Wagga Wuffins Launch Puppy Life Skills Sessions - 'Training and Socialisation in the Real World'

We have had many discussions about what pet owners really need to help them turn their puppies into well behaved sociable adult dogs.
We run very successful puppy classes at Waggawuffins where we include controlled socialisation, basic training and education of owners.

We have found that some people find it hard to transfer these skills outside into their day to day environment and some people don’t have the confidence to allow their dogs to got off lead or socialise with other dogs without our supervision.
We always train dogs and puppies in controlled environments such as fields, halls and centres and although they are safe and controlled having many advantages, we should also be out there in the real world supporting the training and socialisation there too!
So we have designed WaggaWuffins Puppy Life Skills Sessions!
These sessions have been developed by our behaviourist Jane Ardern with the support of one of our trainers Matthew Phair and are training sessions of small groups in public places. One is a visit to Bury Town Centre and the others are Local Parks (Heaton, Phillips, Burrs)
If you think you might be interested in these sessions please visit our website for more information
http://www.waggawuffins.com/lifeskills.htm

Irresponsible Dog Owner!

Today I met up with my Brother, his wife, my nephew and their chocolate lab for a nice Easter Sunday Stroll round Phillips Park. I took Pickles with me.

We were having a lovely walk and stopped by the Hall in the Gardens while Charlie my nephew who is 2 was blowing bubbles. Suddenly two very large black Labradors came charging over towards us off lead with their owner calling them and they totally ignored her.

The largest lab spotted my sister in laws bag and made a bee line for it, went straight in and dragged out little Charlie’s body warmer running around with its new trophy, then the other lab ran up trying to get it and the two dogs started to play tug quite aggressively with it tearing itand slobbering all over it!

I picked Charlie up in my arms quickly not happy that these dogs where having a great time tearing something apart that was covered in my little nephews scent!

The dogs then dropped the body warmer and pummelled Pickles into the Pond who then couldn’t get out as the Labs were all round where she was trying to get out. The owner went to the pond where my sister in law was trying to get Pickles, asked was Pickles her dog, put hers on lead and just walked off!!!

My sister in law came back to us with a torn slobbered jacket and I asked if she apologised, she said no she just asked if Pickles was her dog.

Very angry I shouted that an apology would be nice and she just looked at us and walked off!


Her friend who was with her had a Lab on lead all the time, maybe she should take a leaf out her friend’s book and be more responsible and keep her out of control dogs on a lead, or maybe get them trained!!!!

Clicker Training Days At Waggawuffins

Clicker Pre Sports Puppy 8th May 2011
10am till 4pm £30 per handler - Max 8 dogs
A day for anyone that is planning to do sports with their puppy or if you just want some fun training ideas! The day consists of self awareness through shaping, targeting and object interaction, finding your puppy’s motivators and reinforcers and training games to build a stronger bond and focus

Clicker Free-Shaping Day 22nd May 2011
10am till 4pm £30 per handler - Max 8 dogs
A full day of learning about Free-Shaping
Free-Shaping builds stronger more reliable behaviours.
The day focuses on teaching object interaction to help with directional and distance control, agility and assistance dogs support, physical movements from paw lifts and head turns to tail wags and lips licks, directional movement’s like spins, turns and backwards circles

Foundation Agility Workshop 12th June 2011
10am till 4pm £35 per handler - Max 6 dogs
For Pet Dogs! The day involves introducing your dog safely to all the equipment using clicker shaping and capturing. We teach the dogs to work the equipment independently, confidently and safely. Our methods enable your dog to be calm and focused while having loads of fun!

Treibball Training Workshop 19th June 2011
10am till 4pm £35 per handler - Max 6 dogs
Learn Treibball with your dog. It’s not just for Collies, ball herding suitable for any breed. We teach the foundation exercises with clicker training. During the day we will teach the outrun to the dogs, then introduce the dogs to the gym balls where eventually we look at teaching the push/drive and directional control

All workshops instructed by Jane Ardern FdSc CBT, DipCABT, CAP2, CAPBT, MAPDT1058

Contact: Jane@waggawuffins.com or call 0161 762 0174 to book

www.waggawuffins.com www.youtube.com/waggawuffins

A long awaited update !

Well thought I’d better write a blog, it’s been a while! We have regular updates and photos on our facebook page the link is http://www.facebook.com/pages/WaggaWuffins/123960610972841


Firstly Matt took his Grade Three Gundog Test with Teal his Springer Spaniel at Leaming Bar and Passed with Distinction! Well done Matt, Grade 4 to work towards now!

We had Bronze Good Citizen Tests on Saturday and 8 dogs passed! Photos on our facebook page, well done to their owners!

College has been weird since Pauline left, we have had little support, haven’t even seen or spoke to the new course manager! Plodding through but very unmotivated by it all. It’s not a course I would recommend to people at the moment in its current state!

On the bright side we have had Helen coming to train Clicker again and we have her booked for the rest of the year and all places are taken, we have a really good bunch of clicker mad, like minded positive trainers from all over the UK!!

Helen came up for the whole weekend last time and myself and Gillian had a CAP Assessor training day on the Saturday. We are both training to be CAP Assessors, we have assignments to do and also observed assessing. We are also doing the LADs Teaching Diploma which I’m really excited about, there is a lot of work involved and it’s very much about teaching people.
Once this is all completed I will be able to run CAP Courses at WaggaWuffins! How cool is that?

On the Saturday evening I had a good chat with Helen about my dissertation and she gave me lot things to think about and got me really motivated to do it! I’ve also booked 3 weeks gundog training with Helen over the year with Pickles!

Me and Matt took Snoopy and Teal for a photo shoot a few weeks back and last week me and Dinky were doing a film shoot for a short film called Fetch!

Classes are ticking along nicely and so are the workshops, we plan to do these on a regular basis now. We have PreSports Puppy for dogs under 12 months and Clicker Free Shaping workshops in May. We have had some really good feedback from the workshops!

That’s all for now!