Covid 19 Guidelines for accessing the Indoor training venue

If your Class is scheduled to train in Logie Durno Hall, please Adhere to the following Guidelines

With the current COVID situation we all need to adhere to some stricter guidelines than usual, and I need to insure that you have read and understood these guidelines.

Before coming to your first class, you need to read the guidelines below and then mark this topic as having been completed.

YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE HALL IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO.

If you need to switch handler from week to week, ALL handlers must review this topic and confirm that they “have read, understood and will follow the guidelines”.

Reminders:

  • Pick up after your dog if you need to take your dog around the outside of the hall or the near grass area, keep the area clean and take all poo bags away with you to dispose of at home, please avoid using the outside bins to reduce any chance of contamination
  • Do not walk your dog/puppy in the park opposite to the hall as there are often children playing there, we need to keep them a safe environment
  • Bring hand sanitiser with you and use this to clean your hands at least at the start and end of the training session. Hand sanitizer will not be provided for you.
  • There will be no access to the toilets nor the kitchen area for this class
  • Bring a large mat (e.g., 2 yoga mats – preferred option or something similar – or a beach towel, that can cover a broad region for the training) and a smaller one for some of the class exercises. Remember to clean and sanitize these mats between each session.
  • Park at a sensible distance from each other allowing people to maintain 2 metres apart when accessing their vehicles
  • Wait in your car until your trainer invites you to come in, do not gather in groups whilst waiting for your class.
  • Ensure you are not leaving any waste around your car, remember to check and pick up anything that might have fallen from the car.
  • Respect a minimum distance of 2 metres between yourself and the Trainer(s) and other attendees of the class.
  • Do not congregate near to doors and gates so people can enter or leave the hall respecting the 2 meters distance
  • Do not touch any doors, light switches, or window ledges; Your trainer will do so if required.
  • You are required to use a mask in the corridor areas. When you remove your mask make sure it is not left in contact with any of the hall surface, it must be put in your bag and you are requested to use your hand sanitizer as soon as you have put the mask in your bag.
  • Keep all your equipment in a bag, your coat needs to be kept next to you, ideally on the mats you brought with you; do not use the window ledges to leave equipment nor clothing
  • Avoid coming into direct contact with other Puppies that are in the class.  Avoid stroking or cuddling the other puppies.
  • Toys and rewards that will be used in the training cannot be shared between dogs or between handlers from different households. You will need to bring your own toys and treats
  • Bring an individual water bowl and water for your puppy
  • Bring some absorbent paper and disinfectant wipes to clean the floor in case your puppy has an accident. (Note for the hall committee, if this happen the floor will also be cleaned by the trainer with good disinfectant)
  • Do not wander around the buildings or premises. We are incredibly grateful to have been allowed access to use this secure venue to enable the running of classes and do not wish to place the families that live in the vicinity nor other hall users at any risk or cause them any unnecessary disruption.

Thank you very much for your understanding

Covid-19 Guidelines for accessing the outdoor training venue

With the ongoing Covid-19 situation please take note of the following guidance for attending the any of our outdoor training Schools. We understand that some of these may sound a bit excessive, but our aim is to keep everyone safe during the sessions.

  • Please respect a minimum distance of 2 metres between yourself and the Trainer(s) and other attendees of the class.
  • Please bring hand sanitiser with you and use this to clean your hands at least at the start and end of the training session. Hand sanitizer will not be provided for you.
  • Please park a sensible distance from each other allowing people to maintain 2 metres apart when accessing their vehicles
  • Please do not touch the gate into the field; we will open and close this for you.
  • Please avoid coming into direct contact with other Puppies or Dogs that are in the class. We know that puppies are cute and often very sociable, but please avoid stroking or cuddling the other puppies.
  • Toys and rewards that will be used in the training cannot be shared between dogs or between handlers from different households.
  • Please pick up after your dog and take all poo bags away with you to dispose of at home
  • Please bring an individual water bowl and water for your puppy
  • Please wait in the parking area until asked to enter the field and please do not wander around the buildings or premises. We are incredibly grateful to have been allowed access to use this secure field to enable the running of classes and do not wish to place the families that live here at any risk or cause them any unnecessary disruption.

Venue for the Puppy School – Live

We currently use a number of different venues for our Puppy School – Live classes.

Outdoor Venue – Inverurie

For the Puppy School – Live classes that are being held just outside Inverurie, the Post Code to the field is AB51 5JJ. If you enable the Satellite layer on the map below, it is the rectangular field to the rear of the two cottages in the centre of the map.

Directions

  • From the Blackhall roundabout on the A96 at Inverurie take the exit on to Blackhall Road signposted Burnhervie & Highclere Business park
  • Follow Blackhall Road for 300m to the next roundabout. Take the second exit continuing straight on for 350m until arriving at another small roundabout. Again, take the second exit and head straight on.
  • After 600m you will come to a junction located at the apex of a sharp left-hand bend in the road. Take the single-track road signposted to East Aquorthies Stone Circle
  • Follow this road for approximately 200m past the cottages on your right. The entrance is on your right-hand side.
  • Turn in to the property using the driveway between the two cottages and the neighbouring house and head to the parking area by the farm building to the rear of the field. Please use the button below to open a Google Street View of the area.
Street View

Indoor Venue – Pitcaple

The Puppy School – Live Classes that are to be held indoors will be using the Logie Durno Village Hall. This is located just off the A96 approximately 5 miles North West of Inverurie.

The Post Code for the hall is AB51 5EJ

Directions

  • From the Blackhall roundabout at Inverurie take the A96 North.
  • After Approximately 5 miles take the left hand turn signposted “Whiteford 1/2” and “Durno 1 1/2”
  • Follow this road until you arrive at Logie Durno School
  • Take the left turn next to the school.
  • Logie Durno Hall is approximately 500 metres on your right.
Street View

Organising your private sessions

As part of the Puppy School – Plus you are entitled to some private coaching to help you with any issues you may be having working through some of the exercises with your puppy.

This takes the form of either:

Two 30-minute online coaching sessions

or

One 60-minute face-to-face coaching session outdoors at CANINE Pawsibilities training ground near Huntly, Scotland * (subject to Covid 19 restrictions)

To organise your private sessions please e-mail Agnès directly at info@pawsibilities.co.uk, please provide information if you have a specific restriction when the session can not be held.

Please note that the private sessions must be held within 12 weeks from enrollment. If you are opting for the 3 online sessions I advise that you spread these 3 sessions regularly over the 12 weeks

Let the Adventure Begin

It is time for you to join the Facebook CANINE Pawsibilities Puppy School community. This document will guide you through the basic steps so you can start interacting with the other members, post videos, or ask questions

1 – JOINING THE CANINE PAWSIBILITIES PUPPY SCHOOL FACEBOOK SUPPORT GROUP

  1. Follow this link, it will take you to the Facebook support group page:
    CLICK TO JOIN YOUR ONLINE PUPPY SCHOOL FACEBOOK PAGE
  2. Send a request to join the group, you will be asked about the email address you have used to register for the class.
  3. You will also be asked for a password when sending the request which is: CPPS1-2020
  4. Before being able to access the group, you will need to wait until we have accepted your request to join the group (it is not an automated process so please be patient as it may take a day or so).

Et voila, that was easy! You now have joined our community and I look forward to meeting you in the Facebook group.

2 – ADVICE TO POST VIDEOS AND ASK QUESTIONS:

If you post a video or a question that requests my special attention please add the tag #FEEDBACK so I can easily identify these posts.

Feel free to post questions and videos about the exercises you are working on. Please keep the videos to under 3 minutes and add the week you are working on. Use the #FEEDBACK tag so I can find them easily. 

By the way, as soon as you have access to the Facebook group you will already have access to all the previous content, including some recordings of Live sessions that we to help during Covid lockdown.

Chaining the Games

Using games that you and your puppy have learnt throughout the puppy school you have rehearsed and reinforced a lot of desirable behaviours. Please be aware that it may still take you and your puppy some additional weeks or months to master some of these individual games.

When your puppy has mastered some of the individual games it is possible to start to chain them together in a sequence and only reward at the end of the chain behaviours these games produce.

Start by playing games that result in compatible behaviours. Start with two games and if your puppy is responding well, then add a third one. For example:

  • Emergency recalls then “Close”
  • Emergency recall then “Sit”
  • Emergency recalls then “Say Hello”
  • “Sit” then “Say Hello” then “Close”
  • Emergency recall then “Wait” then Emergency recall
  • “Wait” then Emergency recall then “Sit” then “Say Hello” then “Close”

When it comes to chaining it is important to keep your puppy’s focus. Some good tips for maintaining focus are:

  • Do not chain too many games together to start with; build the length and the complexity of the entire chained sequence slowly
  • Reward at different stages of the chain. Ensure you reward for the games you know your puppy is struggling a little bit more with. Use two levels of reward, a low-level value halfway through and a high value at the end of the sequence. As an example, with Manouk I would reward with a treat midway and with a toy at the end.
  • Treat the whole sequence as a game
  • Do not forget to give a big reward at the end

The video demonstrates how some of the games you have learnt have been chained into a fun chained sequence with Manouk.

Bring your trick

Congratulations, you have made it to the end of the 8-week puppy school; it is now party time!

To show what you have learnt I would like to post two videos.

Video 1: 

  1. Ask you puppy to sit or lie down
  2. Stand directly in front of you puppy.
  3. Put a treat on the toe of each of your shoes
  4. If you are feeling confident you can also put a piece of treat on the top of each of you puppy’s front paws
  5. Stand up using your “Leave it” command
  6. Your puppy should not try to get the food!

Video 2:

  • Show me the trick you have taught your puppy

It will not take you long, each video, or part if you combine them to a single video, should not be more that 2 minutes long.

Let’s Wait and Recall

If you have mastered the “Wait” with a little bit of distance, you can now play of “Wait and Recall” game.

You puppy should now understand “Wait” and also “Heel” for your emergency recalls.

  1. Ask your puppy to wait.
  2. Move away.
  3. Release your puppy with your release command.
  4. Recall your puppy.

When starting to play this game with your puppy I recommend that you to still play a lot of the “Wait” game on its own without the recall, i.e. go back to your puppy, reward, release. If you do not you may very quickly find that you will lose the wait as your puppy will anticipate the recall.

You are now chaining “Wait” and “Heel”.

Lead Manners

As a follow on to last week, I am going to share with you another trick to stop your puppy anticipating that it can rush away when you unclip its lead. It is an amazingly simple but efficient trick.

To teach the trick you will need two leads.

  1. Clip both leads to your puppy’s collar when you start your walk.
  2. When you want to let your puppy off the lead start by unclipping only one of the leads without giving any release word. You can ask you puppy to sit to enforce the fact that unclipping the lead did not mean it had permission to rush off; reward your puppy for sitting.
  3. If your puppy is not attempting to rush off, unclip the second lead.
  4. You might want to ask for another sit (do not forget to reward).
  5. Give your puppy its release word.

This trick can be bundled with the “Lead the Fun” game. In this instance start various games with your puppy after unclipping the first lead and then repeat this after unclipping the second lead. Give the release word after the final game.

  1. Clip the two leads to your puppy’s collar when you start your walk.
  2. When you want to let your puppy off the lead start by unclipping only one of the leads without giving any release word.
  3. Play a game of “Lead the Fun”.
  4. If your puppy is not attempting to rush off, then unclip the second lead.
  5. Play another game of “Lead the Fun”.
  6. Give your puppy its release word.

This trick will really help stop your puppy from learning to rush away when the lead is unclipped.

Search Party

During the section discussing toys I encouraged you not to throw a ball constantly for your puppy. A fun alternative game is to make the puppy search for hidden ball or a toy instead.

For this game you need to get your puppy focusing on a toy it really likes such as a tuggy or on this occasion a ball. You will also need either some treats or a second toy that you have hidden in a pocket.

Play the “Play and Swap” game with your puppy in a small, enclosed environment so that it really likes the toy or ball. Once it is focused on the toy or ball:

  1. Hide the toy but allow your puppy clearly to see where you are hiding it
  2. Let your puppy search for the toy, you can even give a “Find it” or “Search” command as it is searching. This should be a relatively easy task as the puppy watched where you hid it.
  3. When your puppy finds the toy use your clicker and then either get the second toy out of your pocket and use it to play the “Play and Swap” game or reward with a food treat.
  4. Play with your puppy; make finding the toy a big event.
  5. Gradually start increasing the distance and the difficulty of the search.

A useful tip if your puppy does not bring back the object is to keep your puppy on the lead or long lead.

This game is not only great entertainment but encourages your puppy to use their sense of smell. The game is suitable not only for puppies but for dogs of all ages and can be played in a wide range of locations. As examples you can play the game in virtually any room, along a forest track, or in a field in long grass.

You never know maybe someday you could teach your puppy to find your missing keys or your phone (I wished I had taught this to Manouk!).