Kanine Kapers Dog Blog

Cesar Millan is undoubtedly a very charismatic man who presents a very confident and knowledgeable persona on screen which of course draws in a large audience to watch him sort out dogs with behavioural problems.  I don’t doubt that his methods have helped some dogs who may otherwise have been euthanized BUT his methods are not for everyone or every dog.  At Kanine Kapers we promote and use reward based methods requiring no force, no check chains.  Just because something is on the television does not mean that it is the humane way to train.

Please check out this excellent article at www.k9obedience.co.uk -  fair and well written.

For sheer entertainment watch Dog Borstal,  Series 4 coming soon. Personally I love  watching Mic Martin he really knows how to get the best out of a dog but I think I ‘d be too scared to train under him!

Ain’t no Hush with this Puppy - add your own mix follow link to flash site

Finally, I have my computer back, it’s been on the fritz.  My hubby has also been working away, I don’t know if I was pleased to see him return or the fact that he could fix the computer!  Anyway, this is a quick post to let you know about our fab new class starting in Falkirk.  It’s a fun agility class, the emphasis is on the FUN!  Fun agility is different from the normal agility, all the same equipment but it’s scaled down and for pet owners, if you’re looking for competitive stuff, I’m afraid you may disappointed with this class but it would make a good introduction. The course is 6 weeks long and is a gentle introduction to agility. Dogs attending should have a basic level of training and a recall would be wonderful!  All types of dogs over one year old are welcome and we’ll tailor the training around the dog and handlers’ activity levels.  So what are you waiting for?  Get Active!

PS  Our first course starting on Tuesday 2oth May is  already fully booked, get in touch for places starting on the 1st July at kaninekapers.co.uk

Well, what do you think of the new vid? We had a lot of fun teaching Harry that trick for the end of his beginners course.  Though I had to fib a little on how difficult it was to teach to the other owners in the class. I honestly thought they might lynch me when I said it had only taken us under two hours spread over two days to get him to ‘die’ on command.  We had practised a ‘rollover’ to perform on the last night (which again only took us 2 days) but my eldest daughter who’s been handling Harry in the class wanted to get Harry to die on command using the command word ‘Avada Kedavra’ and a wand. The only thing was that she declared this deepest wish on Tuesday morning only leaving me until the following evening to teach him it.

 Anyway Harry performed both tricks perfectly so we thought we would film them for a new vid for youtube, hope you like the results!

Obviously the last post (well, obvious to me ) was a dig at me by my hubby. Thanks dear! The last week has been so emotionally draining what with Midas dying that I’m afraid Harry’s training was kind of left to the side.  On Monday, however, I thought that I had better give myself a kick up the butt and make an effort but to be honest my heart wasn’t in it. Consequently, Harry wasn’t making any headway with the ‘down’ and continued to look at me like I was speaking gobbledegook.  My fault not his but I didn’t see it like that at the time and called him a ‘thick spaniel’ so I took some time out, ate some chocolate, took a deep breath and approached the teaching of the down in a different way.  I’ve been wanting to try using the ‘clicker’ for some time but to be honest never really took the time to read about it properly or put in the groundwork but I did and now Harry can do the ‘down’ on command or just using a hand signal.  Golden rule - if you are not in the right frame of mind to train , don’t bother! Come back to it.

Getting frustrated trying to get your own dog to do a down on command?

Take a break with the virtual dog at I Do Dog Tricks  - enjoy