So, for the latest update on Matilda – the main focus over the last few weeks has been getting her out to see people, children, traffic and other dogs, and starting to lay down some of the life skills we’ll be relying on later. On the whole, she’s doing really well out and about, and at home she is loving life and has fitted into the family so well.
People and children
She’s been really good with people of all types. She occasionally wees on greeting new people, which can be a sign of a slight lack of confidence, or just over-excitement, but she adores people. We had a family gathering here, with several young children present, and she was a little worried by them to start with, but by the end she was interacting with them quite nicely. I’m happy with how she’s been, and I’ll keep taking her to places with very young, squealy, erratic children (at an intensity that she can cope with) so that keeps building.
Traffic
Habituation to traffic is so important in collies, and has gone well. We started off a good distance from roads, in quiet car parks, then closer to busier roads, and a few days ago I walked her through town in the buggy and watched her carefully – she was fine, chewing on her chew, not bothered by any of it. There haven’t been any really loud vehicles that have startled her yet, and I want to avoid these, as much as possible, for now. We’ve only really done town roads so far, not the sort of roads with lorries and heavier traffic, but so far, so good.
Learning to greet other dogs
This is the one I’ve been focusing on most. When Matilda meets another dog, particularly face-on, she’ll growl a little bit, which has worried me – it’s unusual in a puppy this young, and I did have a brief panic about it the first time I properly noticed it. I’m not entirely sure why she’s doing it. It might be because her litter were quite feisty with each other, it might be something to do with communications between her and my own older dogs, or it might just be her personality – we won’t know. But we do need to make sure we have a plan for her, rather than just hoping that she grows out of it – if we don’t ensure that we handle it properly, she may not grow out of it.
So far it has never gone further than a growl, and within a few seconds, she is very happy and interacts really nicely with them. So there are good signs in amongst the bit that’s given me cause for concern. It looks like the growl is her way of asking for a bit more space and a bit more time before a face-on greeting, rather than anything more serious – and it’s definitely not something I’d put down to any poor start in life. She came to us with a lovely foundation from her breeder, and her early experiences with other dogs, including mine, have genuinely been good ones. It may just be her feisty personality giving a warning before she barges in, and I hope it’s simply something she needs a bit of help working through.
Because I don’t want her getting into the habit of growling being how she greets other dogs, we’ve put together a plan and are taking it at her pace. Rather than letting her rush in nose-to-nose, we’re introducing her to calm, older dogs side by side first – parallel walking up and down together, keeping moving or getting used to each other from a distance, and giving them another focus rather than each other, so she can see them without any pressure to interact. We did this with Wesley, my son’s lovely gentle St Bernard and his bulldog Belle recently: plenty of walking up and down, play and treats first, and by the time we let them get close enough to sniff, we ensured that the other dogs were facing away from her taking treats from my son, so she could sniff them from behind. She then had a few very brief nose to nose interactions, and there was no growling at all. I’m practising U-turns – turning her away from forward movement suddenly with treats, so that eventually we have a good turn away cue that we can use when greeting other dogs, before she escalates to a growl. Using this, she’ll be learning that she gets a chance to say hello, but is then moved away calmly before she ever feels the need to ask for space herself. I’ll be asking the owners of other dogs she greets over the next few weeks to turn their dogs away too, so that it’s not just her feeling exposed as she moves away.
It’s early days, and hopefully our plan will work, and I’ll keep sharing honestly how it goes, good days and less good ones.
Life skills and training
We haven’t really started any formal training yet, as the focus at this stage has been more on life skills – things like getting her used to going in her push chair, getting used to walking on a lead, going in the car, meeting other people and dogs, settling in her pen etc.
Loose lead walking: Matilda is now used to trailing a house line (a thin, ribbon-like lead with no handle) on her harness and her collar. In certain scenarios, such as when we had the family party, it was much easier to be able to guide her away from people eating, or little children who were scared of her, without having to constantly grab her and pick her up.
On walks around our field so far, we’ve been using her harness and letting her trail the lead or use it lightly. The next stage is to use it for walks, and get her used to the frustrating feeling of being restricted. Then we’ll also get her used to having her lead on her collar. Loose lead walking is something I’ll be keeping in mind from the start, and this is why I use two pieces of walking equipment. When the lead is on her collar, whenever she pulls, I stop dead. As soon as the lead goes loose, we go forward. Going forward is her reward – if the lead stays loose, she keeps going where she wants to go. If the lead goes tight, we stop. Always – 100% of the time.
When the lead is on her harness, I’m more lenient – I’ll stop if she really pulls, but I also recognise that in some scenarios, I won’t be able to stop if we need to keep moving. In this way, we have the lead on her collar where we are carrying out the loose lead training 100% of the time, and the harness is more for everyday life. Eventually, she will learn that when the lead is on her collar, she never pulls, and we can dispense with the harness altogether. But that won’t be for several months or years, when she is older and more able to cope with every aspect of being out and about.
Recall – this has reminded me that I need to do more work on this! So far we use a host of unusual noises to get her attention and encourage her over, but I need to continue more with the recall training.
U-Turn training is underway too, and we’ve been practising quick U-turns away from things, which will be genuinely useful as she grows and interacts more with other dogs.
Look At That is a fantastic pattern game that I’ve already started using with Matilda. It is perfect for when a puppy is a little anxious about something. So, for example, if another dog barked or reacted in the distance, and Matilda was visibly aware, I would use this game. Whenever she looks at the scary thing, I use her marker word “yip” which tells her that a treat will follow. After she’s eaten the treat and looks at the thing again, I immediately use her marker word again, and we continue until the scary thing is gone or until she seems less concerned and we can move away.
So far we have used this for other very loud barky dogs, and the occasional lorry that has passed us while out.
Settle – we’ve also been training settle – when I am busy in the kitchen or busy doing something that Matilda can’t be part of, whenever she lies down quietly, I put a treat between her paws. She has very quickly learned that lying quietly is much more rewarding than jumping up to see what I am doing, chewing the kitchen units, or trying to bite my feet!! We will continue to work on this going forwards.
Puppy biting
Matilda has very sharp teeth, and is a very bitey, mouthy puppy. However, due to my training of constantly carrying treats, and rewarding her with a treat every time she approaches me, and asking other family members to do the same, she is not particularly bitey with us, which is great.
The only time she does it is when I try to do rough and tumble play with her, or if I am too hands-on during toy play. If I keep my hands out of the way, and just play with her with toys, then she is fine. Watch Matilda playing nicely with her tug toy in the following video, but notice that when I put my hands on her, she quickly starts to bite.
Ozzy is adapting his play and is actually enjoying playing with Matilda most of the time now. Gael (aged 11) definitely isn’t enjoying Matilda “play”, so we have to limit Matilda’s access to her and keep them separate when Matilda is in one of her bitey moods. Flo (now 6 years old but with hip issues so anxious about play due to potential pain) continues to stand her ground, but is mellowing and softening all the time.
Sleep
Sleep is sooo important for puppies. It is the number one cause of severe puppy biting, along with pain or discomfort, so we are making sure that Matilda gets lots of sleep. This includes between approximately 8-9pm while I walk the other dogs. Most people try to avoid giving their puppy naps in the evening, wanting to “tire them out” before bed-time. But in reality, a tired puppy is less likely to settle and sleep so if you have a puppy of a similar age and are struggling in the evening “witching hour”, introducing a sleep part-way through the evening is definitely something you should consider.
Matilda gets enforced naps in her pen at regular times of the day (after she’s been awake for 1-2 hours) to ensure that she sleeps as she can find things too distracting if she remains out of her pen with me and the other dogs.
Home life
Toilet training has been easy so far – she’s only had one accident, which I think is largely down to the excellent groundwork her breeder had already put in before she came to us, as well as the fact that it is summer, and the back door is always open. She’s settling reasonably well into her pen, is good about grooming, nail handling and teeth checks, and is happy in the pushchair. She had her first bath with us, and although she wasn’t a fan, we made it as fun as possible.
The car is still not something she enjoys much – she is extremely observant, and can tell when I am loading the car and preparing to take her out. She has started to become slightly avoidant and move away. Unfortunately, we’ve had to take her with us a fair bit recently because of work with the sheep, and it’s been hot, so I think that’s part of it, but she isn’t drooling or physically struggling any more – it’s more frustration that she is restrained in the car and can’t get out! Sheep work should decrease over the next few weeks and we can work on shorter, more exciting journeys!
She’s started showing a bit more interest in chewing and the odd spot of digging, which is normal enough at this age. We’re managing it sensibly – covering any holes she’s taken an interest in, and fencing off anything she shouldn’t have access to – rather than constantly telling her off and picking her up and moving her away. This can quickly become confrontational, and we want to keep everything positive.
What’s next
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be carrying on with the work with calm older dogs, getting her to a few dog-friendly events so she learns other dogs being around doesn’t automatically mean a greeting, and keeping up the life skills work. I’ll keep updating you as we go, including the bits that don’t go quite to plan.