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“But my dog just wants to play…”

March 25, 2019 by abbey

I think anyone who has any involvement in the dog world will know exactly where I am going with this post. This topic has been done to death. So, so many people cover it, and yet I find myself with the urge to write this as it’s such an ongoing and incredibly frustrating issue that I encounter on an almost daily basis.

I am in the luxurious position of having my own land in which to exercise my dogs. This makes walking my slightly dog-aggressive dog considerably easier and less stressful. However, there are many occasions when I have to walk my dogs in public places and end up at the mercy of every man and his over-friendly dog. You know the ones I am talking about – that person who is probably having a conversation on the phone, his dog off-lead and miles ahead, paying absolutely zero attention to where his dog is and what his dog is doing. This dog then comes over and causes absolute carnage as it gets its nose up your on-lead dog’s arse and he makes half-hearted attempts to call it away, which it ignores, whilst uttering the words “He just wants to play!”. Sound familiar?

I have generally refrained from talking about the topic. As I said earlier, it has been done to death and it’s hardly like my post is going to be the one that makes this type of person stop, think and then train their dog. But worth a shot, and gives me an opportunity for a ranty blog post! A few posts and comments I have seen recently inspired this. There is a sense of entitlement and lack of respect in a lot of dog walkers. I will try not to generalise, but it’s generally the more typically friendly and sociable breeds owned by generally well-meaning, but sometimes not fully educated dog owners. Unfortunately, not everybody realises that not every dog is friendly. Just like some humans don’t really enjoy social situations, some dogs just don’t like other dogs. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re nasty and doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the right to be walked in public (assuming they are under control, of course, this should go without saying). But we need to start respecting other people more than we do. There have been multiple comments I have seen from owners of friendly dogs, insisting that reactive dogs shouldn’t be walked in public – full stop. As if that is the main issue. Yes, if you know your dog is in some way aggressive or reactive, you should take the appropriate steps and precautions to ensure that your dog is under control and unable to exercise any of the behaviours that may cause something or someone else an injury. However, the owner of a reactive dog has as much right to use public spaces as an owner of a friendly and sociable dog. And this is where respect comes in.

Reactive dog owners need to respect other dog walkers, and the other dog walkers need to respect the reactive dog owners. And that respect can be shown in a number of ways:

– If you see a dog on the lead, recall your dog and also put yours on lead.
– If you see a yellow ribbon, high vis “I need space” coat or any other warning, recall your dog and put it on a lead.
– If you see someone clearly training their dog and not interacting with others, recall your dog and put it on a lead.

If you have a dog that is reactive to others, aggressive or in any other way not sociable, there are definitely some situations you should probably avoid (i.e areas with large numbers of off-lead dogs playing would be somewhere I would avoid with a DA dog. Give a wide berth, rather than walking straight through the middle for example).

I need space coats, muzzles and caution leads can generally act as a decent deterrent that makes some owners realise your dog does not wish to socialise. The coats and lead slips can also be used with dogs that are in training, ill, injured, in season or anxious. While they do not combat the issue of dogs running over miles away from their owners (as dogs cannot read!!), they do work fairly effectively when owners are near enough to see and hopefully recall their dog.

We live in a selfish world where we want what’s best for us, and often don’t think of other people. Which is why I am asking that everyone just tries to respect everyone else a little bit more, and everyone will be able to harmoniously enjoy their dog walks, whether their dog is sociable or not.

If you own a dog that is sociable, but has a poor recall, please ensure that you train you dog to recall reliably BEFORE you start letting it off in public places. Over-friendly dogs bounding up to other dogs can get them in trouble, and may start a fight. This may then also lead to your dog having a negative experience, and becoming one of those dogs I have mentioned, that is not sociable and may be afraid of other dogs, never mind the potential injuries that may be inflicted. You just don’t know who your dog is going to go and greet.


(Jacket and lead slip from Neon Dog )

If you need somewhere to practice your recall, or you have a dog that would prefer a peaceful and private walk, away from other dogs, book your slot in my secure exercise field, just outside of Worcester!

The Pawticularly Secure Exercise Field

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Hello, 2019

January 7, 2019 by abbey

Oh, I shall skip the usual spiel about how I am going to start updating this blog regularly. We all know that will never happen. My track record for the 6 or so years that this blog has been in existence shows that. But I am in one of those reflective moods where I felt I would summarise my year, for myself, and try and hold myself accountable for any goals in the year ahead.

Where to begin? Well, it has been another year that I said I would compete every single weekend, made a long list of goals, achieved some, and then proceeded to finish my competing season by August. Standard Abbey! But you know what? Despite all of that, it has been one of our best years competing; less from a results perspective, and more due to the fact that my partnerships with my dogs have blossomed, things have clicked into place, and we have had huge amounts of fun along the way.

Maisie won into grade 6 early in the season. This was my goal for the year and we achieved it fairly easily. She has become more consistent and as a result, we gel far better in the ring these days, with considerably less frustration from either of us. We have trained more regularly and had more input from others. I have stopped trying to run her safely (which it turns out was never that safely at all!) and the change in attitude has brought out new fun! We attack courses now.

As with every year, we have had ups and downs. I have never hidden the behavioural issues that my youngster has. I have constant battles inside my head, trying to figure out what is best for her. About whether I will ever have a solid partnership with her. About whether I will ever truly enjoy running her. About whether she can ever be a truly normal dog that doesn’t just take a huge amount of management. I have seen light at the end of this tunnel this year. We have bad days – days when it feels like we will never make any headway. But we have good days too, days when I see things click into place and her finally becoming more of a normal dog. And the good days far outweigh the bad days, for her incredible temperament with people overshadows her incredibly poor and unpredictable temperament around other dogs. She has come into her own in the ring now too. I still find her rather hellish to queue with, but she is a different dog in the ring and is finally becoming far, far more level-headed and sensible. This is allowing her at last to show me she can manage everything I have taught her away from my field and in other, far more exciting environments. That is exciting.

Inca remains much the same. At nearly 9 years old, she rarely competes these days, however, she managed to gain herself some placings this year at some of the UKA shows we attended. She enjoys her life being naughty, raiding any food supplies she can get her nose into and just generally doing the opposite of what I tell her, all in typical flattie style.

And teaching remains a passion. I teach so many incredible partnerships. Whether those partnerships are just in it for a bit of fun or whether they intend to compete at a serious level, they each bring something to my day that keeps the sport alive for me. Youngsters learning how to interact and train their dogs in a fun and responsible way. They are the future, and so many people lose sight of that. I am blessed to meet so many amazing people, every single day. I am blessed to meet so many incredible dogs, every single day. And I am blessed to be able to try and make a difference in some of these dog’s lives, every single day. No lesson is the same, no dog is the same, and no handler is the same – I am blessed to get paid for something I love.

Reflection over. Here’s to 2019. Another year where I fully intend to throw myself into agility, and having all the fun whilst doing so.

Filed Under: Blog

Falling out of love

September 27, 2018 by abbey

I’ve both written and spoken about this so many times, and perhaps in many ways, I feel as though I am repeating myself. It is also one of those things that as someone who does agility training for a living, I probably shouldn’t be publically writing about this on my blog! However, I think that sometimes you’ve just got to be honest and pretending otherwise is never the right way forward.

The short story, I guess, is that I have a totally love-hate relationship with the dog sport that is both my career and also my hobby. I have days when I would quite happily never run an agility course again. I have days when the thought of going to a show fills me with dread. I have days when I am scheduled to go to a show, that I will snooze my alarm and stay home instead. But equally, I have days when I feel inspired. Days when I feel like all I want to do is train. Days when the prospect of a show at the weekend gets me through a tough week. My emotions and feelings towards this sport are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

I frequently get asked when I do attend shows, why I have not been on the circuit much. It’s mostly just assumed that the partying lifestyle takes precedence over any dog-related activities. That isn’t true, agility is possible on a hangover (HA!). But do you know what the honest truth is? I cannot hack agility in every aspect of my life. I have a lot of respect and perhaps a bit of envy for those who can go to weekend-long shows, week in and week out, train people all week, and all the while not lose the love for it. I envy those people, I do. But I am not one of those people. I struggle with and resent things that I feel take over my life, and unfortunately, at times I feel agility does and has.

Sometimes hobbies overrule our lives. Sometimes it all just gets that little too much and we need a break. I started the season off with every intention of competing every single weekend. I had high hopes for my youngster, I had hopes of trying out. But that spark left fairly early on. A long and busy summer teaching left me wanting weekends to be, for the most part, agility free. As a result, by the middle of August, I had had enough and the desire to continue competing until the middle of October had vanished. But that’s okay. I still have fun with my dogs. We still play on our equipment and keep ourselves ever so slightly in the loop and up to date with what’s going on. We just take the pressure off, and ease away from the pressures that sometimes come with competing.

The reality is that I, and many other people, will not be physically able to do as much competing as some without sacrificing other things important to us. It is so important to find that difficult to reach balance we need in life sometimes. Don’t be made to feel inferior or less serious, just because your choice is to not compete as regularly as some. At the end of the day, there is more to life and to agility than competing.

For now, I am putting agility with my own dogs on the backburner. We still train, we still keep up-to-date, but we also keep it at arm’s length, enough so that it doesn’t become everything.

As an aside, I finally got around to putting together a few highlights from some of the shows we did do!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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