Terrier ignores small furry things :D

Share your experience and tell us how using positive reinforcement training methods has changed yours and your dogs' lives.

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bendog
Posts: 2188
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:42 am

Terrier ignores small furry things :D

Post by bendog »

Since I have moaned about poppy lately I thought I would do a positive update.

We have three ferrets now, living outside in a big chicken coop thing. The ferrets love to come and say hi and torment the dogs and generally be ferrety pests doing their best to wind the dogs up. Charlie and Ben weren't bothered from day 1. Sash reacts if she sees them but is mostly too dumb to realise they are there.

Poppy at first would react to the ferret, but now she is seriously good at ignoring them even when they do their "oooh hello, come and get me, I want to bite your nose" dancing at the wire.

Occasionally it does get too tempting (especially when there's a nice juicy chunk of rabbit in the cage too) and she tries to nibble their toes but "leave it" now works as fast or faster than a recall to get madam at my feet waiting for her reward, which has come in handy lots of times.

Its a real test of her self control though to leave them alone without really being told to, and I see how hard she is trying to ignore them sometimes so I'm chuffed with her because it would be a real pain if she hasn't learnt to ignore them and couldn't go in the garden at all.

Of course all bets are off if the ferrets are out of the run, but I can't work miracles! And I suspect the ferrets might attack the dogs anyway so couldn't blame the dog if she retaliates.
bendog
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Re: Terrier ignores small furry things :D

Post by bendog »

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Nettle
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Re: Terrier ignores small furry things :D

Post by Nettle »

What a lovely ferret house! And well done those dogs, too. :D
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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JudyN
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Re: Terrier ignores small furry things :D

Post by JudyN »

Good girl, Poppy :D

I think it's lovely when you see your dog try hard to be good even if they really, really want to be naughty.... :wink:
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bendog
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:42 am

Re: Terrier ignores small furry things :D

Post by bendog »

Nettle wrote:What a lovely ferret house! And well done those dogs, too. :D
I've been looking to upgrade now I have 3 of them in there. But money is tight right now so it's been pushed down the list a bit. But they seem happy enough for now and its still far bigger than the guy i bought the 2 new ones from was keeping 3-4 jills in. The inside part has a cat igloo, a woolly hat hanging up like a hammock, and old clothes/towels to burrow in.
Image

Can't wait til I can afford a really big 8x4 ft run for them though - got it all planned out how I want it :D
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