The Rip Van Wrinkler, XVIII, Issue 2, May 2014

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Training Conversation

Enduring quote: Lotte Hotaling, "I don't know about Basenjis being difficult to train, but it is not at all difficult for them to train their humans."

Teaching Go-To-Chair, Lola's Puppy Class


It's really easy to teach your basenji to stay in the ring. AKC rules are now very serious about dogs not leaving the ring. 4 feet (doggie) on the ground outside of the barrier will be an Excusal.

Here's my simple method. We're going to train the dog to "go to the chair", although I wouldn't give it a name unless you find you need to.

Armed with lots of small bits of treats, be very quiet, not a word, and go up to one chair after another, in class, and drop a treat. Say nothing. Chair after chair.

Then put a chair in the ring. Drop 2 treats there. Say nothing.

When you are ready to run your dog, in class, drop the lead and collar and a few treats on the chair. Say nothing.

Continue this.

That'll do it. Let me know.

Fiddle. AFrame.


Lola goes to puppy training

by Yvonne ’t Mannetje with photos Kynologisch Nederland

There we were, 18 proud puppy owners, accompanied by a partner, friend or family member, standing in a circle, ready for our very first exercise at the beginning of our puppy training.  “Everybody pick up your puppy and please hand him or her over to the person on your left side. Children are allowed to pet, but cannot hold the puppy. When I give the signal again you hand over the puppy in your arms to the person on your left. This way you will all get to hold puppies. We do this at the special request of the vets in this area, so your puppies will get used to be touched by strange people”. This is what our instructor told us.

Lola being cuddled.

I “enjoyed” a face-wash by a German Shepard puppy, cuddled a sweet Jack Russell boy, and got myself familiar with the puppies. There were all kinds of breeds represented, with our Basenji girl and a Tai Ridgeback as representatives of a breed people had never heard of before. :-)  The cuddling was a lot of fun, although I must admit, being a bit overprotective, and I constantly kept one eye on Lola to see how she reacted. She loved it, and I loved it even more when she was returned to me.

 

Description: Macintosh HD:Users:sueapu:Documents:Wrinkler68:1800338_10201784594288917_4590406590479093170_n.jpgHappy me, with Lola back in my arms.

One of my friends had recommended this dog school to me, and once I learned they owned a beautiful building, with 2 very large halls where we could train inside I became very interested. In The Netherlands this is very rare, most schools give their trainings outside,  on a field of –wet- grass and don’t care if it is raining or not. Not so ideal for training a basenji! Plus this team is so very enthusiastic and experienced, it made me feel really good.

Lola on the catwalk & in the tunnel
Description: Macintosh HD:Users:sueapu:Documents:Wrinkler68:10171716_10201784591728853_1055501814386352075_n.jpgDescription: Macintosh HD:Users:sueapu:Documents:Wrinkler68:10258740_10201784591848856_5982277607949249351_n.jpg

On top of that this dog school, named “Kynologisch Nederland” has an interesting approach. The goal is to let the puppy socialize as much as possible in the first 12 weeks of their lives. As we know this is a very important development stage in the life of a puppy. The puppy training contains 4 lessons of one hour, preceded by one hour of theory lesson. The intention of this training is to help the owner to raise a stable puppy with an open mind. They do also include the exercises “sit” and “down” but the focus is to overcome all kind of obstacles, both literally and figuratively speaking. Sometimes it is a bit like agility.

Lola and I loved every moment of the training! Each week the instructors build a a new course. Each week they have some kind of labyrinth. This can be made of plastic buckets of different sizes, or little gates with a variety of obstacles hanging down, like dishwashing brushes, pans or feathers.

Lola, don’t eat that!

Lola finding her way through the labyrinth

The team goes out of their way to come up with great ideas. So we walked over some plastic cushions in different sizes, or we use the A-frame from the agility classes, which is staged very wide of course. We also used the tunnel, starting small and going bigger, sometimes combined with other objects.

Another week, another labyrinth.

Puppy swimming

This is all so much fun, for both puppy and owner.  The puppy’s self-confidence grows by the minute, and for those who are a bit reluctant to try, there is Vegas, the Dog Whisperer. This “Grand Dane” is very concerned about all the puppies, and monitors all of them to see if they are fine. If not, he stays there and helps them with the exercise.

Vegas helping a puppy finding its way through the labyrinth.

No need to say both Lola and I fell head over heels in love with Vegas, as did all the others. Vegas has a large fan club ;-)

Lola falling head over heels in love with Vegas.

During the period of 4 weeks Lola gained self confidence, got used to other dogs and people, played with all kind of puppy-breeds and we both had a super time.

Next week we can start our next course – will keep you posted!

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