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We have continued the training and there is some real improvement - Toby is walking nicely to heel now, which isn’t to say that he doesn’t occasionally pull, nor that he isn’t slightly distracted by other dogs, or people, or anything which could be reasonably thought of as potentially distracting - but it’s definitely better. Let’s just leave it there… Until last Monday he was doing brilliantly and I was starting to think he would soon be ready for the bronze exam but unfortunately my friend Jacqui let him bite her all weekend so he’s regressed back to unruly puppy stage - it didn’t help that I was quite busy on Monday and it was wet so he didn’t go outside and I sort of forgot to take him for a walk. Generally he’s pretty good and can do most of what is required. It’s just that he gets distracted by the naughty dogs (cockers) and, like me, thinks that a minute is far too long a time to stay still when there’s so many more interesting things to do.

Current Rating

1. Sitting still by my side - v good
2. Recall - excellent, unless small children or dogs around outside, pretty good in class
3. Heel - generally good
4. Sit - good
5. Down - not really unless there’s a treat involved
6. Wait - excellent
7. Ignoring other dogs - fantastic if I dangle a treat in front of his nose, less so if I don’t

As a group we have decided to do another six week session and go for bronze at the end of this. As long as I can keep Jacqui away and remember to walk him I think we should be okay…

As with most things I have started in my life, my initial enthusiasm for writing about my experiences with Toby has waned somewhat, so the next couple of posts are summaries to get me back to the current day.

After six weeks of training Toby successfully passed the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme Puppy Foundation - it’s not a formal test (and yes, everyone passed). It’s a basic test of making sure the owner knows what a dog needs (water, regular grooming and a name badge) and making sure your dog obeys some basic commands - walking on a lead, recall and giving a toy back without biting you too hard.

Things I learnt:

1. Cocker spaniels are very naughty dogs - they are grumpy like teenage girls
2. Toby likes to walk just slightly faster than I do (regardless of how fast I go)
3. Toby thinks the right amount of time to play with another dog is about a day
4. Just because Toby learned something last week doesn’t mean you don’t have to start all over again the following week
5. Toby is much better at ‘down’ and ’stay’ than all the other dogs

So, now I have a little rosette and certificate - I am immensely proud and looking forward to the next stage of learning - Bronze! Regular readers will be aware that I already have one eye on Gold, and naturally I do - after all, who wouldn’t want a well behaved and obedient dog (and lots more certificates!).

Now that Toby is out and about I think he’s ready for the next stage of his learning - puppy classes. As ever it’s as much for me and who knows there might be some cute dog owners out there… I arrived good and early having forgotten all the bits of paper I’d diligently printed out and signed I decided that it wouldn’t matter. I also didn’t have my vaccination certificate so was thoroughly unprepared, which was slightly annoying. Anyway I turned up to Waggypups at the Wells Centre and then couldn’t see anyone else there so wondered if I was at the right place. I loitered for a few minutes and another car pulled in so I waited to see if a dog would come out. It did. And I was at the right place. Met the other owners who had some very, very small dog, also called Tobie (sic) which was chihuahua with Jack Russell fur and would surely fly quite well given a good enough throw… Swapped pleasantries with his owner and a few minutes later some others turned up and puppy fighting ensued. After a few minutes an older gentleman asked if we were there for the dog training, which made me smile and caused sarcasm to flow. And the room was downstairs - now Toby hasn’t been down stairs before, so we worked as a team - he dug his heels in and I carried him down - this can’t continue as he grows to 40-50 kilos.

Puppy training is mayhem, and lots of fun - it’s going to be a long journey, but one day I will achieve my dream - Toby will do what I want, will always come when I call him and won’t need a lead - this is probably going to take a few weeks, we’ve a little way to go yet.

Playing with a stick

Playing with a boot

Bringing the boot back

Raising a dog teaches you much more about yourself than you will ever learn about him/her. I am shocked at my defeatist attitude because it took more than 5 minutes before Toby picked up how this was supposed to work. I am pleased to say that after a couple of fairly false starts we managed to have our first proper walk last Sunday - it was helped by having a couple of friends and their dog to encourage Toby on his many stops. I am perfectly happy for Toby to stop and sniff and investigate smells along the route - it’s as much his walk as it is mine and I want him to enjoy it. However, the rule is that when I want him to join me then he must. And this is where we were getting stuck. Obviously you can’t just pull him along (even though on wet grass this actually works quite well) because your prime concern is to make this an enjoyable experience for both of you, otherwise resistance will grow (on both sides). Since Toby was stopping every 10 metres this was getting frustrating. James gave me a little tip which is to dangle a treat just in front of him with your other hand (one hand obviously holding the lead). This worked fantastically and I thought that we’d completely solved the problem - alas no. But we were definitely making progress and future walks were getting smoother, more cooperative and less frustrating.

I was away last week so didn’t get to practise so much but spent plenty of time with Toby over the weekend and he is now walking very well. He still stops a lot, which is fine, but generally will come back to me when called, which is also good practice for the future and essential for when he’s finally off the lead.

Now that things are generally okay I have also decided to buy an extendable lead. Toby fairly naturally walks heel so I don’t really have to worry about that and once we’ve done a bit of training (in a puppy class) I’m sure he’ll be fine, so I thought it would make the walk a little more fluid and offer him more freedom and make my walk less juddery.

This has worked well - went for a walk yesterday and things were much better, as I hoped the stops were less frequent and caused less of a problem. I think we’re getting there…

Now, if I can just teach him to open the back door when he needs a wee I’ll be sorted!

Toby’s really settled now, and I have no concerns about dirty floors and dog toys and twigs and leaves just about everywhere… It’s only three days until he can venture outside for the first time - I guess I’m much more excited about it than he is as I actually know it’s coming. I’m not entirely sure why but I thought that since Toby quite happily follows me everywhere he would happily do so on a lead… Not so, he really doesn’t like it at all. So back to my friends and my books I go. I gently coax him with food and his toys but he’s seriously reluctant to move if I have the lead attached. I’ve made a little progress - I’ve got him to move by scattering food everywhere around him. And today I’ve managed to get him moving freely in the garden by kicking around one of his favourite toys - the good old fanta bottle - and encouraging him to chase it. Shortly after I was actually walking around the garden with him on the lead but it was him doing the leading. Although this isn’t ideal it’s a million miles better than him sitting/lying on the floor steadfastly refusing to move. I feel I have a deadline of Saturday to achieve this and really want to be able to take him on his first walk - I cannot wait.

Toilet training going well - he actually waited for me (while I was upstairs) before he went out for number 2’s - and he made a noise last night to be let out (door was closed, fed up of house full of crane flies).

On a separate note - he’s growing up - the hair on the scruff of his neck is definitely getting more wiry - and he’s humping his cushion - lovely! He’s also getting heavier, quite noticeably, when I pick him up it’s starting to be a little bit of a struggle. Bad news is that he can just about reach the coffee table - I wonder which remote’s going to be first…
He also prefers eating his food from the floor than from his bowl… not sure why - will investigate.

I bought Toby from a vet down in Horley which is about 45 mins away and it seemed fairly obvious to me from the beginning that she should become his vet. And he gets to meet both his mummies from time to time. Since he is now 10 weeks old (and growing rapidly) it was time for his second innoculation against distemper and other nasties. I popped round last night to have this done and had a really lovely experience - Toby was incredibly excited to see his dog mum, Delta, and his human mum, Sue, as were they - they live in a large house with a huge garden and other several other dogs - labs and deer hounds, and two lovely children. We sat outside while Toby caught up with everyone and had a chat about how he’s been and how big he’s getting and they were extremely impressed by his ’sitting’ skills. He had his injection which was very quick and easy and I had a beer and a little supper which was fantastic! Spent a couple of hours there just chatting about this and that - it was more like visiting friends than anything else and it was so lovely to see Toby playing with everyone - Sue was really happy that he was getting on so well and seemed very settled and bonded with me. I guess I hope I don’t have to see too much of Sue but I’m really glad to know that if Toby ever needs anything then he’ll have the most loving care imaginable.

I was sitting quite happily on my sofa watching a bit of telly when I heard Toby yelp, and for a split second thought that he’d bashed his paw or head against something. However, the initial yelp was followed by hundreds of others - loud and piercing and urgent. A truly awful noise. I rushed over and found that he’d managed to trap one of his front paws behind the radiator pipe (the 10mm one coming up from the floor which connects to the main radiator) and he was feverishly trying to get it free. I tried to calm him, to little avail, and tried to figure out what to do next - it wasn’t obvious how to get his paw free only that it was unbearably painful to see my little chap in so much distress. And the last thing I wanted to do was to risk hurting him further.. So trying to keep free of his others paws and teeth I gently applied some pressure to see which direction his trapped paw could be moved in. It occurred to me that I might not be able to free him and that he could be stuck here for some time; making that awful sound. Banishing such thoughts I tried a couple of things and finally (after about 20-30 seconds) I managed to lift his paw over the radiator valve and he was free. I picked him up and comforted him and tried delicatately as I could to check to see if there was any damage to his paw - none, thank god. He was shaking a little, as was I. I was also holding back tears, I was shocked at how upsetting this was, and how much responsibility I have for this tiny dog. After a few minutes I let him go and he carried on his normal business of trotting around and trying to bite things he knows he shouldn’t - I had a sugary cup of tea and just sat on the sofa not quite able to believe what had just happened. It’s likely this isn’t the worst thing that’s ever going to happen to him, but I really hope that I never, ever hear him yelp like that - it’s unbearable.

I just assumed that since Toby likes me so much that when I introduced him to other people he’s be equally sociable.. but no. he was actually quite shy - he hid behind my BBQ for about an hour while the four of us sat outside chatting over a couple of beers before he decided to check us out and accept the free treats. After that he was fine and quite happily bounced around between us and playing in the garden chasing bits of grass and finding tasty twigs.

It was a very late night (2am) and both of us were exhausted in the morning - I had to get up early as I was expecting my Mum who was coming over for the weekend and seemed quite incredibly excited by the prospect of meeting my doggy. I assumed she would be there about 8 o’clock but actually she didn’t turn up til nearly lunchtime. This provided me and Toby with several hours of quality playing time in the morning where he proved that I’d been lucky with the ‘fetch’ training and showed off his incredibly limited attention span. Mum brought him a new rubber bone which he seemed to like very much and made much fuss about him - he is officially “the most beautiful dog in the whole wide world” and I am very lucky, etc, etc.

Spent a lovely day in the garden, as it was hot and sunny, and showed off my training successes which was suitably appreciated. Had tried several times to get a worming tablet inside him which just can’t be that hard but he does have quite a long (deep) mouth and a tongue which seems specifically designed to prevent food accidentally getting into his throat - got my Mum to help but she couldn’t either hold his jaws apart or put her hand in his mouth so failed once more. The old ham trick didn’t even work - my dog doesn’t like ham - how bizarre is that? I was starting to think that I might need to enlist the help of a neighbour who has a dog and must have mastered the ’shoving your hand down their throat’ manoeuvre.

My friend Sophie popped round in the evening with Keira, her 5 year old Jack Russell, who loved Toby’s toys far more than he ever has and also demonstrated just how good dogs can get at ‘fetch’ even catching the tennis ball-doughnut-squeaky toy in mid-air which strikes me as something a dog is either going to do or not - I can’t see how you could teach that. I was quite pleased that Keira wasn’t brilliant at ‘letting go’ at the end especially as she had a similar toy which was used for tug-o-war. I’ve always thought you are treading a fine line if you both want a dog to give you the toys back and also to play the “let’s see if I can pull this really hard without you letting go”. Naturally a terrier will not let go - they are bred specifically not to. Sophie was asked to try the tablet on Toby and did a smashing job making it all look very easy indeed. I’m not sure if I could definitely do this but it didn’t look too hard. The key is to have the dog lying on you facing away so your arm is across its front paws with easy access to its jaws, leaving the other arm free for tablet shoving.

Sunday - Another quiet night from me little lad and more 1’s and 2’s to tidy up, though to be fair he did manage to save one for the morning. Gave him breakfast and.. not interested, he checked out his bowl, had a quick sniff and then walked off. Anxiety crept in and wouldn’t leave, he also had a runny bottom, which made me realise he wasn’t well, he was also far less bouncy than usual so I left him alone to flake out on his own. Had some more visitors and he played along quite happily with them but it wasn’t until later that I realised that it was probably the worming tablet that had upset his system (realise == Sophie told me).

Monday - Toby feeling much better, still not eating completely normally, though this might be because he’s bored of his food - seemed to really like cold roast chicken though, which could become a regular Sunday treat if he’s lucky. Also noticed that I wasn’t feeling well myself - am sure this is entirely independent of the dog but since I don’t get ill very often am curious about this. Toby has a new favourite toy which is an old battered Frisbee which came with the house. Once he can catch this in mid-air my work is done. that would be so cool.  He spent most of the day asleep in his crate and I decided to let him spend more time in the house which caused a couple of accidents and some remonstration but on the whole he was pretty good. Also got his collar on for a few hours and apart from the odd scratching session he didn’t seem to mind it too much - trying to ‘lead’ him on a lead though led to an hilarious bucking bronco session that if I could capture on video would quickly top the youtube.com charts - it was bloody funny. But with only two weeks to go this is something I (and he) will have to master fairly quickly.