TRAINING GIN

Like many YKC members I owned my very own dog “Gin” at a young age. I was 9 years old but took my responsibility very seriously. We attended puppy socialisation classes and pet obedience classes but Gin was rather a wild child and proved a bit of a challenge to train.

She found it difficult to concentrate for very long and would run off when she was supposed to be staying or go and play with the other dogs when doing a recall. We persevered and practised and eventually managed to pass the Gold Good Citizen award. I wanted to start with basic obedience training before moving on to agility classes. When she was old enough (12 months) we started to attend agility classes and once again to start with neither of us found it very easy. I had a really enthusiastic dog and found it very difficult to keep control of the dog, think what obstacle was next, give command s and demonstrate body language that the dog understood all at the same time. As we both got older and after a lot of practise we got to an acceptable standard.
Lots of people, since our appearance on Britain’s Got Talent have assumed Gin was easy to train. To some people the fact that she is a Working Sheepdog naturally means that she was born already obedient and capable of doing anything without any hard work being put in to train her. This was not the case and like any other dog breed they need lots of training and stimulation. Different dog breeds have their own natural instincts and depending on these different characteristics your training may have to be modified a bit but lots of time and patience is still needed.

Even different dogs of the same breed can be totally different in temperament. With your first dog you have to learn a lot of techniques yourself as well as teach your dog, but I believe that the learning curve greatly increases the bond and friendship you have with your dog. Children should have access to a good trainer but should be still allowed to wholly train their own dog under supervision rather than be handed a fully trained dog by a parent or adult.