We’re now entering our sixth – or is it seventh? – week of lockdown. I’m getting lost. Whatever, it’s more than long enough for our dogs to have developed new routines. I’ve noticed some small changes in Gus’s behaviour and our routines haven’t changed that much as we’ve always been home a fair bit of the time.
If you’ve suddenly started spending much more time at home, your dog has noticed a big change. And by now, several weeks later, she will have developed a few new habits herself.
Perhaps she’s started following you round the house a lot more, or continually pestering you for attention, or being more needy about toy play or whatever. Or perhaps he’s always been a bit reactive round other dogs and/or people and the reactivity has got worse over the past few weeks.
Dogs are creatures that accept change as a new normal and adapt fairly quickly to it – though not always in ways we want. But we know things will change again as we start to come out of lockdown. Our dogs don’t. So it’s important to prepare them for the change, whenever it comes.
Todays’ challenge in our Coronavirus Canine Challenge is another back end awareness game. This one is more advanced and builds on last week’s stand-on-a-book exercise, so please teach your dog to walk on and stand on a raised object first – check back on last week’s email for details.
The object needs to be tall enough for your dog to be standing on something but not too tall – pick something that suits your dogs size. A telephone directory is good for most dogs. Today I used a small stool for Gus today (because I’ve lost the phone directory I had last week…).
Encourage your dog up on the object and reward them for standing on it. Then encourage them to move round – you can train both directions if you want, but the easiest way is to move slightly towards your dog when you first start. Take a tiny step towards your dog and at the same time use a treat to move their head in the opposite direction (towards you) – these two things will encourage your dog to step away with their back legs. Praise and reward even the tiniest of movements. Repeat and repeat until your dog is moving both legs as you move. See if you can build to you both moving in a whole circle round your object – now there’s a challenge for you!
Keep training and keep safe,
Carol