Greetings from the Pet World

Someone celebrated a birthday this week (above). Meet Billy Mills who was ten years old. He had a little party and got some really great presents too. Billy loves to go for walks with Mum Elisabeth and I happen to know he is a sweetheart!

Greetings from Mono and Oscar

We are two cavalier King Charles spaniels, born in Holland, grown up in Dusseldorf, and very lucky to have moved to Mallorca four years ago. During our puppy-hood we were very fortunate to have lived close to forests, brooks and lakes, but nothing quite compares to our “Mallorca life” where we can enjoy long walks at the beach and certainly agree more with the weather.

We are known to have “the brain of a large dogs in a small body” and as such no amount food, fun, cuddles, siestas or walks are ever long enough! Our goal in life was mainly to assist our human parents in the difficult task to educate and teach “love” and “responsibility” to the two teenagers who we share our human parents with, and as such we have had multiple functions in life, including having to dress up every year as Santa’s reindeer’s for his visit to their school.

Luckily, kids have grown up and move on to university life, so we are now officially retired from all chores and do what we do best : be the Kings of this house!
We look forward to many new friends in Mallorca, and want to wish one and all,
Woof! Woof! Woof! and a blessed New Year!
Yours truly,
Mono&Oscar

Obedience Training Part 1. What is it and do I have to do it?

By Joachim Sommer

Obedience training is teaching our dog to carry out certain tasks on cue (verbal, gesture or other) like sitting, lying down, coming when called, going to “their place” etc.
I look at this as creating a means of communication with my dog rather than having them carry out “military style” commands (although teaching advanced obedience can be very interesting and also gratifying for both dog and handler if they are into it).

My main goal when teaching obedience is for the dog to understand what we want of them and thus eradicate the necessity for telling them “no”, creating a low stress environment in which the dog is happily and willingly complying with our wishes.

Such training is quality time we spend with our dog which will improve our relationship (some say our bond) with them.

Sometimes it also may be necessary to control the dog in certain situations, for example when they tend to jump at visitors. In this scenario simply teaching the dog to sit or go to their place may already resolve the situation as neither is compatible with the undesired behaviour.

Depending on the severity of the issue this may be all we need to do, or if not, at least serve as a temporary fix until we manage to completely disassociate the undesired behaviour with this situation.

It is important to note that obedience training is not the “universal solution” for all behavioural issues, quite the contrary. For many issues it will be helpful but still problem specific training will be necessary to achieve the desired change in behaviour.
Whether or not we need to actively (and consciously) do obedience training with our dog will depend on how happy we are with our relationship. If we don’t have any issues whatsoever there probably is no need to do any training at all. Many dogs are happy to comply instinctively to such an extent that no specific training need arises. However if we feel our dog is not “with us” in certain situations or only “listening when they want to” a little obedience training may go a long way in bettering the situation. Next week we will talk a little about how we should go about with this…..