Our Teaching Dogs
A teaching dog seeks to interact with other dogs and has an innate
willingness to modify their behaviour using their body language and
highly developed communication skills.
This technique of modifying canine behaviour using other dogs was developed by Angela Stockdale (www.dog-partnership.com) We have worked closely with Angela for several years and all of our teaching dogs began their careers under Angela's supervision.
We have two main teaching dogs whose job it is to see that everyone gets along nicely. They are both lurcher bitches - Beama and Gracie. Beama and Gracie work brilliantly as a pair - they know when to work together or when one of them should hold back. They get on extremely well and are great mates, dispelling the myth that bossy bitches can't tolerate each other! We also have guest teaching dogs who are constantly developing their skills, and several stooge dogs - a stooge dog describes a dog who is used to trigger the behaviour and then not to react.
Beama
Beama is a 5-year-old saluki/whippet cross who is a very confident girl. Beama is like the finishing school headmistress who is a stickler for good manners.
She will intervene if she feels dogs aren’t behaving nicely and block dogs with her body or use her facial expressions and voice to express herself. Beama’s a lady who won’t tolerate rudeness.
Beama has learnt to use exaggerated facial expressions to make things very obvious to dogs which lack communications skills, often a look from Beama is enough to stop a dog in it’s tracks! She is also very playful and will often teach nervous or shy dogs how to play - but following her rules, of course!
Beama working:
In the first photo, Beama stands confident and alert as she lets the other dogs know she is policing the group. In the second photo, the black dog lowers it's head to signal it recognises that Beama is "in charge". The final photo shows all the dogs relaxed and playing.
Gracie
Gracie is a 3 year old whippet cross who works differently to Beama, as she is very tolerant of most behaviours. Rude and pushy behaviour is wasted on Gracie, as she just isn’t impressed! Gracie will gently encourage dogs to behave appropriately within a group, although she is no walkover and will step in if she feels dogs are acting aggressively or aren’t behaving nicely. Gracie really is true to the adage that size doesn’t matter, as she may be tiny but she’s a very strong character – she is scared of nothing and most dogs adore her.
Gracie had previously watched as the collies harrassed Morris, the pointer cross, so she knew they weren't very polite dogs. In the first photo, Gracie assesses the collie that is laying in the sea: she makes it very clear she is watching it. Gracie's body language is very confident. In the second photo, the collie rushes out of the sea and approaches Gracie very confrontationally. This doesn't scare Gracie at all, nor does it impress her - she thinks he is very rude! All the time her body language is confident and assertive. Notice how, throughout the series of photos, the collie's body language becomes polite to Gracie, and also its tail carriage relaxes. And then finally they both have a shake, which can be a release of tension.
Barley is a serene lurcher dog whose handsome good looks belie his calm and confident approach. Barley specialises is helping dogs with chase issues, as he has perfected the art of stopping dogs mid-chase. Barley is very calm, helping teach dogs by his own example and his perfect manners. Barley is very gentle and kind, helping nervous dogs feel confident about socialising.
Lola is a female English Setter. She is adored by most dogs and will try to make friends with everyone! She has impeccably clear and very obvious body language, putting even the most nervous dogs at ease. Lola is completely non-reactive and is a brilliant stooge dog.
Luka is one of a kind! He has overcome his own aggression issues and now loves to help other dogs. He has a special affinity for dogs with communication problems and can befriend dogs that have never been able to interact with other dogs before. Luka has brought a smile to many owners faces as he instigates their dogs to join in play for the first time.
We also have guest teaching dogs attend our groups regularly. These include Fozzie and Teasel:
Fozzie is a mature and calmly confident collie shepherd cross. Fozzie is our most mature teaching dog and his teaching skills have to be seen to be believed, Fozzie has seen it all before and even the most rude or aggressive dog does not impress or surprise him. He uses exaggerated body language to make his point clear to dogs that have very little understanding of communication. He is able to calm situations just by his presence and oversees initial greetings between dogs.
Teasel is a very fast and sassy small lurcher bitch. Teasel is very good at policing dogs with chase issues as she is extremely fast and can intervene and cut off a chase. Teasel is very vocal with a huge repertoire of noises that she uses to make it clear how dogs should behave!
