British War Dog School at Shoebury Garrison

Today marks the Centenary of World War 1 and I wonder how many of you are aware that our very own Shoebury Garrison was the home of the first British War Dog School established in 1917 by Lt Col E H Richardson, a dog enthusiast that prior to the war was involved in training Police dogs. 

The British War Dog School trained dogs for messenger, sentry or guard duties at the front line and though all the dogs played a huge part in the war effort it was the messenger dogs that helped to save so many lives.

During WW1 communications between the front line and field headquarters was difficult but crucial and it was the job of young men to run the gambit of enemy fire, explosions, shell holes and muddy terrain to get vital information back and forth, a very risky role with a high mortality rate.  In 1916 a letter from the Royal Artillery suggested that dogs might be better suited due to their speed and fleetness of foot so Richardson set to work experimenting with the training dogs for this role.

The first dogs to go to the front line were two Airedales, Wolf and Prince.  They successfully carried a message from the front line 4 miles back to Brigade Headquarters and proved their usefulness and so in 1917 The British War Dog School was established at Shoebury Garrison and ‘keepers’, as the dog handlers were known, were recruited.

One of the key requirements for a keeper was that they showed a ‘sympathetic understanding of animals’, something that is often missing in today’s society when it comes to dogs and indeed each other.  Keepers had to be honest and conscientious and any keeper seen to display ‘roughness or lack of sympathy towards the dogs’ was instantly dismissed.

Training took around 5 weeks and the dogs were taught using kindness and rewards, they were treated with compassion and affection not compulsion or violence.  Once trained the keeper and his dogs, usually 2 or 3, were sent out to the front lines to take on this vital messenger role.

Many of the dogs came from Battersea Dogs & Cats home but they were also donated by local people, often those who had lost a Father, Husband or Son to the War but still wanted to feel they were helping the cause.  The indomitable British Spirit in a time of heartache and horror.

The fascination for me when I began researching for an interview on BBC Essex was that Lt Col Richardson had been involved in the training of police dogs and then the war dogs, he wrote several books that promoted positive training methods yet after the war all that seemed to be forgotten and dog trainers moved towards a more aggressive form of compulsion training.

Richardson states “Coercion is of no avail, for of what use would this be when the dog is two or three miles away from its keeper? In fact, it may be said that the whole training is based on appeal. To this end the dog is gently taught to associate everything pleasant with its working hours. Under no circumstances whatever must it be roughly handled or roughly spoken to. If it makes a mistake, or is slack in its work when being trained, it is never chastised, but is merely shown how to do it over again. If any of the men under instruction are observed to display roughness or lack of sympathy with the dogs, they should be instantly dismissed, as a promising young dog could easily be thrown back in his training, or even spoiled altogether, by sharp handling.”

From my point of view we have battled for many years to get back to this sort of training and I am dumfounded as to why the methods and teaching of Colonel Konrad Most, which were based on punishment and compulsion, became the building blocks of dog training for so many years after the Great War.

In all my years of study in relation to training and behaviour, I had never heard of Lt Col Edwin Hautenville Richardson until I was approached about this interview.  Knowing what I know about dogs and training I couldn’t see how a dog that was trained using compulsion would achieve the sort of results that the messenger dogs did but once you read about Richardsons methods and ethos you can understand why these dogs achieved such amazing results, why they continued on in their ‘duties’ even after they had been shot, wounded, gassed and injured and why these amazing animals that we owe so much to, were so dedicated to their roles. 

Training with compassion, understanding, love and enjoyment is the only way to achieve that incredible bond that a dog will offer.

Time Flies

I can't believe that my last post was in February!!  This year has flown by so my apologies for not being more up to date.

 

 

Ehren AKA Pigwit Puppy AKA Brat turned a year old on 28th June and has grown in to a beautiful and clever girl.  I know I may be a tad biased but she truly is lovely. The Brat stage seems to have passed although I did fall foul of her new gnashers when she chewed through my doorframe & my door.  Yes my door!!












The rest of the gang are doing OK.  Miss Olive had surgery in April for the removal of a Mast Cell Tumour and Colin has recently undergone tests for stomach problems.

Olives diagnosis took me totally by surprise as previous tests had said it was non-cancerous but the surgery removed the tumour with a good margin & it was low grade.  She has another lump that will be removed next month when the muscles in her legs are fully balanced again but the amazing Bendy Dog doesn't let anything slow her down.

Colin has been back and forth to the vets for months with obvious discomfort that 2 vets tried to tell me was his hips even though I was positive it was his stomach/abdomen.  I had to insist on blood tests and an ultrasound which really disappointed me and has made me consider changing my vets after over 20 years.

The ultrasound revealed a thickening of his entire small intestines which could be either Inflammatory Bowel Disease or something more sinister like Lymphoma.  As there would be no treatment if it was confirmed as Lymphoma I opted not to have invasive biopsies done and have gone along the road of treating him as having IBD even though he doesn't have any of the listed symptoms.

Changing his food to a novel protein (venison) and adding turmeric and coconut oil to his diet seems to be helping.  Just yesterday he was chasing a ball and trying to jump in the tree to get apples.  He is moving much more freely and when getting on and off of the sofa or the bed he isn't groaning in pain so fingers crossed that he continues to improve.  I am going to make an appointment with a holistic vet once he has been on the new diet for a month and see what else they can suggest for him.

And the old Grott is still a grumpy, stinky old man & less than happy that I have increased his hydrotherapy to twice a week as he is so lazy on his walks.

The first year with a new puppy I think is always the hardest and most time consuming (& costly if you need to replace door frames and doors).  Working with them to build that bond takes extra effort in a multi dog household.  It is important that our relationship gets extra work so that she will respond to my commands no matter what the others are doing, that she knows when I am speaking to her and when I am speaking to the other dogs and also that the other dogs don't get left out. 

Finding one to one time in a busy life for 4 dogs can be tiring but I wouldn't change it for the world but that doesn't mean it is for everyone.  For some people, coping with just one dog can be too much and nothing like the ideal that they had hoped for. 

As some of you know, that is how Olive came in to my life.  Her owners had researched and planned and planned before taking her on but the reality of living with a puppy at that stage in their lives was just too much for them to cope with.  They made a very tough choice to re-home her and she came to me for a week whilst they made sure they had made the right decision and just never left. 

I feel it is part of my job to support clients when they come to this decision, it is not one I can make for them but I do feel it is a brave thing to do - to admit that you cannot offer a dog what it needs.  No judgement should be made for those that accept this and make that tough choice to find a more suitable home for their pups/dogs.

Olives owners still come and see her now and again, it takes her a moment or two to realise who they are but then her whole manner changes, as is typical of Weimaraners they aren't really interested in other people but once she realises who they are she gets all giggly and silly and bouncy with them.  It makes them happy to see that she is happy and enjoying the madness that is our life.  I have no problems with them visiting her as I know she is happy with us and the life she has.

We should never judge others until we have walked a mile in their shoes.

With the Centenary of World War 1 approaching I will be featured on BBC Radio talking about the dog training facility that was located at Shoebury Garrison.  I thoroughly enjoyed researching this piece so will post more about the wonderful work of the war dogs on 4th August 2014.

The Brat Files

The Brat Files Part 1

My gorgeous puppy has gone through several phases already and she is just 7 months old!

As Ehren was so ill when we she came to live with us, our first couple of weeks, although fraught with worry and fear that we might lose her,  were relatively easy in the realms of new puppy ownership.  She slept well and was happy to amuse herself with her toys, her energy levels were lower but as the medication took effect and her health improved so the other dogs began to play with her.  She was clean and we only had the odd accident, going through the night from day one.

Then came the crocodile puppy or velociraptor, take your pick of terms, we sure did!  At this stage we had a puppy that was constantly biting and biting and biting some more.  I had toys and treats everywhere, my house looked more like a pet shop than usual and I was not averse to giving her the socks off of my feet if she was not to be distracted from attacking them.

This lasted about 2 weeks and with every day the play biting got less and the sock removal was a thing of the past.  I could walk through the house without a puppy attached to my leg and where we had worked on her sit from the outset she had learned what it meant and when asked, even if the teeth were half way to the foot, calf or hand, she would sit and wait for her toy or her treat or whatever reward we had to hand.

Ehren was a bit later than normal puppies getting out in to the big wide world as her vaccinations couldn’t be given until her immune system had started to behave normally and even then we had to wait 2 weeks after the final vaccination to make sure she had actually built an immunity.  This meant more energy in the house as we couldn’t walk her or start to expand her world.  She had to be content with playing with the other dogs and us at home, going for rides in the van, visiting friends and going to the centre and she had a couple of play dates with other puppies which helped to socialise her.  The constant vet and specialist visits gave her lots of rides in the car too.

As often happens, once we were able to take her on walks and to play off lead with other pups and of course the rest of the gang, we enjoyed lots of peace and quiet as she processed the new sights, sounds and experiences of the world. She is a clever girl and sailed through her puppy and beginners obedience with Jim at the other end of the lead and her recall and control of lead is extremely good thanks to my efforts. 

We were enjoying the wonders of an easy puppy.  And then it changed. Hesitations when asking her to sit or lie down, recall is still good but ranging out at a distance that I am not happy with.  Barking at everything.  Destroying her toys, even her favourite little bear that she has slept with since the second day we had her.  Terrorising the other dogs and refusing to have her nails cut or be brushed.  And now my sweet little PigWit puppy has become a BRAT!!

My puppy is a BRAT!!

Now I know that this stage won’t last long.  That with patience, consistency and lots of praise and reward (and alcohol for me), we will get through this and she will settle down and stop being a BRAT.  Well, for a little while at least.  But it’s hard work!!  Again, I know this.  I help people deal with the different life stages of their dogs and the trials they bring every day, it’s my job and I guess I just wanted you all to know that we all go through it, even me.

So if I look a little tired, seem a little more worn down than normal, you now know the reason.  My puppy is a BRAT!!!

Ehren Update - the blood results and the playbiting saga

Well I have been a bit absent the past couple of weeks, I have the lurg!  Someone has contaminated me with germs which I have now passed on to all around me so my apologies to those that now have it.
Ehren is continuing to grow and thrive and learn.  She has had her second vaccinations and the blood results from then have shown an increase in the WBC & TP which were so low in the outset.  The vets are monitoring this and she will have another set of bloods in 3 weeks to check her ability to build immunity to the likes of parvo, lepto and distemper, etc.  Because she has had a compromised immune system from the get go, it is possible that she will be unable to build an immunity but I think given how well she has done so far, she will continue to prove that she is a tough little critter and thrive.
Now as you know from previous blogs, Ehren is a biter - hands, feet, arms, legs, anything she can get her teeth in to she will.  I feel that in the beginning some of the biting was because of pain she was suffering, not just puppy biting but we still could not let it go unchecked.
So, with loads of toys around we used these as a distraction to get her to put her teeth on these rather than us and if her teeth came in contact with our skin we have used a short corrective sound to interrupt her and given her either a sit command or a toy to chase so that she focuses on to something else.  I am pleased to report that biting is now minimal and I can walk through the lounge without a puppy attached to my foot or taking of my shoes, slippers or socks to get her to let go. 
Ehrens repertoire of basic commands is growing day by day and she loves to work out what we are asking of her.  The one thing I am still having issues with is getting her to stand still for handling, she becomes a mass of paws and legs and turns to jelly in an instant, I have to admit to not helping matters here as I just laugh, not very productive but she is just too cute and I know that in time she will master this the same as anything else.
After the last blog post someone commented that I was blanketing all KC breeders as a no-go for puppy buying and that is not my intention at all.  I have always owned pedigree dogs and have bred litters before which were KC registered. 
What I want to impress on anyone looking for a puppy is that you need to exercise more caution than I did.  If you don't feel under scrutiny from the breeder (be that of a pedigree dog or a cross) then maybe they aren't in it for the right reasons.  The person I got Ehren from was interested in nothing more than the financial side of things, she never asked me any questions about my lifestyle or my knowledge of living with a dog.  When I acquired puppies in the past I felt that I had to impress the breeder so they would allow me the care of one of their pups and that is how you should feel when getting a puppy. 

The Best Place to Source a Puppy

So you decide that you want a dog.  You have researched the breeds and made your decision on a breed that will suit your lifestyle, budget and experience but where do you find a good breeder and a good litter?

There are few places you definitely should NOT go and those are sites like preloved and similar, where people advertise puppies, dogs for re-homing and all manner of other things free of charge.  You should not go to a pet shop (yes there are still a few that sell puppies) nor should you go to a kennels advertising lots of different breeds.

There is the Kennel Club Puppy Finder site which tells you of litters available but you should also exercise caution here as there are Kennel Club Assured Breeders and those that can just pay to advertise a KC registered litter.  The Assured Breeder Scheme does give you a little more peace of mind but not masses.  The KC being the KC only enforce rules that benefit them and there are still puppy farmers and prolific breeders who have attained KCABS status.

In my opinion the safest place to go to choose a puppy is to the breed clubs themselves.  You can usually be assured that people that are members of the breed club and have registered their litters with them are really focused on producing the best of the breed.   They will only be able to register their litters on the breed clubs puppy list if they have followed the rules set out by the club and these are usually much stricter than those set out by the KC.

Once you have found a litter then go along and see them before you even think of bringing one home.  You need to feel like your breeder is assessing your worthiness to take one of their puppies and you should feel comfortable with the breeder.  Do you feel you could call them if you had a problem?  Do they seem knowledgeable about the breed?  Do the puppies look happy and playful? 

The breeder should have the KC registration documents there ready to go with your puppy and they should also have you sign an agreement that covers what to do if you can't look after your puppy amongst other things.  Many breeders now endorse the pups pedigrees so that you cannot breed from them without the breeder lifting the endorsement.  This is a safe guard to ensure that people aren't cashing in on the dogs that they buy by breeding them for nothing more than the money aspect but be sure to ask about this.  Also your breeder should provide you with a information on feeding, worming and general routine of the pup and food to take home to tide you over until you can get the puppy more.

If you are looking for a crossbreed puppy then my advice here is much the same, stay away from the free ads and the ads in the local paper for some odd mix or another but instead of the KC you should contact local rescues first.  They have puppies and young dogs looking for homes as well as older dogs and by getting a crossbreed from a rescue you are helping to halt the supply and demand culture of over breeding.

Choosing a puppy is a mine field, you know the trouble that I have had with our KC registered puppy and it's easy to say listen to your head not your heart but when you get there and see the puppies your head can shout all it likes, your heart will be the one that makes the final decision, just try and be sure that it is the right one.

Ehren Update - dealing with the playbiting

Morning all,
I know you have been waiting for the next instalment but I had a brain freeze and couldn't log in to my blog account.  Hopefully that has now been resolved and I won't have problems in the future.  I am dog trainer not a tech wizard and find many things technical beyond my understanding.

I have changed the spelling of our pups name for those who missed it - Ehren means Enlightened, mountain of strength and she really is.  She has been symptom free since last Sunday and has gained a kilo this week so we are hopeful that recovery is on the cards.  She finished her medication Friday and will go back to the vets next week for more blood tests to see if her counts have levelled out and she can be vaccinated.  We still have no diagnosis of what was wrong which is concerning but at least she is better.

One of my team expressed their disappointment in me buying a sick puppy but until Ehren had something to eat there was nothing to cause any concern.  Jim and I went on the Sunday to check out the litter and I went back on the Monday to see her again with a friend who has more knowledge of 'shape' than I do, none of us saw anything concerning until Ehren was fed.  I would say to you all that I did make a mistake as I purchased a puppy without insurance and from a breeder who had no idea about anything.  My knowledge has helped in a lot of ways because as soon as we saw something was wrong I was at the vets and because of my relationship with my vet they didn't mess around, we saw a specialist the same day.  Without that knowledge it is quite feasible that Ehren and her 2 affected litter sisters would have died but it never helped us avert the upset we have been through the past couple of weeks and the battle I now have to get recompense from the breeder. 

Anyone who is thinking of buying a puppy should be sure that they come with free insurance that the breeder should activate when you collect them, they should also come with clear information sheets about feeding and worming routine to date and from a breeder that has a care for the pups and not the cash.  I have perpetuated the cashing in on the sale of pups which I am ashamed of and though not puppy farming its not really much better when all they were concerned about was making money. 

If you are looking for a pedigree puppy then go through the breed clubs, not the KC Puppy Finder site as I did and if in any doubt walk away because once that puppy is in your arms and out the door then they are yours and though good sense says you should return them, your heart won't allow it.

In herself for the most part Ehren is a normal, naughty puppy who plays and runs around and falls over and generally loves life.  Not knowing what was happening has been traumatic all round and because of this Ehren has turned into a bit of a brat.  She has been spoilt already with time and attention not only because we were watching her constantly for signs of pain or collapse or even to see if she was still breathing but we were working on her housetraining and looking for signs that she needed to 'go'. 

Ehren is a very bitey puppy.  She has the eyes of an angel but the lock of a pitbull and when she is in one of her moods it has been difficult to manage.  Some of it I have put down to the fact that she has been in pain with whatever has been going on with her (I am a new puppy mummy after all and have to make excuses for her behaviour) but some of it I put down to the fact that she is a puppy with no idea about bite inhibition. 

Now, I tell all you new puppy owners to find a noise and a pitch that interrupts the behaviour and to praise the puppy when they let go.  Ehren has had other ideas about this even though I keep reminding her that this is how Mummy makes her living and it would be helpful if she would comply!  We have resorted to giving her a toy and leaving the room or putting her in her crate for a little down time when she gets really over the top.  Her biting is getting better very slowly and there are just a few times a day when it is really bad such as when we first get up in the morning (she hasn't seen us all night) and when she has been left for a while, which of course to any puppy feels like days even though she has the other dogs with her.  I am going with a bit of ignoring at these times and just walk with her into the garden so she can do her business and this seems to temper it a bit and lets the initial over-excitement die down a little.

 

Whilst I am battling with the biting and my arms currently look like I have taken to self-harming, she is clean as a whistle and asks to go in the garden and has done since day 2 of being with us.  I have no accidents in the house and I know in a way I am luckier than most as I have time to spend with her and a very small house but it is vigilance and persistence that has also ensured I am not mopping up puppy pee every 5 minutes.

We have adhered to my mantra of taking her in the garden as soon as she wakes up, when she has been fed and when she has been playing and any time in between that we think there is a chance she will pee or poop and we have waited with her to see if she will go.  I am covered in gnat bites from the night time garden visits but I have a puppy that is clean indoors.  As soon as she squats down to do her business we give a verbal command of 'wee wee's and lots of verbal praise when she has finished and she is well on her way to squeezing out the littlest pee on command.  At least she read the part of my booklet about housetraining and I don't need to re-write that!

Our new addition

So after sitting down and deciding that we wouldn't take on another pup in the near future I promptly went out and got a longhaired Weimaraner puppy. 
It seemed like fate when I saw the pictures of her on a friends time line and then our fun day was cancelled because of the flooding and I actually managed to convince Jim that it was the right decision as well!
Ehren joined out little family on Monday 26th August 2013 and I was totally smitten.  She is a lovely, balanced and brave little girl and seemed to wander in here like she owned the place.  The others have taken to her really well but we have had a bit of a journey so far.
On Tuesday morning I noticed that after Ehren had eaten, she went up on her tip toes and lost all co-ordination, I thought it was the shock of wading through one of Colin's monster morning pee's.  Gave her a cuddle and popped her in her bed for a little while and she seemed fine.
Jim took her to work as I had a job to go out to and he fed her mid morning and the same thing happened, only worse, she was totally unable to stand and then began to limp afterwards.  We thought that I had over fed her and she had wind or something.
This went on after every feed so she was due for a vet check and her first jab so on Wednesday so got the earliest appointment I could and took her food with me so the vet could see exactly what happens after she has eaten.  They were quite shocked and concerned and suggested that we see a specialist immediately.  Our vet called the specialist and as she was only in Corringham she said she would pop over and have a look.  She ruled out a shunt but felt there was definitely something serious wrong and referred us to another specialist the next day.
Me being me had to ask questions and the answers I got were really worrying and heart breaking.  She had only been with us a couple of days but she had already stolen our hearts and I know in these sort of scenarios the best course of action is to return a sickly pup to the breeder but I could no more return her than give one of the others away.
When I spoke to the breeder she had noticed similar behaviour in one of the other bitch pups in the litter and took her off to the vet, she didn't feed her pup at the vet and it was the little runt of the litter and her vet suggested a change of food would solve the problem.  When I explained what our vet had said she was very concerned. 
Ehren's fourth day with us was spent at another specialists being poked, prodded and pulled about.  Having more bloods done and still no answers.  A few things were categorically ruled out but no firm diagnosis so we still didn't know if Ehren would survive, if she would die in her sleep or what was going to happen.
The other bitch puppy that the breeder still had came down with the same symptoms so now all 3 of the bitches were affected but still none of the dogs.
We had medication for Ehren and started feeding her every 2-3 hours so try and alleviate the symptoms a bit.
Saturday night we ended up at the emergency vets as the poor little one hadn't poo'd in 24 hours and was in some real distress.  She had to suffer the indignity and discomfort of a finger up her bum to help her.
Sunday was our fun day and Ehren seemed brighter and the symptoms after feeding were definitely getting shorter.  By Sunday night we had a normal puppy, no signs of the co-ordination problems, no falling over and happy and playful but she still wasn't pooing.
Normal puppies eat, pee, poo, play and sleep.  It should be like clockwork, what goes in must come out in waste products and energy but that wasn't happening so Monday afternoon I had another chat with the vet and she is now on a laxative as well as her meds.

The blood results for her are very concerning as she has incredibly low white cell and globulin counts which means she has no immune system.  The vets and the specialists are baffled as to why and it is now a waiting game to see if anything else comes up from other blood tests and if after the medications the symptoms return and the blood counts level out.  They do not think it is an infection because none of the dog puppies have been affected so they still think it is something that they have developed in vetro (in the womb).  Time will tell but at the moment she is a normal, happy and very naughty puppy.
As someone who earns a living telling new puppy owners how to behave around their puppies my friend has suggested that I fill you in with the problems that I have with Ehren and how I get over them.  It has been 9 years since I had a pup as young as Ehren and I truly had forgotten how time consuming and how much hard work it was.
So now that I have filled you in on the Ehren's background I will share my puppy raising problems and tips.
More tomorrow on how we are dealing with her biting and her tantrums at bed time.