Learning About Dogs

Jan 2008

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DATES for 2008

Lots of GREAT new courses and workshops: visit and keep the Google Calendar for all Wag more activities:

Top Sellers for 2007:

Special New Year offer £5 off DVDs when you buy Learning Games

Learning Games by Kay Laurence £24

Play is a natural form of learning. It varies from frivolous to intensely serious. It resolves conflict, strengthens bonds, provides physical workouts, develops cunning srategies and solutions. Participants learn to play by rules, and accelerate their learning and skills.

Our bodies and minds can often learn more effectively by not focussing on specific learning. Interactive games, also known as “training”, involve many layers of connections

between the players deepening their understanding of each other. Dogs play for hours and hours; and will even play with other species, such as cats, to satisfy their play/learn passion.

The interactive Learning Games in the book cover a range of exciting games that can focus on specific development. You can develop an increase of self awareness, balance,

movement with rhythm, sharpen your dog’s puzzle solving skills, play exciting memory games, teach a level self control that opens up a whole new world for you and your dog.

You can play to a plan, or play to pass the time. Whatever reason, it will always be fun.

Whippits £24 (inc VAT)
a DVD from the Wag more Bark Less series

Training that teaches essential lifeskills through self control in a variety of Games and Exercises. This is dog training as it should be - and as your dog

would choose.
Whippit Games are a collection of exercises based on teaching self control. Your dog will learn to control their excitement, the desire to chase and the key rule of listening to

you, even in highly distracting situations. The Games draw on your dog’s instinctive responses and involve good timing and cunning plans to stay one step ahead of your dog.

Cavaletti £24 (inc VAT)
a DVD from the Flexigility series

Flexigility greatly enhances movement for all types of dogs through building strength, joint suppleness, and balanced movement.

Cavaletti exercises develop natural gaiting, through strengthening the rear drive, teaching the dog collected balance and supple action. It develops confidence and self awareness, especially in socially challenged dogs.
The video covers the foundation behaviours, step by step teaching, creative solutions, and the science behind the learning, and exercises to incorporate into class work.

Genabacab
Clicker Training Games for everyone

GENABACAB is the ultimate teaching tool for clicker training. It allows learners to experience being taught with a clicker, and time to develop skills before they apply them to their dogs.

The Games are played at a table, between two people, with invitingly interactive pieces. All Games take you step by step, building on previously learned skills.

Played at the Clicker Expo, this learning format can significantly change your understanding of the concepts involved in clicker training. It gives you opportunities to explore complex issues, and time to plan advanced learning before your try it on your dog.

Judge Kay

I hope you enjoyed my foray into Celebrity land on The Underdogs Show on BBC2 through March and April? This finished April 24th with the final, and the kids show followed the same format on Fridays at 4.30 - BBC1.

The picture is of me (I need to mention that I’m the one on the left, as you would not recognise me with all that slap and posh frock stuff), Peter Purves & Annie Clayton. The final was quite exciting with a nail biter to the last minute - Selina Scott and Chump won. A truly great journey and demonstration of training skills from both Selina and Steve Mann the trainer. Chump is now enjoying a wonderful new, appreciative, home as are all the featured dogs.

Although there was some controversy (well, there’s a surprise) over the “tests” the dogs were put under, some handlers showed a great investment of time and training and came through with flying colours.

This show was a melting pot of different ideas and perspectives on dogs and training:

The training enthusiasts could all recognise that progress was expected at an alarming and unrealistic rate (as is normal I’m sure, with the Dancing format or the Skating format or the Show Jumping format) - but isn’t that the nature of the beast?

Rescue dog enthusiasts saw wonderful strides of achievement in a mixture of dogs from different backgrounds. Great partnerships developed and made the dog loving public focus on the potential of second hand dogs.

Celebrities - the handlers, were probably unaware of how much hard work would be involved - as Mishal Husein said she learned a lot about self discipline, awareness and teaching.

The dogs - better than another day in the kennels, regular baths, lots of attention and some quite good treats. Cool!

The Judges were presented with the challenge of finding specks of gold, rewarding budding skills and astonishing progress - most especially from the awesome children’s show.

A commentator that needed to provide interest, explanation, background, excuses, reasons, compliments, excitement and atmosphere - all in 90 seconds! Without any repetition, deviation or hesitation.

The TV producers were looking for a show of entertainment, emotion, conflict, challenges, hard work, exasperation, frustration, characters and “good TV”.

hmmmm ... and it was a live show .... a certain recipe for something to go “tip-up”.

So many different agendas all pooled into one format. All in all I think everyone was satisfied to some degree, but I don’t think this format would EVER make completely happy bunnies. There was too much conflict between the ambitions of the various elements, but I enjoyed the experience and now have unmeasurable admiration for TV presenters!

Julian Clary did a sterling job of refereeing the whole circus, live (I say again LIVE!), a bunch of out of water celebs, uncomfortable trainers, dogs that believed plastic studio grass is just ordinary grass, judges that were on a weekly learning curve, (I say again this was LIVE! - my list of words I couldn’t say grew longer each week) professional crew that learned VERY fast to read canine body language and an ear piece directing him from one second to the next and whilst reading an auto cue at 50 paces.

Who would want that sort of job?