Natural Training – The First Few Days

In my last post I said that we were going to try the Natural Training approach with Beanie. Well here are the exercises we’ve been doing, along with our initial impressions.

Pushing at Feeding Time

This is apparently one of the most fundamental exercises, and to quote from Neil Sattin’s blog, it’s goal is to “shift your relationship with your dog, increasing their level of attraction to you during high energy moments, and also helping your dog learn to be relaxed during those times”. Here’s Neil’s description of how the exercise should be carried out, and here’s his explanation of how it works.

Well you may recall from my earlier posts that feeding times have become a little difficult with Beanie, particularly since she had a stomach bug. It’s often difficult to get her interested in her food (though she’s always desperate to get hold of any of our food – even scraps on dirty plates as they’re being loaded into the dishwasher), and one of the tricks we sometimes use is to take a handful of food, wave it in front of Beanie then run away from her. She gets drawn into the chase, and in her excited state loses some of her fussy appetite. We found it quite easy to transition from this to pushing, in fact even in the first session Susan was able to skip the initial stages and go direct to applying a little pressure with her free hand.

Even in the few days we’ve been trying this, we’ve seen dramatic changes. Beanie is now uncharacteristically enthusiastic at mealtimes, and often ends up on two legs as she fights to get to the food past the restraining hand. She retains a fair chunk of this enthusiasm even if we skip the pushing and just pop her bowl down in front of her. It’s really great to see her eating proper balanced dog food with gusto, and it’s changed how the three of us feel about mealtimes. Previously, I often felt that there was some kind manipulative game going on between us and our dog. For our part, we really wanted her to eat so that she’d have the necessary fuel to grow bigger, stronger and more healthy. Beanie seemed to view this as a weakness she could exploit. I know I’m putting a human interpretation on what’s probably a purely instinctual dog behavior, but that’s how it felt. Happily, all that seems to be behind us now!

Tug of War (with assured victory for the dog)

Like most pups, Beanie loves to get hold of our clothes. Shoes are good, socks are better, but the holy grail for this naughty pup is used underwear. When she gets hold of a pair of Susan’s knickers, you’re in for a tugfest as you try to pry them free from her needle-lined jaws. You can probably imagine our frustration then when our initial attempts at playing with a proper tug toy went down like a fart in space suit. She was happy to chew the damn thing, but if we grabbed the other end of it she just dropped it without a struggle.

We didn’t give up though. We bought a soft rubber tugger and a chocolate flavored rope from our local pet shop, and rather than pulling as soon as she got hold of them, we’d start with a gentle side-to-side shaking motion. Each time she got a good grip and tugged, we let her win and praised her. Neil Sattin’s blog recommends using two identical tug toys so that after her victory you can start another round with the second toy. We didn’t have two identical toys, and we found that it was easier to get her interested in just one toy. Bringing a second, different toy onto the scene just seemed to complicate matters and detract from the game. After a victory, Beanie generally chewed the toy briefly then dropped it so we could continue with the same toy. I don’t think that reusing the same toy is a big deal, as long as you’re not actually removing it from your dog’s mouth, thus tarnishing her victory.

Regardless, Beanie’s now starting to get the hang of it all, and this morning I think I saw the first concrete signs of the exercise starting to work. Previously when Beanie picked up a toy she’d often carry it off to a secluded corner for a private chewing session. Today though, she carried her rubber tugger over it to me and dropped it, as though enticing me into a game. As soon as I grabbed it, she did the same and we had a robust tug of war that we both enjoyed!

Fetch Tug (or “when ball games go wrong”)

While most other dogs seem to love retrieval games, Beanie has never seemed to understand them. Throw a ball and she’d chase after it while it was in motion, then lose all interest as soon as it came to rest. I don’t think this is unusual for Beagles. There’s an episode of the Dog Whisperer that features a beagle that howls constantly while on a walk. The introduction contains a clip of one of the owners throwing a ball; the Beagle glances over his shoulder as the ball flies past, but stays rooted to the spot with a look that says “Look mate, I’m not stupid. You threw it. You can go get it back yourself”

Anyway, while on yet another visit to the pet shop I came across a toy that consisted of two soft, textured rubber balls with bells inside them, strung together with a strip of elastic. It was advertised as being great for tug games and teething pups so I bought it. Beanie showed a lot of interest in it, but within about five minutes of solo play she’d chewed through the elastic. I made a temporary repair by reconnecting the balls with her old collar but she chewed through that too, at which point I gave up on the whole repair project. She still seemed to like the balls though, so Susan tried using them in a game of fetch one evening while I was out. I don’t know how Susan managed it, but by the time I got back Beanie was actually playing fetch and loving it. Of course, this is Beanie we’re talking about, so the gameplay is occasionally suspended for a moment of classic Beagle single-mindedness.

In her excitement Beanie sometimes forgets to return the first ball. She arrives back at our corner of the kitchen eager for the next round, so we throw the remaining ball too. Beanie chases and catches it, but is then faced with a problem that pushes her brain cells to the limit. She’s got two balls, but only one mouth. She drops the ball she’s holding, grabs the first one and starts back towards us, then it dawns on her: the second ball is now on the floor. She backtracks, and switches balls. Solved! She happily sets off again, then freezes as she realizes that she’s still leaving one ball behind. And so it goes on. And on. Aren’t Beagles meant to be smarter than goldfish? I’m starting to doubt it.

Now we’re still not playing fetch tug as described by Neil (we should be playing tug during the game, which isn’t too easy with balls, and we should be throwing the objects in opposite directions, so that Beanie crosses our location each time) but it’s progress, and we’ve got a new game that Beanie really enjoys.

Impressions so far

I’m really pleased with the improved atmosphere at mealtimes. That alone makes this experiment worthwhile. But more than that, we’re both starting to feel that Beanie is finding our company more stimulating. She’s walking to heel much better, and even when playing with other dogs off lead she seems to like running back to us every so often. Her recall is still bad, but I’d say it’s improved a little.

Now there are many other variables that could be contributing to these changes, not the least of which is the obedience class we attend each week, but we both feel that it’s worth continuing with the natural training exercises. At the very least, it’s fun for all concerned.