Just 'STOP', Bran!!

Arrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Ok. So. Last week we went in armed with a perfect 'STOP' that could be performed in the house and in the park with distractions, plus a 'go round' in one movement if Bran was paying enough attention. We didn't do either exercise at class - typical! However, we did lots of recalls with distractions: Bran had to first be recalled from a group of dogs and he came straight out; then he had to be recalled whilst Jo was feeding him treats and he came straight away; next was recalling down the paddock with toy distractions dotted about - first time recall; recall down the paddock with toy distractions, bowls of food distractions and a set of weave poles - perfect recall; recall to heel and continue to walk at heel for 10 paces - spot on!

I've continued to work on the 'STOP' at home and at the work. And at Mandy's house after I moaned about him not doing it at class and he executed it perfectly.

His elbow was sore during class last week and he is back on a rather hefty dose of tramadol to manage that, but all the same he continued to execute the perfect 'STOP' at home on laminate flooring so of course he couldn't fail to perform at class - yet again! - could he??

Today we've done recall to heel and continue to heel whilst weaving through cones - brilliant; recall then finish at the same time as another dog - marvellous (even with a barking collie beside him!); paying little attention to someone eating food - interested but not bothersome and distractable; sending to bed - lovely (although he offered a 'sit' instead of a 'down'); 2 minute stay - great until he got up to come to me at the end of the exercise instead of waiting; 'leave' with food in a bowl and then in an open hand - fab; and then we had 2 'STOP' exercises - the one we've been practising with the dog recalling to you and starting to teach a 'STOP' whilst the dog is moving away from you.

Jo offered to give Bran some leeway because of his elbows but I insisted that if he can do it perfectly on a laminate floor at home, there should be no reason for excuses on a grassed paddock.

Did he 'STOP'?

Did he bugger!!!!!

He didn't even shuffle a few paces and then stop like some of the others did - he just kept coming at me slowly! 5 times he was given a chance to sort it and EVERY SINGLE TIME he just kept walking at me.

Then we had to try the stop whilst walking away and, again, he just refused to halt!

Jo told us to keep practising but I feel like banging my head against a wall now because I don't know how I can keep practising when he does it perfectly everywhere except at class.

Oooh I could swing for him right now!

Oh and an added bonus: we're taking our silver test on 8th January and Jo's enquiring about whether we can do our gold on the same day!

And extra exciting news - Moss and Sophie are moving up to the bronze class next week!!

Having fun

Well both Bran and I are having lots of fun learning our new exercises.

Having managed to get to a point where he was pre-empting the new 'stop' command by stopping and immediately turning on his heel and running to fetch the treat that I hadn't yet thrown behind him, I decided to bring the clicker out and use that to capture Bran's 'stop' BEFORE he had a chance to turn on his heel. By last Wednesday, he was reliably stopping to every hand/vocal command and holding it for a good 20 seconds before having the treat thrown. On Thursday we went to class and I got the old 'Are you speaking English? What is this 'stop' you speak of?' from him. Swine ;o)

Today, we took the 'stop' command to the park and I used a squeaky Kong ball instead of treats and my boy was perfect. Just perfect. Of course, we'll see how he performs on Thursday but at least now I have it on record should he call me before a jury doubting my training again!

Learning a finish has been........ermmmm...........entertaining. I've been trying to guide Bran round to my right with one treat, then offering a treat in my left hand to bring him round to my left and into a sit. Nightmare. Not fun. Hard work. Every single time without fail as I remove the treat in my right hand to guide him with my left, he would follow the right hand back out and get himself in a right old tizzy! Clicker to the rescue again! I started clicking him just for following my right hand to halfway round my back. Once that was nailed, I commanded him to go that far then lured him round to my side and a sit. He can now do a finish in one movement to the command 'go round' and a brief hand signal, although we do need to make it quicker and get his 'sit' a bit closer. Mucho progress though :)

What else have we been doing?

Changing pace with onlead walking: 'steady' warns him we're going to slow it down; 'come on then' warns him we're going to get much faster.

All of a sudden he seems to know 'heel' for perfect offlead heelwork which bemuses me as I don't remember ever teaching him 'heel' as a command. We've done a lot of heelwork both on and off lead but I've never given it a command so am amazed that I suddenly have a dog who can 'heel' like a pro!

Recalling whilst I'm still moving and keeping him to heel and in pace for 10 paces is just beautiful. For some reason he just "got" this exercise the very first time that we tried it at class and continues to nail it every single time.

'Mat' is being dusted off and solidified so that I can reward him on the mat and he doesn't come off of it, even if there are distractions around. He did this brilliantly on Saturday night when he was on his mat whilst Sophie and I practised 'mat' with the puppies.

I still need to start clicking him for having 4 feet on the floor when people come through the door as I think that's going to be his hardest exercise for the silver exam. I also need to do some more work with getting him to focus on me if we are walking around someone with food. He pays no interest if we are eating at home but apparently it's very exciting if someone is eating at class!

Anyway. That's where we are for now. I feel happy with the progress that we're making and was delighted when an older couple who had obviously seen us training at the park came up to me to tell me what a lovely, obedient dog Bran is. I absolutely agree!

Silver training commences and a bit of a surprise!

So finally we made it back to training today!

Bran was thrilled to see "his" Jo again and Jo was happy to have us back in the class.

The class was so different to what we've had before! There were only 2 other dogs there today and they are both training for their KC Gold so the standard was much higher than we've been used to working to. It felt as if the owners were more relaxed than they've been at our starter and bronze classes and I suppose that may be down to the fact that they've already done a fair bit of training with their dogs and are more confident with them.

Bran seemed to be really happy to be "working" again and was really attentive throughout the class, although his favourite bit was when Jo had to examine his ears, eyes, paws, etc and he rolled in his back and wagged at the same time! LOL!

Jo told me that she has no doubt that Bran will be ready to take his silver test fairly shortly and then said that she would also be expecting him to be taking his gold test at the same time as the other dogs in our class, as we're practising the gold exercises alongside them anyway. This means that he should have both his silver AND gold under his collar by Christmas! Blimey.

I'm fairly confident that Bran will be able to fly through both exams but that means that *I* have a lot of studying to do so that I don't let him down!

How exciting!

Good excuse for being AWOL

Huge apologies for the big gap, but a lot of you will know why we've been AWOL.

As intended, Bran was taken to the vets on the day after passing his bronze test and I was fully expecting to be told that he needed to be booked in for hip x-rays. However, I was told that they suspected he had Auto-Immune Hemalytic Anaemia and that they "could save him if we've caught it early enough". As you can imagine, that pulled the rug out from under us a little :o(

Bran was immediately admitted to the hospital and underwent a battery of tests. He ended up being in and out of the vets for 2 whole weeks and had many blood tests, several CT scans and an endoscopy. He went from 25kg to 22.7kgs in just a few short days, developed a horrid cough, was very cold and pale and horribly lethargic :o(

Thankfully, it was eventually concluded that Bran was *just* suffering from Lymphocytic Plasmacytic Enteritis - one of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - and he was given medication to soothe his stomach and allow his body to start drawing nutrition from his food again.

His Zubrin was also stopped (this was managing the pain of his elbow dysplasia) and he is being given cartrophen injections instead. This seems to have worked wonders as Bran is cheekier and naughtier than I've ever seen him! He's put back on all the weight he lost and is looking fabulous at the moment :o)

Due to being so poorly, Bran missed his first three KC Silver classes, but we finally made it back today.....

The results are in....

Things were not looking good :o(

Bran had been sick on and off through the night and seems to be having some problems with his back left leg so he's due at the vets tomorrow morning. As I know that the sickness is because he's uncomfortable with his leg, I decided to go ahead with the test.

He's really not himself and didn't perform anywhere near as sharply as he usually does, but he did everything that was asked of him, so it was all down to the examiner's decision......














WE PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so so proud of my boy and we're looking forward to starting in the silver class on Thursday :oD

Penultimate Bronze Class (Hopefully!)

Thursday night's class went really well :o)

The class consisted of everyone taking the bronze and the silver tomorrow and Bran was thrilled to see the lovely lady from our clicker class only she had her very handsome boy dog with her and not Holly. He was so thrilled, in fact, that he had to do his special Bran dance whilst wuffing at her. She laughed at the fact that he has learnt 'bark' so well that he can even command himself now!

We were split into relevant classes and we had 6 of us in the bronze class, including Janie and her mum from our usual class. Bran was not in the least bit fazed by all of the other dogs and I was so proud as we "performed" under exam conditions and he was absolutely spot on with everything.

Although I would have earned us a fail on the recall :o( I put him into a 'sit', told him to 'wait' and headed off down the paddock, then turned and recalled him. He bombed up to me and into a perfect 'sit' at my feet, and then our faux examiner said "I didn't tell you to recall him". Oh the shame!! I set him up again then headed off, turned and he started towards me. Instinctively I put my hand up and shouted "Stop! Sit! Wait!" and he did it all. Miraculous as I haven't taught him 'stop'!! This time, faux examiner slipped a slip lead through his collar so that he didn't set off on the basis that we'd broken it twice and a third was inevitable. After a third, spot on, recall she did say that he hadn't needed the lead though as he'd not moved a muscle and had just glanced at her as if to say "My mummy told me to wait - I'm not going anywhere, silly lady". LOL!

We have been up to the park this morning to do a bit more work on waiting before I recall him and after 2 pre-emptive recalls, he got it and just sat and watched and waited for the command - even when Jacob and Casey were chasing balls right behind him or when Casey was dancing in circles around him and barking, trying to entice him into playing!!

Deep breaths and fingers crossed that all goes well tomorrow now.....

Fiddlesticks!

Apologies for the delay in updating but we've put the more exciting clicker training stuff on hold so that we can concentrate on perfecting the things that Bran will need for his bronze award on Sunday morning.

Training is going well and it's all commands and behaviours that Bran knows very well so it is really a matter of him being in a good, focussed mood on the day.

We had training this morning and ran over all of the exercises that will be needed and Bran was as good as.....well........bronze ;o) We have a second training class tonight as Jo runs a bronze class one evening a week as well as our morning class and we'll all be taking the test together so the dogs need to meet up and get that initial excitement out of the way.

Unfortunately, I was trying to get a silly photo of Bran this afternoon posing with the car bonnet up when the dopey monkey decided to leap right up and towards the engine! I grabbed him and got him back down safely but fell awkwardly and twisted my ankle - yowch! Training should be entertaining tonight, but at least I got the photo....

Last Clicker Class

Well, somehow, Bran suddenly started doing everything that was expected of him again yesterday morning - except for the focussed heelwork. Although, that was the actual exercise that we were doing when he caught my finger and I yelped so I wasn't hugely surprised that he was still having problems with that, he is such a sensitive little soul.



It was our last clicker class on the introductory course last night. Jo is hoping to run a few more introductory courses and then hopefully an intermediate class, so Jacob and I may start that in a few months.

As we were waiting to go into class, all 3 of our dogs did some practise with their 'mat' command and all were really good: Bran went straight into a 'down' and just stayed put for 10 minutes, Casey was holding her 'sit' for longer and longer and Moss was offering a 'sit' repeatedly.

In class, Jo did ask if we'd had any problems over the last week and we all said that the focussed heelwork had been difficult so she sent 3 of us outside to practise whilst she worked 1 to 1 with the other person.

Moss was first to stay inside and did it absolutely perfectly! Sophie had been struggling to get him even into the starting position all week, but he performed like a star once he was put on the spot.

When it came around to Bran's turn, Jo found that he kept swinging his bottom out so asked me to stand beside the wall and try luring him into position there then just clicking and treating for any movement forward to be beside me.

It turns out that Casey and Holly were having the same problems so we took a break and Jo explained how difficult it is for our dogs, who have always been trained whilst they are facing us and able to read our expressions, to suddenly be asked to be at our sides when they can't look at us so to break everything down into really simple easy steps for them.

We then had to demonstrate our 'mat' commands. Sophie and Moss were first and Moss did a few repetitions of going to the mat but had to be lured into position and we then found that at some point Soph had rewarded him for standing with his back feet on the mat and his front feet off as he kept offering that! Jo did mention that it will come in handy for teaching contacts at agility though, so all was not completely lost ;o)

Then it was Bran's turn and he went a long way off from me, but promptly offered a 'sit' instead of the 'down' that he has been doing over and over and over again! On the second attempt, he went into a 'down' and then just stayed there whilst the others had their turns.

Casey decided that she had never seen her mat before in her life and was much more interested in hoovering up scraps of treats from the floor! Poor Jacob - I knew exactly how he felt.

Holly, the older lab girl, then showed how well she is doing with offering a consistent 'down'. Her mum was really pleased with her.

We then had to do our tricks. Bran was first and we had to go outside to demonstrate his 'bark' so that it didn't disturb the other dogs too much. Jo pointed out that I have managed to train a big pause between the barks because my timing has been slightly off and I've been clicking as he's finished the bark rather than when he is actually barking. Whoops! Again though, all is not lost as she has said that that will help with training a 'quiet' at the in between times ;o)

Moss then did perfect sitting up begs, bless him.

Casey (who now spins alllllllllll the time and during every other thing that Jacob is trying to do with her) wouldn't do her spins properly! She did twig eventually and Jacob is now holding out for multiple spins and faster spins.

Holly was also doing spins and showed that she will now spin in either direction, when she would only do it in one direction before. It is absolutely lovely watching her as she is now so animated when her mum has her clicker out and she is really focussed and excited about what they're doing next :o)

We then started learning a new exercise where we teach the dogs to lay flat on their sides. Bran was ok with it and was happy to be lured on to his side. Casey has only been doing a consistent 'down' for about a week so was a bit challenging for Jacob. Moss still won't really do a 'down' so Soph needs to work on that before trying the flat thing. Holly just "got" the exercise immediately and was offering 'flat' within about 5 seconds!!! Clever girl!

So that's where we are now. I feel really poorly today so I'm not sure if any training will be done before "normal" class tomorrow, but we'll see if the tablets start working!

Brick wall

Seeing as this blog was set up to record both the downs as well as the ups on Bran's training journey, it's only fair to post the latest update even though I'd really rather not.

After brilliant sessions on Tuesday (at clicker class), Wednesday (at home) and Thursday (at bronze class), I was expecting good things of Friday's home session.

I decided to start with the focussed heelwork as it was the newest thing. Bran sat beautifully close at heel, gave me a good few seconds of attention so I clicked and offered him the treat.

At which point he clamped my little finger between two of his canines after mistaking it for the treat. One canine hit the middle of my nail and the other hit directly underneath and it hurt! Instinctively, I shouted in pain. Bran hit the floor on his belly and crawled away looking like he was expecting to be beaten (which, of course, he never is but he does like to "do" tragic).

I took a deep breath and called him back and decided to try and do some of his better known exercises so opted just for 'down'. He refused to do them on the floor and went to the duvet in front of the washing machine that was waiting to be washed, the mat out in the hallway, the armchair, the dog bed, anywhere that wasn't right at my feet as I'd asked.

So I gave up on that and brought out his mat. Set him in a 'sit-stay' whilst I put the mat down, sent him to the mat and he crawled off to the armchair.

So I gave up. Full stop.

We had friends visiting for the weekend so I thought that a few days off might be enough for him to get over himself.

Before breakfast, I took Bran out to the kitchen for training and he was his usual waggy, smiley self and I was hoping for good things.

He refused to get into a close sit and kept sliding himself into a 'down' instead or would sit right out at an angle, despite my circling him round and trying to lure him back into position. It wasn't happening.

I put him into a 'sit-stay', placed his mat and commanded 'mat' and he trotted off down the hallway for a perfect 'down' on the mat. I gave him lots of happy, excited praise as I treated him, then called him back and commanded 'mat' again.

He went off to the armchair and refused to get out of it!

Arrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!

We have our last clicker class tomorrow night. Bran's supposed to be holding his 'touch' on my hand for longer and we've not got as far as doing any of it this week; he's meant to be targetting his ball in a different way and I've only had a very quick go at that with him last Wednesday and haven't been able to do anything since; he's meant to have 'bark' on hand signal only and offering multiple barks which has only happened briefly on Wednesday; he's meant to be able to do 2 paces of focussed heelwork when he won't even sit in the right position to start and if I do try to take a step he immediately breaks his attention!

Please keep your fingers crossed for a miracle to occur later today or tomorrow morning at the latest!!

Mummy's little star

Sooooooooooooooooo pleased with my boy this week!!

Tuesday night's clicker class went incredibly well and Bran didn't show me up once.

We had to show how they've progressed with targetting their item, which started well with Bran bouncing on the spot as soon as I pulled the ball out, bless. He was then moving away to bash it with his nose wherever I put it.

We then had to show how they've progressed with 'touch' and again this went really well. Bran is happy to 'touch' either hand in any position (unless it's my right hand in the 'down' signal!) and if I walk with my hand at my side and tell him to 'touch', he'll keep his nose pressed into my palm and walk beautifully at heel.

When it came to 'mat' time, he was just brilliant! He had built up the duration of holding his position on the mat to half an hour whilst we were at Mum's on Sunday night because he was hovering in the kitchen anyway as the meal was being prepared, so I put his mat down for him and worked on that. Although he had to remain on lead for the exercise in class, at home I can put him in a 'sit-wait' at the back door whilst I go and place the mat beside the front door - so the whole length of the house away - and then return to him, tell him 'mat' and he'll run to his mat and drop straight into a 'down'.

We then started to learn about how we could teach the dogs focussed heelwork by clicking them for being in a good, close sit at heel and getting any attention from them. We then built up the duration a little and then started to take a half pace whilst holding their attention. Bran performed brilliantly on this exercise when Jo was demonstrating with him but kept swinging his bottom out when I was working with him, so we're reinforcing the basics of positioning before progressing. We're supposed to have them able to do at least 2 paces with complete attention before next week.

Next up was demonstrating their "tricks". As per usual, Bran had to wind himself up a bit but then gave a few repeated impressive barks. By next week, he has to be able to consistently 'bark' to just a hand signal and offer repeated barks instead of just one. He's already built up to 3 consistently so that should be fine and dandy :o)

At "normal" class this morning, we again ran through each test for the bronze award, which Bran will definitely be taking on Sunday 9th October. Everything was a bit more structured this week and Bran was just an absolute dream!

We started with removing the collar and having their identification checked, which Bran sat calmly through.

We then had to loose lead walk up and back the length of the hall, with no treats if possible. Jo demonstrated with Bran and used the focussed heelwork signal that we introduced on Tuesday so Bran walked beautifully with her, then repeated it perfectly with me! I'm more confident that the 2 paces won't be a problem next Tuesday ;o)

Control at the door was next and Bran went straight into a 'sit-wait' and didn't move a muscle as I stepped through the door, then called him through and put him in a 'sit' whilst I shut the door behind us. Perfect!

The controlled walk was done out in the paddock and we had 3 cones set up so that each of us could stand at a cone with our dogs, then took it in turns to weave between the other dogs. Using the focussed heelwork hand signal again, Bran stuck to me like glue and never even glanced at the other dogs.

Stay for 1 minute was next and Bran did it like a pro! He went straight into a 'down-stay' and stayed put for the full minute with no breaking!

We then did the examination of the dog, which Bran is more than happy with and usually rolls onto his back so that EVERY part can be examined.....

Return to handler was just fab. I put him into a 'sit-stay' at one end of the hall, removed his lead, turned my back and walked to the far end of the hall, then recalled him to a 'sit' and he just bombed back to me!

We need to attend one class of Jo's Thursday night bronze award class before the test so that the dogs can all meet each other prior to examination day, but I am quietly confident right now :o)

Really pleased!

On Tuesday, when we started the 'mat' exercise, Jo told us that she's like to see the dogs at a point where they were straining on their leads to get to the mat as soon as they saw it.

That is where Bran is today :oD I'm having to race him to get the mat put on the floor or put him into a 'stay' whilst I sort it and then he's running over to it and throwing himself into a 'down'! I am SO proud of this boy!

'Touch' is going well too, although I've started to get him to target both hands instead of just my left and he is getting very confused if I hold my right hand out flat, palm down for him to 'touch' from below it because he'll put himself into a 'down' when he sees that - LOL! I've also started to increase the time that he hold his nose against my hand and have got him walking 7 or 8 paces with my left hand at my side and his nose against it the whole time. Good boy, Bran!

'Bark' is providing a great deal of entertainment for everyone. Bran followed me upstairs to the toilet the other night so I used those few minutes to get him to 'bark' just on hand signal ;o) He seems to need to wind himself up before producing a bark so he's finding it quite difficult to give a big bark without at least bouncing his front feet a few inches off of the ground, but he's getting there and probably 4 times out of 5 he'll now bark either in a sit or stand with all 4 feet on the floor. He's also now doing his best to put just big barks out there, although if I ask him to 'bark' at the start of a training session, he does still need to wind himself up with a bit of bouncing and a few "wuffs".

The new 'down' is absolutely solid now. He can do it with the slightest hand signal or a whispered verbal command and if I throw a few of them in during a clicker session, he's already hyped enough to do them very very fast!

I really do feel like an imposter after starting this blog to record all of the disastrous training sessions that were bound to follow and they've nearly all been really good! Boy, did I underestimate my gorgeous chocolate lad.

By Jove, I think he's got it!!

In a 5 minute clicker session today, we've managed to:

1} Put hand targetting to the vocal command 'touch'

2) Put mat targetting to the vocal command 'mat'

3) Establish that 'mat' works everywhere and from any starting point, even if Bran is put into a 'sit' at my feet first

4) Put barking on command to the vocal command 'bark'

5) Put 'bark' on a hand signal!

Seeing as I started this blog with little hope in my heart that we were going to get anywhere, I am absolutely blown away with how brilliant my Bran boy can be when he puts his mind to it!

I now need to test to see if I can transfer 'touch' to things other than my hand; increase the duration of the 'touch'; take the 'mat' to the park and my mum's house; smooth the 'bark' command to just the big barks; see if 'bark' can happen without Bran leaping off the floor at the same time ;o)

Bronze training

Today I owe Bran an apology for ever doubting his abilities to learn so many things in such a short space of time.

We've been working really hard on cementing in the new 'down' and this morning I had an hour to spend doing a few short bursts of training with him whilst Sophie and Moss were in their class.

Bran can do the new 'down' to verbal command alone! I was stunned and really really pleased with him :oD We did a bit of variable hand targetting (all spot on) then a few downs with hand signals, then I gave him just a 'sit' or 'down' verbal command and he got them all. He even managed a 'stand' to verbal only!! Some of the downs involved him sitting and gazing at me, but I held my own and he slid into a 'down' by himself and without my having to repeat the command.

In class, there was only me and Bran and Janie jack russell and her mum, which was really lovely as it was all very relaxed and comfortable and we had a bit of a chat and giggle whilst we were working.

Jo announced that she has a test lined up for 9th October and wanted to check whether the dogs were ready for it, so we spent the whole lesson working through the various exercises needed for the bronze test.

Bran was an absolute star with the recall, loose lead walking, walking with distractions, grooming, inspection, collar removal and door control. The only thing that he didn't nail first time was the 1 minute stay.

I put him into a 'down-stay' and decided to keep eye contact with him so that he could see that I wasn't going anywhere, doing anything or reaching for treats. 45 seconds in he started barking at me for staring at him! I settled him back into position and I looked away and he did it easily.

Jo also got barked at for being just beyond his reach so she suggested capturing the barking with a command as quickly as possible purely because she's never heard him bark before we started trying to teach him to do it on command on Tuesday night and then he did it 3 times within 10 minutes!

I was a very happy and proud mummy after today's efforts :o)

This afternoon, I hooked Bran's lead around the washing line and started encouraging him to bark and he was offering repeated barks to command very quickly, so I removed the lead and he continued to do it. He even managed to show Sophie his new "trick". Good boy!

What on earth is THAT?!

.....is essentially what Bran repeatedly asked me at training last night *sigh*

To start off we had to show that we'd taken the hand targetting to a point of repeated nose taps. Bran looked blankly at my hand and went "what on earth is THAT?!" Grrrrr! Up until we left the house, he could do 6 repeated hand targets with my hand in any position. I stood and waited for a while and eventually the lightbulb switched on and he proved that I wasn't an utter liar.

So then we had to demonstrate the targetting "something else". At that point I made a mistake because as I took the ball out of my pocket Bran lunged to tap it and I told him to 'wait' to give me a chance to put it on the floor. I was then not supposed to lure him into targetting the ball but he was clearly still very firmly in a 'wait' and wouldn't release from it! Eventually, he got up and took a step towards me and I thought we were getting somewhere. He then gave the ball a cursory glance and went "what on earth is THAT?!". Up until we left the house, he was running to target the ball wherever I put it - on a table, on the sofa, under the desk.... I stood and waited for a while and eventually the lightbulb switched on and, again, he proved that I wasn't an utter liar. And, thankfully, also targetted just with his nose and not his teeth!

To move things along, Jo had asked us to bring along a blanket or mat so that we could teach 'mat' and work up to sendaways. When that email had landed in my inbox, I was very pleased because, as you probably know, Bran knows 'on the mat' and well enough to go straight into a down wherever the mat is placed. So I was feeling rather smug when we started this exercise last night. I put the mat on the floor and smirked at Bran, who gave the mat a cursory glance and went.....you've guessed it....."what on earth is THAT?!" Arrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!! At no point did the lightbulb come on and I'd just managed to get him to tentatively place a single paw on the mat before we wrapped that exercise for the night.

We were then asked to select a trick from a prepared list that we could start teaching our dogs. In my wisdom, I opted for barking on command as it is then (apparently!) easy to teach a counter command for quiet. I hooked Bran's lead up outside and proceeded to wind him up and get him bouncing and clicked and treated for each sound and he quickly built it up to repetitive big barks. Unbeknownst to me, chaos was ensuing indoors as the puppies assumed that Bran was barking them warnings and they were shrieking away in an attempt to see off the danger. Bless. Jo then came out to see how we were doing and Bran plonked his chocolate bottom on the floor and smiled at her. And refused to make a sound. She asked me to show her what I'd been doing to make him bark, so I squeaked the toy and talked to him in an excited, squeaky voice and he just smiled at me. Clearly "what on earth are you DOING?!"

I can't wait to see how tomorrow morning goes with his new 'down' command......

Getting There...

I started to introduce the new down last night with a new hand signal - flat hand, palm facing down and moving downwards - because I always used to just point at the floor for the old command. It was a bit difficult for Bran as his back end kept sliding out on the laminate, but he was definitely making the right moves.

Today we've had a quick clicker session out in the garden which was just hysterical! He absolutely loves targetting the ball but does keep changing between touching it with his nose and with his teeth and sometimes he has his back to me so I can't see what's touching first and as I'm clicking him for getting within bumping distance of the ball my timing is sometimes rewarding him for using his teeth so we have to do a few retrains on it. I managed to throw the ball all over the garden and he was just running to target it as quickly as possible and then bombing back to me for his treat - he even managed to get it when it was up on the patio table and he needed to work out that he had to put his feet on one of the chairs to reach it :oD

We've been up to the park this evening with Jacob and Casey and we let the dogs have some fun chasing around after the ball and then Jacob took Casey off while I took Bran to one side for some practise with his downs on a more stable flooring and he did them all brilliantly. I don't need to lure him now and he is paying far more attention to the hand signal. More work is obviously needed on just getting him to do it to a verbal command but it is very early days, bless him. Even though I didn't have my clicker with me, I did get him doing some quick hand targetting as well and he was spot on with those too, but I'm not sure what the other walkers made of us as we skipped and danced around the playing field - hahahahaha!!

Just a quick edit to add a little video that I've taken of Bran doing his new down tonight. It was a small space and it's very rough at the moment, but you get the idea ;o) I also love that he's so focussed and alert compared to the videos of him doing 'on the mat' :o)

Whoops!

I just made my first noticeable mistake with clickering whilst trying to teach Bran to target a ball.

I decided to use a ball like this one...



....for him to target as I have plans to put it to greater use. I also have a telescopic magnet that can fit inside one of the gaps on the ball et voila I have a target stick ;o) As it's not perfectly round, it stops quite well depending upon how much force is put behind it so I'm thinking that it would also be helpful for distant commands, sendaways, etc.

Anyway, back to tonight.

He very very quickly picked up nose bumping the ball to get the click but I had to be quite animated about it again and make it all a big game. Once he was reliably bumping the ball, I started to place it further away from me and Bran bounced over to nose bump the ball and instead grabbed it with his mouth and I mistakenly clicked as I'd been poised to click for a nose bump. Grrrr.

Of course, Bran then thought that the new game was to grab the ball in his teeth and as I held off on clicking him for that he started to throw it around the kitchen, bounce around like a lunatic and basically interact as much as possible with the ball but without doing a nice, simple nose bump *sigh*

I ended up sitting on the kitchen floor with him to try and keep him calm enough to get him to focus on gently nose bumping the ball and not using teeth at all. After 3 gentle nose bumps he got a great big fuss and I left it there!

Short sharp lesson in how important timing is for me! LOL!

This Week Is Going To Be Fun.....

Back at KC Bronze training class today and I am very pleased to report that Bran wasn't attacked! LOL!

He was rather wary of the GSD and gave him a very wide berth, but settled well and got lots of treats and praise if he ignored him and just focussed on me.

We did some Bronze work today on the 1 minute down-stay with distractions and on the waiting and going through a gate exercise, but also did some Gold exercises on just using verbal commands without hand signals or treats!

The 1 minute down-stay is a work on progress with Bran as I had to put him back into a down twice after the initial command during the 1 minute. Now I know that down is his least favourite command and the one he is most likely to fidget in or break out of and I know that I've given him a lot of leeway with this because I'm never quite sure how much being in a down hurts his elbows. I'm still not entirely sure how to tackle this, but may need to do a bit of research and see if I can establish whether it is causing him discomfort/pain or whether he is just being silly.

The going through a gate exercise was good for him as it was broken down into a verbal sit just before the mark and this was repeated several times, then a sit-stay whilst we took one pace on past the mark, then calling them past the mark and he was really quite good with this.

And then it was on to the verbal commands.

Verbal sits were absolutely spot-on and very fast, even to a whisper. Trying to put him into a down without being in a sit first just didn't happen. Again, he's had a lot of leeway with downs as I've already said but every single time I asked for a down, he offered a sit. Eventually, Jo asked if he always does a down from a sit and he does, mainly because I feel he's sort of feeling his way down carefully. I've never asked for a drop-down as he seems incredibly uncomfortable doing it that way. However, Jo did show me another way of getting him to down which involves him folding backwards into so that his hips take the weight before his elbows do.

So, to clarify, before the next clicker class on Tuesday he needs to be solidly hand targetting and targetting something else. Before next Thursday, he needs to be responding faster to verbal commands and I have to completely retrain his down.

Hmmmmm.

Wish me luck!!!

Oh, and as a little PS, Moss is now refusing the liver cake that I so lovingly made for them on Monday and will only eat Bran's gluten-free, dairy-free version, the little monkey!

The Lights Are On AND There's Someone Home!

Wahoo! Bran's had another lightbulb moment - this time with the hand targetting.

Both of the children have done some of their homework with the pups today. Casey, unsurprisingly, remembered exactly what she had to do and Jacob was quickly getting longer nose bumps out of her. Moss and Bran both needed to be taken back a step to having a treat under the folded thumb, but then quickly got back to where they were last night.

In this morning's session, I made sure that I was changing location frequently and then getting a few repeats, which I got but Bran really didn't seem that bothered or focussed so I kept it short but sweet.

We then had a car journey to take Fi over to Cardiff, so Bran and Moss came along for the ride: Bran because he's supposed to be resting today and not having a walk plus he just likes to be with me; Moss because he needs to get over squeaking continuously in the car!

I've just had another quick clicker session with Bran and I swear that I actually saw the lightbulb go on as he really "got" what he was supposed to be doing!! I got a few repeated nose bumps, but then held my hand slightly further away and just waited for him to move towards it. When he didn't, I just waggled my fingers a bit and he RAN forward to nose bump me! It then became a fantastic game and I've danced around the house and stopped every now and again for Bran to give me a nose bump and it's been fast and solid EVERY time! I've been able to raise my hand up and palm down so that he's had to crane his neck to do it or placed my hand flat on the floor, palm up, so that he's had to reach down to do it, but he's done it every time and with a wiggly-waggly body and a happy, smiley face!

Perhaps this is as much another lightbulb moment for me as it is for Bran and I need to work harder at making things a game rather than boring, repetitive training.

Oooh I do love this boy and we are having so much fun! :D

It's Clicked!

Tonight, Bran and I went to the first of our clicker training classes with Jacob and Casey, Sophie and Moss.

Although I'm a bit more experienced with clicker training, you all know what I've been going through with Bran so thought it couldn't hurt to take him along. Plus I've been promising to teach the kids and this seemed like an easy way to shift the responsibility of that on to somebody else ;o) I have given them a few brief lessons and the puppies have been introduced to clickers and done a little training with them so there were no big surprises tonight.

I was expecting great things of Casey because she is a little firecracker when it comes to training and picks everything up almost as you're showing her what to do. I did wonder if the distractions of being in a strange place with strange people and other dogs would distract her, but no - she was incredibly fast and it was lovely to see the strong bond she has with Jacob at work. The pair of them had to get up and do a demonstration at one point and they were just brill :o)

Sophie, like me, has to work a little harder to get a good response from her dog and she has to repeat things several times with Moss to get a solid response, but he was very good tonight too :o)

Firstly, Jo brought in her two dogs to give us a demonstration whilst our dogs waited in the car. Unfortunately, her dobermann youngster boy was somewhat more interested in the new people who smelled of yummy treats than what his mum was telling him, so Jo's little terrier cross boy came out but her dobe was far too excited in what was going on and bulldozed through the session. It was actually quite lovely and refreshing to see a trainer's dogs misbehave a little just through being young and excited :oD

We were then separated out to prime our clickers, which we've already done, so was quite a fast process, although it was good to be getting faster response times from the dogs.

We then had to practise timing by clicking for commands that the dogs already knew but through using hand signals rather than verbal commands. I was really surprised to see how much faster Bran responded when he knew that I had the clicker compared to doing the silent training at last week's class. Finally, I may have found the way to get faster downs and more solid stands out of him!

We then had to start shaping the dogs to touch our hands with their noses. I did take a deep breath as this was explained because it was exactly this behaviour that I was trying to train Bran with the clicker when I had my Facebook meltdown and prompted Morag to call to talk through the options.

Before we got the chance to try it for ourselves, Jo took Bran up as demonstration dog. He did it brilliantly and with a big waggy tail, pricked ears and alert face!! The complete opposite to the dropped shoulders, flat ears, dull face and total avoidance of physical contact that I'd got last time around with this behaviour! What a long way he's come in such a short space of time :o)

We then did the hand targetting ourselves and he was fab, although did get a bit bored after being stuffed full of liver cake towards the end so I had to get up and move him to a different place and throw in a few other commands to regain his attention.

Our homework is to continue the hand targetting and to introduce something else for them to target. I did think about being sneaky and using his mat, but have decided to be good and find something small and easily portable for him to target.

All in all, I am mightily proud of my little pack tonight :oD

Back to School

Today Bran started his training for the Kennel Club Bronze.

I was really excited and interested to see how he'd behave back in "structured" training after seeing how much he's come on over the break.

Well, he was just wonderful to handle!

By some miracle, our trainer, Jo, had prepared a class where all commands were to be given silently and we just had to use hand signals or body language to get what we wanted from our dogs. Seeing as this was how I got the breakthrough with Bran in the first place, and is how he continues to work at his best, it was just wonderful. He whizzed through sits, downs, stands and stays with no problems. His loose lead walking was lovely and his focus sharpened immensely once he was introduced to the "bucket" of treats (this was made from a cupped hand holding several treats right under his nose to start introducing hand signals for heelwork, etc).

We've also been asked to start teaching our dogs to "catch from the crane" where we have to hold a treat between a finger and thumb above their noses then drop the treat for them to catch. I'd already decided that I need to work on Bran taking treats from my fingers as he is inclined to turn crocodile on me and snap my fingers as well (today's session has left me with striped bruises down each thumb!), so this was a welcome introduction.

Although, I now know that Bran can't catch. Well. At the moment.

If I hesitate to give him a chance to be paying attention to my hand, he will either offer me a paw or jump up to snatch the treat. If I drop the treat when he is paying attention, the timing is all out between us and most treats bounced off of his nose and into the grass, although one very cleverly bounced off of his nose and onto the top of his head! He did manage to catch a few treats eventually but the horrifically loud "SNAP" of his jaws smashing together around a tiny treat makes me fear even more for my poor fingers!!

Towards the very end of the class, Bran got his bottom bitten by a rather reactive GSD who lunged at him after hearing another dog bark. Poor Bran had just been sitting quietly in the shade and had done absolutely nothing to aggravate the shep. Bless his toes, he was not phased at all though and did some rolling on his back in the grass and gave a few RARRRRRRRRs as the GSD was taken off to cool down elsewhere.

All in all, I was really impressed with him today.

When I first spoke to Morag about my boy, I had said that he loved training classes and probably a little too much as his willy was usually on show throughout! Morag explained that this wasn't a good thing as Bran was probably experiencing a lot more excitement and stress than his body could handle and that's why Little Bran was often on display. This session, it felt very much more like controlled excitement and Little Bran didn't put in an appearance at all! Bran was still waggy and smiley throughout the class and every now and again he would do his bouncy happy dance, but would then settle into a sit or down with no bother at all :o)

Onwards and upwards, m'boy! Onwards and upwards :o)

What a change

This fabulous, wonderful, chocolate dollop of mine never ceases to amaze me at the moment. This isn't a training related post, so apologies, but I think his demeanour today is all tied in with unlocking something in him those few short weeks ago.

We went on a group dog walk today at Yeovil Country Park with Sophie and Moss, plus my friend Mandy and her dogs Blue and Thomas. At the walk, we met up with Liz and her hubby and her 2 dogs, Jake and Tess, who we've never met before.

Only yesterday, I was saying to Mandy that I would like to get Bran to a point where he voluntarily swims rather than just looking at me, sighing and resigning himself to having to go in.

On the walk today, there were a few wonderful pools, but they were quite deep and the edges were quite difficult for the dogs to get out on. The water wasn't clear, so the dogs couldn't see how deep it was.

As I watched Liz's fabulous dogs leap into the water after balls, I hadn't noticed that Bran had just got in! I was rather gobsmacked, especially when he came back, couldn't get out and had to be dragged out by his collar.

He promptly turned around and went back in again! He did it again and again and again so was clearly enjoying himself.



He enjoyed the whole walk so much that every time we stopped still for a moment, he would do his excited dancing and bouncing on the spot and give me great big kisses.



It is just lovely to see the confidence ooooooooooozing out of him now :o)

And we're back in the saddle!

We had visitors and busyness yesterday so never got anything done, but today is quiet so once Bran and I had dropped Sophie off, we had a couple of training sessions - indoors thanks to the rain!

I put the mat down for the first time in a few weeks and Bran got into the dog bed. I tossed a treat to get him out of it, he fetched the treat then got back in the dog bed.

Grrrrrrr.

I put the dog bed in the kitchen and moved the mat closer to me.

Bran got straight on the mat and went into a down :D I hand fed him several treats whilst telling him very excitedly what a good boy he was, then tossed the treat away. He then came back and offered a sit, so he got 1 treat then a tossed treat. He then gave several sits so he just got the 1 treat before a tossed treat.

And then he offered another down so lots of hand fed treats and excited Mummy voices. That was it. I almost heard the penny drop! Every single time he returned to the mat (and I moved it to different places a few times) and went straight into a down. Fabulous!

I decided to leave it on that very positive note and try something else with him.

We have an interactive dog training toy. This one, in fact:



It has a peg game on one side........



....and a slide game on the other.....



....but given Bran's history with this game I decided to stick with the peg game for now.

The last time that I tried this out with Bran, I used one treat for one hole and one peg to partially cover it. No word of a lie, half an hour later he STILL didn't have the treat! I would hold the treat under his nose so that he would follow it all the way down to the hole, then quickly place the peg over it at an angle so that he could still see where the treat was and just needed to nudge the peg out of the way to get to the treat. Bran would follow the treat down to the hole and the second that the peg went over it he would look at me and go "where did it go???" over and over and over again. Meantime, Flora would be screaming at him from the crate to be let out and show him what to do. She could remove all of the pegs and take treats from all of the holes in 17 seconds flat. Bran just didn't get it.

I have tried to re-introduce him to this game at various times over the last few years and each time it has just been beyond his comprehension. Again though, maybe it is all tied in to the fact that he has never had to think for himself so he just couldn't work out what was expected of him. Bless.

Anyway. Today I repeated the process as I had previously but was fully prepared (after discussing this actual game with Morag during our earlier conversation) to break it down into very tiny steps if needed.

I popped the treat in the hole, put the peg on it at an angle, Bran flicked the peg out with his nose and got the treat! I jumped up and danced around the lounge. Bran was so pleased that I was pleased that he got up and danced with me!

So we settled back down and I popped the treat in the hole and put the peg right on top of it. Bran tried to flick it out with his nose, but obviously that wouldn't work now that it was settled in the hole. He then started mouthing the peg so I gave him lots and lots of excited encouragement whilst telling him to "fetch it" and he eventually pulled the peg out! Then proceeded to chew up the peg with the treat forgotten about. Sigh. I pointed out the treat and he was SO pleased that he had a new toy AND a treat. Bless.

We did a few repeats with just one peg but I put the treat in different holes each time. He was doing it so quickly that I introduced another peg, so he had 2 to remove. No bother at all. So I introduced another peg and gave him 3 to remove and he just did it with no bother :D

I decided to leave it there for now, but I would love to build it up so that he has treats under each of the pegs for a while, then reduce the amount of treats whilst keeping all of the pegs in so that he does actually have to use his nose to find the treats. All in good time....

Apology

Vast apologies for the lack of posts on such a new blog *blush* but we have been getting over the lameness, then stomach problems brought on by swallowing two whole ice lolly sticks >:o( as well as celebrating Bran's 3rd Gotcha Day (which involved no yummy food thanks to the lolly stick incident) and dealing with other busyness, but I hereby pledge to get back to the training.

Tomorrow.

Bigger Blip

So we had the weekend off of mat training and I've just been doing a bit of obedience with Bran to reinforce what we're going to need to be covering for the Kennel Club Bronze.

The plan was to try him with the mat again last night after his early evening walk.

On walks Bran generally expects to be chasing a ball the whole time - which never does his elbows any good - so I've been tweaking his walks so that he has other things to think about as well as the all important ball and last night was no different. I'd throw the ball for him, then do a couple of recalls with the whistle, then do a few sit- or down-stays, then throw a ball and repeat until we've completed a circuit of the park.

Except that when I went to Bran's lead back on he heavily limped over to me :o(

Fortunately, he is due to see Joe at Highcroft on Wednesday evening as he is due his meds review anyway, so I think it'll be onlead exercise and resting until then, but if somebody could tell Bran that it is NOT a good idea for him to be racing through the water in the back garden with the puppies and then charging into the house onto the laminate I'd be very grateful....

Blip

*sigh*

Well I guess it had to happen eventually. We've made such amazing progress this week, but today I've realised that either I've moved too quickly or Bran has got a bit bored.

As he really knows "on the mat" well now, I've been placing the mat in different places and sending him off to it with the cue and a pointed finger in the direction of the mat.

He is doing 1 of 3 things:

1. heading over to the mat at the pace of a very slow snail and then sitting there looking miserable;

2. bouncing over to the mat, bouncing into a very quick sit, then bouncing back to me for a treat;

3. bouncing over to the mat, tapping it with a paw and then coming back for a treat!

Although, to be fair, on 2 occasions he offered "downs", which was lovely :o)

It's sooooooooooo frustrating! He clearly knows what he's supposed to be doing, but I don't really know why he's coming back to me for a treat. He is only being fed treats from my hand if he is offering the position I want whilst remaining on the mat and I step towards him to give these if the mat is at a distance from me. Even then he only gets 3, then the next one is tossed away to the side so that he HAS to move off of the mat.

Maybe he's just bored with this one now. Perhaps I'll start doing something new tomorrow and come back to the mat in a few days. If that doesn't work, then I'll try taking a few steps back and re-doing things again.

"On the Mat"

So today was the idea that I introduced the cue and pushed Bran's little brain a bit harder.

This morning, I placed the mat several steps away from me and introduced "on the mat" as he settled himself into a sit - which he did with no bother because he is now Super Bran who is not phased by the fact that the mat is in a different place, that he has an audience, or anything! Each time he settled, I clicked and treated several times with him in place, then threw the treat away to get him to move. Each time he headed straight back, with a big waggy tail and a big smiley face, and went straight into a sit on the mat :o)

Later this morning, we went out into the garden and I placed the mat even further away from me. This time there were a few hesitations and a few rather cheeky moments like this one.....



......but he quickly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.....



NB. Although Bran's demeanour isn't that of a happy, excited dog in the videos, please trust me when I say that this is purely because the camera is out and not because I am wielding a very large stick and forcing him to perform ;o)

All in all, I am absolutely thrilled with the progress that we have made in a few short days and to have Bran trying to force interaction and being so keen a participant in his short learning sessions is just amazing.

Morag - I don't know how I'll ever thank you!! It feels like a whole new world of possibilities has opened up.

The rusty learning lever creaks!

Monday 25th July

Bright and early on Monday morning, the lovely Morag of Well Connected Canine buzzes me on Facebook and asks if I'm free for a chat as she wants to talk to me about Bran and clicker training. So of course I say yes.

We had a really lovely long chat about Bran and his personality, how he responds to "normal" training, how he responds to clicker training, how he responds in different situations, etc and we eventually concluded that Bran is probably not a very confident dog and has never had to think for himself, hence why he finds clicker training so painful. Well, that and I've managed to teach him that when the clicker comes out if he sits still for long enough I'll tell him what to do, give him a treat and leave him alone!

As a puppy, Bran always had Flora taking care of everything for him and he followed her lead in everything - hence why he learned so many things as a pup. As he grew, I would tell him what to do because I knew that he knew how to do them. As he was such a lovely, laidback companion who knew his obedience basics there was no real need to teach him anything else. It was only when we started at training classes for a bit of fun that it started to come to light that Bran was having problems with learning new things.

Morag suggested having the clicker and treat bag always to hand for a while and just click and treating Bran for looking for attention or laying quietly or anything really so that he could see that there was no pressure even though the clicker was being used. She also suggested teaching him something such as going to a mat but doing it in a stealthy, ninja manner so that Bran wasn't the centre of attention and didn't feel any pressure to perform.

By some coincidence, I'd bought a cheap bathroom mat just the day before for this very purpose!

A short while after speaking to Morag I took the clicker, the treat bag, the mat, a cup of tea and a magazine out into the garden and left the back door open so that the dogs could join me if they wanted to.

I popped the mat on the floor right beside me and got on with reading my magazine, as far as Bran was concerned. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him and if he looked at the mat I clicked and treated. As he progressed to sniffing the mat, I clicked and treated again. Then he got clicked and treated if he had any combination of paws on the mat, but now the treat was tossed far enough away from the mat that he had to remove his paws from it and consciously go back to it.

Still I was busy drinking my cup of tea and reading my magazine and giving Bran no eye contact or indication that I was in the slightest bit bothered about what he was doing.

Then he sat on the mat so I clicked and treated 3 times and fed him the treats from my hand, still not looking at him, then tossed the 4th treat off to the side. He came straight back and sat on the mat! After 3 more repetitions of tossing the treat away from the mat and Bran offering a sit straight away, I told him what a very good boy he was, packed up and came back into the house.

A little later, the puppies were still in their crates having just had tea so I grabbed a few more minutes with Bran and put the mat beside my desk. After a couple of stands on the mat, he was offering sits again.

Not only that but he was manoeuvering his body whilst sitting on the mat to try and force me into making eye contact with him! This was a massive breakthrough and I really felt like having a good cry!

Once again I was raving on Facebook, but this time it was about how proud and excited I was that Bran finally seemed to be getting it :o)


Tuesday 26th July

Morning session of mat training progressed quickly to offering the sit again, whilst being able to give him my full attention, so I just did a few of those with him so that everything was very positive and exciting!

For the afternoon session, I decided to try and have a few more distractions in place so I allowed the children to remain in the garden whilst working with Bran, although they were doing other things and not just focussing on me and Bran. Amazingly, he still did everything quickly and beautifully! I tried moving the mat to the opposite side of me and it didn't phase him at all! He just headed straight to the mat and sat with his face looking alert and his ears up.

What an incredible difference!

The other big thing that happened on Tuesday was that Bran pushed in. We'd picked up a pop up tunnel for the puppies to play with. It is far too small for Bran to comfortably fit through and usually when this sort of thing is going on, he'll hang back and watch from a distance. The puppies had a few runs through the tunnel, then Bran barged me out of the way and went through himself!! Ok, so the tunnel is rather mis-shapen now but it was SO lovely to see him demanding his go at the fun. When I fetched the camera to take him out later on his own to get some photos of him with the tunnel, I also grabbed my treat bag and no more was it miserable dog, because his ears went up, his tail was wagging and he was clearly saying "ooh what are we going to do now??" and it was lovely to have him interacting so keenly :o)

Bran's canned history

I adopted Bran from Lizzies Barn Sanctuary when he was just 12 weeks old.

He started his life in a puppy farm and was advertised in the free ads as the owner of the farm was going on holiday and his sitter couldn't care for a puppy. Fortunately, a supporter of Trallwm Farm Sanctuary spotted the ad and secured Bran and his companion a space with Lizzies Barn. When he was collected, he was found sitting in a large empty crate all alone in a large empty barn.

Despite the rather shaky start which could have traumatised many a dog, Bran's fabulous temperament and personality quickly endeared him to our family (myself and my children - Jacob (now 15) and Sophie (now 13). At the time of his arrival, we also had a gorgeous American Bulldog girl, Flora. She was just over 2 when Bran landed in our lives.



This was our family's first experience of life with a puppy as our other dogs had been adopted as older pups or adults and we vowed to give Bran everything he needed to become a well-rounded canine member of society.

We quickly came up against the now common bias of "you'll never train a chocolate labrador - they're all as mad as a box of frogs!" but Bran was a dream puppy - nothing like the horror I'd been expecting! He followed Flora's well trained example and, despite a few of the typical mischiefs you'd expect from a puppy, he quickly learned his basic commands.

When Bran hit 6 months, I decided to try clicker training with him for the first time. It didn't go well. He would sit and grin at me with his tongue lolling out of his mouth - offering no behaviours at all - until I gave in and asked him to "sit" or "down" so that I could reward him and end the session on a positive note. After 2 days of repeating this, I put the clicker away.

Just before Bran hit 12 months, Sophie took on a permanent foster in the shape of a 4 month old jack russell with chronic heart problems called Hugo. Watching the chaos that followed Hugo wherever he went made me realise how much steadier Bran had become. So I tried the clicker training again. I was transported back 6 months as he sat, grinned and lolled until asked to do something he knew and the clicker was put away. I started to wonder if he was "all there" ;o)



As Bran turned 18 months, we still had Hugo and also had a visitor in the shape of Fionna's (from Lizzies Barn) chocolate labrador pup, Orca, staying with us for a few months. Again, I was amazed at how his behaviours showed how brilliantly Bran was doing, so I tried the clicker again. This time, I got an offered "sit" then a gaze off into the distance with occasional eye flicking to check whether I had noticed that he was unhappy. The clicker went away again.



As Bran turned 2 years of age, Hugo had very sadly passed away, Flora had had a total hip replacement, we had discovered that Bran has severe bi-lateral elbow dysplasia and is expected to develop bi-lateral hip dysplasia, but my "crazy" chocolate boy was even steadier. I blew the dust off the clicker and headed out to the garden. Bran sat and again gazed off into the distance, but this time his ears were also down and he didn't look happy. The session was cut short and the clicker put away. Somehow, I didn't see the pattern developing!!

As Bran turned 3, we had lost Flora just a few months before and also had 2 x 6 month old yorkshire terrier x chihuahua pups causing mayhem. Bran was rather lost without Flora who had been his "mum", his "sister", his "playmate" and his "comfort" and underwent a big personality change. He craved attention more and spent more time with me. However, I also noted some rather clever moves that I didn't think him capable of. One such move was identified whilst walking in the meadow where the grass had grown too long for him to sight or hear his beloved ball landing, so he switched his nose on and sniffed it out! The first time I saw him do it, I was gobsmacked! Also, it flicked a little light on in my head as I realised that I had been grossly underestimating my choccie boy.



We started attending training classes, with Go Fetch It, with Sophie and Moss for company, and Bran thoroughly enjoyed himself. There is no pressure for him to perform, but perform he does as he is rarely asked to do anything that he doesn't already know well. We should be starting to train to prepare for the Kennel Club Bronze Award when classes start back in September :o)

I was inspired by how well he was doing and also by several friends who have done/are doing various doggy activities and training.

And so, on Sunday 24th July, I blew the dust off of the trusty old clicker once again.

It was actually physically painful to watch Bran hang his head, his ears, his tail and follow me slowly out to the garden where he sat, refused - then blatantly avoided - any physical or eye contact and waited until I asked him to do something that he knew :o(

I was disappointed, frustrated and rather sad and worried as I ranted on Facebook about why clicker training with him was so mind numbingly difficult. A few friends replied to say that their dogs were the same and maybe it was just how he was and I'd have to find another way, but my lovely friend Morag was watching and waiting......