Dog training

Can I play a bit more?

                                 

How do you train a one year old active, still a bit nervous dog into a well behaved quiet therapy dog?

Was I not asking to much?

When Ollie arrived on our doorstep and slowly made his way into our hearts, he was only one year old and had some not so good experiences with people in his young life.

Ollie was nervous around young women with longest hair, he barked at our daughter Rachel when he first met her, he didn't like brooms or vacuum cleaners and absolutely didn't want to be by himself.

The first time he was left alone for a short period, Ollie chewed through a wooden trellis to escape and was found wandering  the neighbourhood.

Luckily I got him an identification tag with his name and my phone number printed for his collar and his rescuer phoned me.

Ollie walked to the local coffee shop in the village looking for me.

 I had only taken him there once for a morning coffee, but he remembered were to go.

The only not so good thing was that the coffee shop is on a busy street with lots of traffic.

Over time Ollie calmed down and started to trust us, now he stays on our half fenced property and never wanders of and when we leave he stays in the cottage.

Ollie is never tied up and hardly on a leash, only when required in town.

I became a member of "Canine Friends Pet Therapy" a New Zealand organisation for people and their dogs visiting hospitals, rest homes and hospices throughout New Zealand.

For your dog to become a Therapy dog this organisation pays for a 6 weeks training with your dog and at the end the dog has to go through an exam to find out if suitable for the job.

You pay an annual fee to become a member and the dog gets a scarf to wear when working and the owner a name tag.

Ollie was very playful and found the training with the German Shepherds a bit boring after a while, he loved the play time with the other dogs after the training, but the constant  repeating of exercises a bit to much and in the end just lay down in the grass.

Ollie learned very quickly what was to expected of him after a once or twice repeat and just couldn't understand why to go through the same thing 10 times.

Maybe it is the Border Collie part that wants to think for himself and work it out.

In my next post I will tell a bit more about the exam and his first ever visit in the rest home.

                                

mmm, I can see mum,can we stop now?

Meet Ollie

How can I begin his story?

 After our Kelpie dog Phoebe passed after 14 years being part of our family I didn't want another dog anymore.
I couldn't imagine having that gap filled by another dog, but after a year living without a dog I really missed the company of a canine friend.
I looked on face book at the different rescue organisations and on' trade me' at the pet section, but couldn't see a dog I liked.
I didn't want a black dog and I didn't want a Labrador cross.
I really wanted a Kelpie again and kept looking for a Kelpie dog.
But there was no Kelpie dog anywhere to be found or so expensive from a breeder that we couldn't afford the puppy anyway.
Then my son Paul phoned us and told us about Ollie he found on a community notice board in Queenstown were he lives with his wife Emma.
The owner of Ollie was a builder and couldn't keep the dog anymore.
Oueenstown is a 12 hours drive away from us in Upper Moutere, so I couldn't imagine getting a dog from so far away that I hadn't met and seen before I made the decision to take him.
 Paul insisted Ollie was the right dog for us and he even asked permission from his owner to take him for a walk so Paul could skype us so we could see Ollie.
I was highly skeptical and really didn't want a black Labrador/Border collie dog at all.
I was hoping for a suitable dog to train as a therapy dog and yes my love for Kelpies was on my heart  and I couldn't see Ollie in that roll at all.
"Mum, he is the perfect dog for you" Paul insisted.
"Oke, Paul if you can get him up to Nelson, I will give it a thought, but I am not  keen on getting this dog".
Never did I think Paul would organize a car ride for Ollie with a family of four travelling to Nelson and Ollie lying stretched for the whole way on the laps of the two children in the back of the car.
The poor family thought when they picked up Ollie from his owner to collect a puppy, but no Ollie was already a year old and the size of a full grown Border Collie Labrador.
So that is how Ollie came into my life and the story began of our life together...