On Sunday September 21st Hannah, local animal behaviourist,  (www.pawfectdogsense.com) began her autumn sessions in Kings Heath Park.  Isis and I attended and Hannah introduced us to clicker training.

Cheese in abundance. Isis was happy in the class. Unfortunately, after the first three sessions she developed an extreme park phobia. She became so terrified that she would not move out of the shrubbery so we had to opt out. I am hoping that we will be able to attend when Isis has had more time to settle as Hannah’s ideas have been very helpful.

I use the body blocking techniques frequently on walks to discourage Isis from changing direction and haring back to the car.  The technique is advantageous to both of us. I remain upright which is my preference and Isis’s paws don’t get trodden on, which is hers. We have many unscheduled halts but at least we don’t dance on the spot as we used to.

The clicker training is very useful too. Currently I am using this to teach her her first command, ‘sit’.

I communicate the command. As soon as she sits, ‘click-clack’ and treat.

We practise every day with a large bag of doggie chocolate buttons. She is doing well. As soon as every command gets an immediate sit, we hope to go on to ‘down’. Latest news: she just did it! Eight commands. Eight immediate sits. We’ve begun working on ‘down’.

Clever Isis.