Swimming at Allers Farm Kennels

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Susan

One of the members of Beanie’s agility club told us about a new pet therapy pool that was opening up in East Kilbride. She showed us some snaps of her dog enjoying a swim and it was clear that the pool was much bigger than Beanie was used to. We decided to go and check it out. I telephoned the owners last week, and I also mentioned that we might be interested in using their premises for Glasgow Dog Training Club pool parties. The owner invited Beanie and Val’s (the club’s head trainer) dogs along for a complementary swim and a tour of the premises.

The pool isn’t officially opened as the new facilities aren’t yet complete. The pool itself is fully functional but there’s still quite a bit of decoration to be done to the pool room. It’s a lovely big pool in a huge room – if you don’t mind putting up with undecorated walls then there’s no reason not to start using the premises now (though I believe there’s going to be a big open day when all the work is complete).

The really appealing thing is that the owner is very flexible, and is happy for you to go in the pool with your dog if you have your own wet suit (and you can pick up cheap wetsuits for £25). There are showers so you don’t have to go home soaking wet, and there’s even a hair drier for your dog. He’s also happy for you to have more than one dog in the pool so dog owners can get together and share the cost of the pool rental. This makes it much more affordable for regular swims. The only stipulation is that you must have one handler in the pool for every dog. However, it would be quite practical for three or four dogs to share a swimming slot and pop into the pool one at a time while the others are resting between laps. And of course, if you don’t want to go in the pool yourself, Jennifer is on hand to make sure your dog gets a good workout.

The owner is particularly keen to have the pool used by clubs, and will offer them special rates. So for example, it would be great for any kind of canine athlete as swimming is known to improve performance and prevent injury. It’s also great just as a fun way to spend time with your dog. I’m not sure, but I expect if a group of people got together for regular swim sessions with their dogs they would be given these special club rates. So I’m hoping that lots of Beanie’s pals will be interested in teaming up for regular pool parties. And at the very least we can take both Biggles and Beanie swimming for the price of one when Biggles is old enough.

The pool is at Allers Farm Kennels, and their website is http://www.allersfarmkennels.co.uk

I think the website is undergoing some maintenance right now as it was offline when I tried, so if you need the phone number or contact details drop us a line. And if you want to team up with Beanie for group swims let us know!

Beanie and two of Vals dogs enjoyed a lovely swim under the care of the pool’s therapist, Jennifer…

Lucy takes the plunge first

Beanie can’t wait for her turn

At last she gets fitted with her little harness…

…and dives into the pool for a lovely swim

Last up is Anna…

…but sister Lucy wants to join her – unfortunately mum Val refuses point blank to put on a wet suit and jump in the pool with her!

More piccies here

Points & Maiden Race Trophy Winners

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Susan

We took Beanie Beagle racing today for the first time in a month. We missed one week when we all went down to collect Biggles, and there’s been two weeks that the track was flooded.

It was a lovely sunny day so we decided that we’d all go and take Biggles along for the socialisation. He was as good as gold and slept through the entire afternoon. He only woke for a few minutes when Jan kidnapped him and took him to meet everyone. We learned a few useful things about handling two naughty, noisy beagles. Jan also demonstrated how to hold a wiggly puppy without dropping it and informed us that Biggles is in fact not a huge pup but normal size. Nevertheless, at 7 weeks old he was too big for the little coat that little Beanie was wearing until about four months old!

Scheduled for today was the final points race (After which the winner of the points trophy would be decided) and the maiden trophy race. The maiden race is open to all dogs that have not yet won a race.

Winner of the maiden race was Jan Bell’s Inca (who is no slouch and actually came fourth in the derby). Inca’s sister Abbey won the Bitch trophy a couple of months ago.

Beanie came first in today’s points race. She won the last points race so was handicapped by 6 yards in this race. However, we also had weight handicaps today and as she’s so much lighter than all the other dogs she still ended up with a 10 yard lead over Murphy, and 8 yard lead over Sam and a 2 yard lead over Abbey. The trophy for the points race goes to the dog that’s earned the most points over the entire season. And that was Murphy (who also won the derby).

As you can see from the photos, it’s getting dark very early. Next week will be the final race day of the season.

But by the start of next season Biggles will be 8 months old and ready to start joining Beanie at the race track.

Agility

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Susan

Today was the final session in Beanie’s ‘Introduction to Agility’ course. It was a lovely sunny morning with blue skys so the class took place in the park. Next week she progresses to her second course.

As always, the dogs took everything in their stride but it’s getting harder every week for the poor handlers. The difficulty is that our dogs don’t yet understand verbal commands or hand signals so they are relying on us getting our body language, cues and use of treats perfectly co-ordinated in order to direct our dogs over the apparatus in the correct order. In a straight course it’s easy. You basically put them in a down-wait at one end of the course then do a recall from the other. But when the dog has to make 90 degree and 180 degree turns in order to tackle the apparatus in the right order it’s not so easy.

Todays course consisted of a raised walkway, a tunnel, a 180 degree turn then over a jump, a 90 degree turn then another jump, another 90 degree turn and a final jump. The 180 degree turn after coming out of the tunnel gave all the handlers major problems.

Beanie started off very well…

…but soon got bored and frustrated by my bad handling and Carol got to see our little girls naughty habits. I’m quite pleased about this as Carol had lots of excellent advice to offer and reassurances that she’s seen it plenty of times before and it’s always easily overcome.

The first problem occured when we had to repeat a sequence a few times because I was getting it wrong and Beanie wasn’t clear what she was to do.

She showed her displeasure by wandering off across the park ingoring me completely. When she finally came back she put her nose down and completely ignored all of my commands despite the fact that I was waving the tatiest treats known to hounds over her nose. Carol gave us some fantastic tips for dealing with this and I think with practice we’ll manage to put a stop to this habit once and for all.

She pointed out that the dogs that did best were those that were toy oriented. They don’t get their reward until they had completed the course. This meant that they remain more focussed throughout and their toy becomes a highly prized reward. Food oriented dogs like Beanie are used to getting little treats every time they do something. Give them too many treats and they loose value, but if they don’t get enough treats they get bored and wander off because they are focussed on getting the next treat rather than on the job in hand.

Carol suggested popping Beanie’s treat in a little tupperware box at the end of the course thus making it work more like a toy. Beanie gets her treat when she’s completed the course and not before. This focusses her on the idea that she has to do everything that I’m asking her to do, and not to just look for treats after every step. Initially she’d run straight to the box the moment I released her, missing all the apparatus. However, as the box was closed she was unable to retrieve the treat without my help.

Carol told me to say nothing but just grab Beanie’s collar and take her back to the start without releasing the treat. Each time I took her back to the start the little box with the treat in became more and more desireable to Beanie. Sniffing the ground lost it’s appeal. Eventually Beanie started to grasp that if she wanted the treat she’d have to do everything I told her to do.

A couple of pictures of Beanie’s classmates in action…

You can view more of today’s pictures here