When we were planning our move from the UK to France three years ago there were puppies at the farm, so I gave in and said yes to a dog. As his parents were both working sheepdogs I decided I would train him for trialing, I mean I've watched one man and his dog, so how difficult could it be? As we had a month before the move I bought every dog training book and video/DVD I could find (unfortunately no clicker ones) and booked us onto a sheepdog training weekend in Scotland which was fantastic fun. I was confident and planning for a great future!
Arffa was a delight to have around, full of boundless energy, very intelligent and extremely friendly. We farmsat for friends and walked their flocks once a week to make sure Arffa was used to sheep. We raised bottle lambs with Arffa, and he showed good "eye" for controlling the sheep and developed a fair turn of speed. We set up a training ring and borrowed some sheep. All was going well, except that I was still clueless. With all the will in the world a beginner can't get far with a sheepdogs training without "trained sheep" or an experienced sheepdog. So we searched around for trainers who could help.
In the meantime however I had made the mistake of thinking that all the people with dogs who I knew would know best about how to generally train my dog, and that sheep farmers, particularly those with working dogs would know what I should do to train him for trials. It has to be said however that in this neck of the woods sheepdogs are under utilised due to the geography - small flat fields and sheep used to supplementary bucket feeding - you go out and shake a bucket and they generally just come. This thinking however put Arffa at a severe disadvantage, as everyone who had ever watched "the dog whisperer" or "dog borstal" was suddenly elevated to the level of expert. Having come from the education field myself I had assumed that asking questions demonstrated an enquiring mind open to discussion, but on the whole I discovered that it was interpreted as me having no idea about anything much, and slowly but surely every small misdemenour of Arffas (his chasing cats is a symptom of my lack of control) was escalated to folklaw among our small band of friends.
I began to panic, why wasn't his recall instantaneous?, why did he pull excitedly on his lead when he saw another dog? I must need to read more, watch more. At about a year old he had a small altercation with his dad at the farm - no harm done, but I was horrified, he had had a fight. I guess I started becoming reactive when I saw dogs on walks, and soon we were on a downward spirral of growling and snapping at other dogs - not all other dogs it has to be said, it took me a while to realise that it was only other "entire" males, and only whilst on a lead.
Good news arrived at last when Mike and Christine Hall moved from Wales to Parthenay, about two hours drive from us. Mike is a shepherd and very successful trialist, and had moved to France to semi-retire and to train sheepdogs fulltime. Mike took on the job of training me to train Arffa. It was during the second lesson that Arffa (I think confused by the task) decided to leave the field and pick a fight with another dog! He had never done this off lead before. The other dog was totally none reactive, so it seemed pretty uncalled for! Anyway the sheepdog lessons went well, and we even farm sat for M and C when they competed in trials in France.Arffa got extra practice on Mikes trained sheep, and we carefully managed exercise with Mikes dogs so that Arffa was in the field with them but engaged in stick games with one of us. I was feeling confident. Arffa had allowed entire male dogs of a similar age to approach him, one even showed dominant behaviour to which Arffa responded appropriately with turns away and a low growl. Even the dog that Mike exercised seperately to his others because its behaviour iritated them exercised in the same field with him and approached him with no problems. I was delerious, we had managed the situation well. The next day however Arffa decided it wasn't OK and reacted to three of the dogs! In retrospect it was our fault, they were all much closer together, we were in the middle of them playing with all the dogs. We simply hadn't managed it in the same way.
Unfortunately I was still living in my world of open discussion when talking to friends, and suddenly found myself the recipient of every sort of unsolicited advice going. I decided it was time to go with my experience of working with challenging adolescent young men and use a positive only approach much to the horror of all the advice givers. At this stage Arffa was two years old, and we had decided to get another puppy for my partner to train for trialling (yes gluttons for punishment ). So Fly arrived. All the onlookers warned of dire consequences - Arffa wouldn't like it - he wouldn't accept another male in the pack, etc etc, but I knew he was fine with puppies, and that if we managed it well they would be great friends. After a very short period of time they were playing continuously. Arffa was so gentle with Fly to the point of exhaustion as the puppy leapt all over him and grew big (Arffa is a very small collie, Fly is a big collie). By now I had bought some of Pam Denisons books, and as a result of that bought "Don't Shoot the Dog" and "Getting in Touch with your Dog". Suddenly it all made sense. Fly took to clicker training, and Arffa too. We tried introducing Arffa to a non reactive dog, and it went well for the first 5 minutes, but we did it wrong again, all stood round too close etc, and when Arffa suddenly decided he didnt like it and kicked off, he got a bitten ear for his just deserts. So off we went on holiday skiing, with Fly 6 months old. I had it all planned, I was going to spend loads of time with Arffa doing only positive stuff to iron out his little problems.
We were on our way down a very busy road when we saw jogging towards us a small puppy. Lorries were dashing past, so we did what we had to and went around the round about and back to pick it up. Needless to say the other dogs were not that impressed, but after about 36 hours ( sleeping in an Eriba caravan with two pups in crates and Arffa in any space he could find) they all settled down well together in the ski appartment. I didn't get much skiing done. Rab couldn't be left or he screamed the place down, but walks and games in the snow, and the clickers saved the day.
When we got back everyone wanted to meet Rab - collie cross mountain bear! Off we went to the lake with three other dogs (two bitches and an 8 month old dog) All went well, swimming in the lake, playing sticks etc, but I still couldn't believe that all these knowledgeable people weren't listening when I told them how best to react to keep Arffa calm "bend down slowly to pick up a stick, say 'let me have it' " etc - might as well have been speaking a foreign language! Anyway, I let this drift over me, and continued to demonstrate how calm he could be. What a star he was. On the way back to the cars however the other young male decided he wanted the stick Arffa was carrying, and was not prepared to take no for an answer. They both spat and snarled on hind legs and were quickly seperated. To my horror as I put Arffas lead on one of our friends ran up and started shouting in his face! I walked away with Arffa, and Fly followed me.
Now Rab is about 6 months old, Fly 9 months and Arffa 3 years. Rab and Fly play continuously, and Arffa keeps order. I've decided to keep my dogs away from reactive people after a similar incident when Fly got the same treatment for barking at a cat - not even chasing it!
I am hoping to have Arffa ready for his first trial in October, so still work to be done on the male-male agression thing. I have now read "click to calm" and I think at last I am reacting quickly enough to get the clicks in before he has lost it and is no longer hearing me. So next blog entry will be a lot shorter! Wish me luck
