The past six months have been so busy this ole blog has been neglected!  So here we go getting up to date.  So Samson is now just over a year old, starting to fill out and stronger than ever.  Sadly I have caved in to the Halti brand, it was next to impossible for me to get him to heel.  The trip to Pets at Home left a very hacked off dog, but he is used to it now and the improvement is massive.  He benefits tenfold, when I go into town he can come along without worrying I am going to be dragged around and have burns from the lead!  He doesn’t pull and he knows he doesn’t have his strength on side.

Behaviour wise Gregg and myself are very pleased with him.  Sam’s dad is up for sale on A1K9 at the moment, and the bio of him shows Sam has inherited all his good nature.  He is good on lead passing other dogs, he listens.  Great with children, just earlier we were sat outside a pub with a inflatable children’s castle and slide and a little toddler brushed up against him and he just sits there with a grin on his face.  His house behaviour has always been good and in the past couple of months he has the two rooms downstairs to himself when we are out, no more crate.  Usually when I come in he is sleeping on the sofa, which turns out to be perfect dog bed size.

Now then, training.  Our main concern was the bolting.  We tried next to everything and listened to advice.  One person told us to try a long lead.  Well, I think they should of came along and held it, utterly pointless!  He just didn’t respond.  In the end we decided to go for balls, seeing as though he loves them so much.  We bought a massive plastic ball and a classic ball on the rope.  If he returned one ball he got the other as a reward.  The improvement was fantastic.  I now feel comfortable walking him off lead on my own providing I am sure the horses are far away.  We practised with both toys a few times and he picked it up quickly.  Now we just take the ball on the rope out, and if I have that it my hand he will stay close off lead, recall prefectly, sit, down and speak on command.  If I have thrown the ball for him it is quite a different matter, but he does stay near and he will drop the toy.  Hopefully with practise he will continue improving.

We paid a trip to a training ground just past the common a while back to see what training classes they did.  Working trials are what we are after really, and luckily a woman was opening up the hut and came over to talk to us followed by a couple of others.  They all seemed nice enough, all show dog lovers.  One owns show Tervuren’s, and instantly asked is he was a Malinois, “obviously a working one”.  Yes, thank you, he is and all the better for it!  I had a problem with a couple of things they mentioned, one being that one of us is the trainer.  If this is true then it will be me at the sidelines, as Gregg wants to work with Sam as a career.  I personally do not believe a dog can have only one ‘master’.  He isn’t stupid.  He knows if I tell him to get down then he will get down, and he knows he can play rough with Gregg but has no chance with me.  Anyway, they do offer working trials but we have to pass a basic class first, recall etc.  In the next couple of weeks we plan to join.  I would love to go to a working club where we aren’t the only mali owners, as it is clear the few people which participate in the working sector there own GSDs, but there is no where close and this club is in walking distance.  Long walking distance, but do-able.

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip down to Devon with Samson to see my parents.  He got to swim a lot, and he loves it.  It’s funny that he should swim to collect a ball and return it to us straight away, but on the common it seems too much like hard work!  We took him swimming every day and it kept him slightly more placid which was important because he was staying in the house with Rocky, my parents working bred Springer Spaniel.  Rocky was rehomed by them nearly two years ago.  He was a failed gundog, he is a great big whimp and any loud noises leave him quivvering and hiding behind the sofa.  As a dog he is pretty funny, a real personality.  Sam and Rocky got on pretty well considering they are both ‘entire’ males and it is Rocky’s house.  Sam is still boisturous, and Rocky put him in his place when needed.  I’m pretty sure he has a better holiday than we did, adventure style!

I’ve spent a while in the past week trying to discourage Samson from more or less pulling me over. We’ve had a go with food, but it isn’t brilliant in showing any results. Gregg had a go with a toy and it was a lot better, but the problem then is Sam jumping for the toy because he wants to rag it! So we decided to try one of the most long-winded ways to stop Sam rampaging through the street, the “you-pull-I-will-stop” method. So Sam goes off sniffing, I halt, say heel and wait. The most frustrating bit is that the bugger knows perfectly well what heel means! I stop, say heel, and he runs around and sits by my side. At first this was awful, and it took twice as long to get anywhere, but I’m pleased to say I have noticed an improvement. He still wanders too far infront, but he doesn’t get far enough to tug. If he is ahead and I ask him to heel then sometimes he will other times not. It’s still an improvement regardless, so we will keep going.

Yesterday evening I took Samson out and we walked to the cathedral and back. I find it interesting how he reacts when we are out late, just me and him without Gregg. If anyone talks to me or approaches he really watches them. He is protective but still if someone asks to stroke him he is fine.

It’s been a while since I have uploaded any videos or photos, so this week I will have a go at just taking some pictures. I went through the park the other day and saw the lion which a while back I took a photo of him next to. At the time he was the same size as the little concrete lion, but god, things have changed, it’s now as if Samson is the lion, and the concrete lion is the mouse!

Christmas has been manic, and little training has taken place.  Sadly we no longer attend training sessions with Dean as it’s near impossible to travel there every week.  It just costs us too much money to get there.  So it’s not just basic training with myself, Gregg and of course Samson.

Still need to work on the recall.  I’m looking online at the moment to buy a long leash so we can hopefully improve his recall and make it become a good thing.  I think it’s going to take a fair few chunks of hotdog and cheese!  On top of that I want to work on heel.  I’m contemplating giving clicker training a go.  I find with heel that Sam may see it as a punishment.  He pulls so hard now on lead, so I say heel, he ignores so I correct.  Then he heels for a couple of seconds, and as soon as I praise he thinks it’s a cue to pull again.  However, the other evening I took him out with just a couple of treats broken up and held them across my waist.  He continually looked up at me, heeling perfectly, so I praised a lot and gave him a treat.  I think a clicker may be a good way to praise, consistant and hopefully weans off food rewards?  I am unsure on this one as of yet.  I plan to take him out again this evening, armed with more treats than last time and give it another go first.  I know he can do so well, but sadly it is our lack of experience which makes it difficult.  I know we have made mistakes with recall, and heel is also another problem now.  We were advised to leave heel alone for the first year, but now it needsworking on.  He is just too strong to have him pulling you around.  We live in a city centre, so he needs to stick by rather than pull me over!

Poor ole Samson has been a tad neglected in the way of long walks the past few days, because of my birthday and visitors.  So today he ventured outside again.  Should’ve seen the look on his face as soon as I mentioned the W.A.L.K. word!  The biggest Mali grin I have ever seen, whimpering impatiently as we get the walking boots on.

A freezing morning, and because there has been a lot of rain there were massive iced over puddles.  Sam’s never experienced this before, so we were interested to see how he would react.  Some of the broken ice was carried around for a while before being licked away.  A massive frozen puddle was the test, with Sam sliding across with a look of awe on his face.  He then had a bash at biting and scraping his way through the ice.  As soon as some broke away under his weight he had his teeth against the edges, breaking off more.  We thought it was pretty amusing, seeing a Mali skidding across ice, trying to go fast, but instead sprawled all over the place!

We also had a bash at improving Samson’s recall.  It was a bit hit and miss.  We just kept calling him back for no real reason, and then tugged with him, a big “good boy for here, good boy!” and then letting him wander off again.  The problem is that if he has something he likes more, like a massive bit of tree (yes, really, an entire branch which could be a tree in itself) or just a frisbee then the recall is 100% out of the window.  I have a tree, I most certainly don’t need you, regardless of your treats or toys.  That’s the problem we are having.  I’m thinking of buying a 20m leed or something similar, so Sam can go on ahead, and then if he chooses to ignore our recall I can bring him back and praise.  Hopefully it will work with persistance and a great deal of calm patience.  It proves very hard to remain calm some times, especially when he comes so close and then looks you in the eye and buggers off again!  But it has to be done, and right now the recall and retrieval are the top of my list.  For example, today a family were walking through the common.  Two toddlers were walking with their Mum, with a little yappy dog in front and off leed.  I knew Samson would have the urge to play with the dog, both myself and Gregg know he likes a good rough up.  So off he went.  The dog didn’t worry me at all, Sam plays fine and will come away when asked.  What worried me were the toddlers.  I know he is fine with children, no aggression etc as we are lucky enough to live next to a five year old who Samson met as soon as we brought him home.  The reason I was aware of potential problems is because Sam isn’t small and cute any more, he is big, fast and very strong.  If he jumped on one of those kids they would’ve been floored, even if only for hundreds of slobbery kisses.  However, he recalled fine, but I need to know I can trust the recall as explained in the previous post about the girls with footballs.

If it is icey again during a walk I shall take a video, it was worth a watch!  As for the recall, we shall persist, and as always I will update on our progress.