Welcome to George and Mia!

George on the left and Mia on the right, she has different color eyes!

Old english sheepdogs George and Mia are stopping with us. Lovely intelligent dogs they need firm handling and leadership to stop any silliness. Mia has a dangerous habit of chasing things namely a Sutton park ranger in a land Rover and a goods train! I wasn't aware of her little habit until she ran the length of a field chasing the train, very worrying!

I think this is an example of not satisfying the breed of a dog! As a Sheepdog she has an innate instinct for prey drive, or in layman's words chasing things! If this is not satisfied then the dog will create it for themselves.My suggestion will be to try to train her onto a toy so that this side of her is fulfilled. Failing that there are other remedies that we can consider but ill cross that bridge if we get to it!

George is only a Puppy really and still growing. He is painfully thin due to his tickle stomach. If his diet is changed or he is slightly overfed as he was, then he gets the trots and this affects his ability to process the food correctly! I have reduced his food and kept him on just his Royal Canin food and this seems to be working, but we will have to see if he puts on the weight!

Hamish has left the building!

Hamish has gone home, his owners were chuffed to see him and had missed him whilst they were away. We had a chat about how much he had improved and what steps could be taken to get him to be a brilliant family pet!

Hamish asleep all arms & legs!

Firstly, it was evident as I had mentioned before; that Hamish was used to play fighting with his owner and he was always mouthing at you when he got excited. My advice was that this should be replaced by a tug of war game under the proviso that the owners controlled the game and the toy in order to stop it becoming a challenge! (Click here to buy tug toys at dog-shop.co.uk )

NEVER should your dog bite you in any way, play or otherwise! This is a recipe for disaster and when your dog mouths a child, don't be surprised if it has always been encouraged to behave this way!

Secondly, Hamish was not used to running free as he is very quick and not that good at returning. My advice is to line train him (Click here to buy training lines at dog-shop.co.uk) a 15mm 30ft line will give you confidence in knowing that you can always get your dog back as you can catch the line, not the dog! This means you can be calm and encouraging when schooling your dog how far to run and to come back when you call his name. This should always be to a reward of some kind which eventually may be just affection!

Anyway, just an update on an earlier post about hamish still trying to hump dogs even though he had just been snipped, since the last episode which was his learned behaviour in the first day or so he was with us, I can report that Hamish does not even try to hump dogs now and is officially cured! So having had the snip and ensuring that they treat Hamish firmly but fairly will see him become a fabulous pet for years to come!

Cheers Steve