly” is frequently followed by a bollocking for something it will change the association that “Tilly” is a positive word. This is particularly common in multi-dog households so the dog who is doing something he shouldn’t (and the other dogs) know which one you are refering to. I try not to do this as I want a dogs name to be a very positive thing.
Obviously tone of voice and context is important but if your dog’s name is used negatively frequently (especially if he has had a telling off for not coming back in the past) when you call your dog in the park he will not know if something good or something bad is going to follow it.
Do not use your dogs name for your recall cue.
Wooooh! I hear you shout – “but I have always used my dogs name to call him back”
You have
And it didn’t work or you wouldn’t be here!
Premack (Grandma's rule)
What is it?
The premack principle: preferred behaviours can be used to reinforce unpreferred behaviours (originally identified by David Premack in 1965).
Sometimes it’s referred to as Grandma’s Rule. The name comes from when Grandmothers (experts of children’s behaviour) say to their grandchildren “You have to eat all your vegetables if you want some chocolate cake”
Sometimes you need a huge reward to get dogs (or people) to do something they don’t want to do.
It’s the same for children, my eldest son for example: when he was at School he willingly did the vacuuming every Thursday after school instead of going straight on his Xbox, which is what he really wanted to do.
Now he didn’t do this because he loves me (although he does), or because he enjoyed doing it (I’m pretty sure he didn’t). He did it because I paid him three quid each week for doing it. The Premack principle can come in as handy in dog training as does with child training.
Now he is 21 and has a job three quid definitely doesn’t cut it – it’s not enough of a reward.
This Premack principle applies to having a reliable off-lead dog:
Impulse control is important for your dog, he needs to stop and think. So the reward has to be good enough to stop him doing something else that he really, really wants to do.
So, your dog may really want to chase the squirrel he just spotted running down a tree or go play with a dog he has just seen at the other end of the park. That’s where impulse control, obedience and offering him something better will stop him doing it.
Five Golden Rules
1
Never ever call your dog back if something aversive (bad for your dog) will happen to him when he gets to you. Especially a telling off from you for not coming back in the first place.
2
Manage your dog’s freedom so he doesn’t learn that coming when called is optional (It is not) and also loads of fun. What is more of a reward than freedom to do as you please? To avoid him learning to ignore you, keep him on a lead or long-line for now.
3
Never, ever chase him round the park if he ignores you when you call him – that is absolutely THE best kind of fun game for your dog, they love playing chase me games, so he will repeat it … often and it will drive you crazy and just make you mad at your dog.
4
Never call your dog back when you know it’s likely to fail because he is just too distracted. Remember – baby steps. If you make it easy for him to get it right and he gets a reward he will repeat it.
5
Finally, it’s great to have a dog who is super sociable with other dogs – BUT if other dogs are more fun than you, you have lost in the game of keeping your dog with you – you have to BE MORE FUN than everything else out there. This is about having fun together not your dog having fun on his own.
TESTIMONIALS
Happy Clients
Just a few of them!
Carrie Holt
JONSIE
5 stars 
absolutely brilliant with jonsie she come on leaps and bounds thanks to Kerry …highly recommend for and trouble your having with your pooch ….very understanding also when I was Poorly and had to cancel 2-3 times but rearranged no problem thank you loads shes a different dog 
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
