got a brilliant book recently!

hi all,

just thought i'd tell ya about a brilliant dog book that i have just bought. its called 'training games' by kay laurence from the learning about dogs website. it gives you ideas of games and training ideas you can do with your dogs indoors or outdoors. it is all clicker-based and involves some shaping exercises.

at the moment i am working on 'odd one out'. whereby you put 2 items exactly the same and 1 different item on the floor, and when you say 'odd one out' to the dog they have to indicate the odd one out. sam loves it, and i feel really proud when i show people how he can pick the odd one!

also there is a brilliant exercise in there for getting and keeping your dogs attention. (we all know springers have the attention span of a gnat sometimes!). its called 'mousey mousey'. all you do is kneel on the floor with your dog and have a high value reward in your hand, show the dog what you've got, then say in a whispery playful voice 'mousey mousey', then if the dog keeps his attention on the treat flick it away from him. if he looks away, take the treat away and say to your dog 'wheres mousey mousey gone?'. believe me you'll soon get his attention!! sam loves this game and it really tires him out cos he has to concentrate on this treat! i tried it last night when we were out on the field, i just shouted to him 'mousey mousey' and he flew over!!! we were both sat in the middle of the field playing this game!!! at least i got his attention for a few mins!

That sounds great.

I bet the pair of you made a right sight. LOL

you know what i didnt even think about that! was just soo pleased that i had got his attention and he wasnt looking at the squirrels and birds around. he was just lay on the grass with me!!! awww bless him!

I think I may have to get that book myself. Dingo shuts his ears and eyes off to me when he's out and only sees the rabbits. It's frustrating.

That mousey mousey game reminds me of a woman at agility who has a Finnish Laphund. Whenever it wanders off and ignores her, she shouts "biscuits!" and it's attention is back on her! We all joke she should have called the dog Biscuits!

I do like the sound of this book, I reckon it would be a doddle to teach Jed some stuff.

it really is worth buying. sam is just the same as dingo, totally deaf when he's out so i couldnt believe that we were playing this game in the middle of the field!! ive got a few of her other books and they are all very good, esp if you are into clicker training

some of the stuff in it is a bit over my head at the mo, but i'm just starting off with the easy stuff. she breaks the games down for you, so you start off easy then increase the criteria at yours and the dogs pace. well worth getting!

I just went to have a look and its sold out at the moment....

Guess they must have had a rush on

I had the pleasure of some one to one training with Kay at the BGSC fun day - she was amazing!

Will pop over to the learning about dogs stand at Crufts - bought some great toys last year !

Like that mousey mousey game - I use a find it game which is very similar! I don't have to kneel down on the floor for mine though tee hee!

Sounds a great book thanks for sharing about it!