You plan on raising your dog to be a show dog and need to know all of the tips and tricks to be successful. This article will go into depth with all of the things you need to do to be sure that you are training your show dog correctly.
When training a troublesome dog there are many different techniques that one can use. However a key factor is establishing that one is dominant over the dog they are trying to train. By ensuring that the dog knows who is in charge it will guarantee that the dog is listening to the person trying to train it.
While it is definitely possible to teach an older dog new tricks, you want to be mindful of medical issues or conditions that may limit his ability to engage in some behaviors. For example, if your dog has arthritis, asking him to crawl long distances may not be very practical. Training can help stimulate a dog’s cognitive functioning, which is beneficial for older dogs. However, you want to make sure that you are not causing him any unwarranted pain during these exercise sessions.
Make training fun for you and your dog. Choose treats that your dog loves, and give lots of excited praise for good results and even good efforts. Keep sessions short and lively. Give your dog plenty of chances to succeed by practicing commands that he or she knows well, but also add variations and new lessons to keep training interesting.
If you want to be successful at dog obedience training, you must be willing to commit to a specific amount of time on a consistent basis. Dogs learn from repetition and consistency. Additionally, the very act of spending a certain amount of time with your dog every day will convince him that you are a consistent and reliable person. These are two qualities that will work to make you the leader of the pack!
When you’re training your dog it is critical that you never abuse your dog. Abusing your dog in form of punishment will just lead to your dog fearing you. A simple “no” is much more effective. You really have to be consistent, and patient.
If your dog is working through troublesome behavior, be careful about where you send him for boarding or daycare. Many boarding and daycare facilities do not follow through on individual dog’s training programs, so be sure that you put your dog somewhere where he will get the attention he needs. Pet-sitters often provide individual care that reinforces behavior. Ask whatever facility or sitter you’re considering about how they handle a situation like your dog’s.
One tip to keep in mind when training your dog, is that your timing and the expected timing of your dog’s actions are essential. This is important because this is one learning aspect that is common to all dogs. While different dogs require different teaching methods, timing is a communication method that will help you find success no matter what you try.
Your dog will not be trained overnight, but you can read some valuable advice overnight. Admitting that you need help is always the first step, and reading about the subject matter increases your insight into dog-training methods. The above advice is tried and true; so take a friendly approach to dog training and do it yourself.
Tip! Learn Patience – Horses are like children themselves, and training a horse is much like teaching a child. When your child has become a confi
Tip! Learn Trust – Horses must be able to trust their handlers. One of the first things that your child will learn about handling and riding horses is to be trustworthy and dependable, because if the horse doesn’t trust its handler it will not obey him/her.
dent and skilled rider, letting them help train a horse will be an excellent experience for them.
My love of horses began at the age of 11 when I worked every summer at a ranch. My twin brother and I would walk about ten miles a day in circles taking children on pony rides. I had never really thought much about horses before that but I was soon hooked for life.
Interestingly I found out years later that my husband’s name, Philip, actually means ‘love of horses’ in Greek.
I, like so many others, discovered the beauty and intelligence and strong connection you can have with horses. They have their own personalities like we do, and if you care to really look, you’ll see they convey a wide range of emotions. They can be happily prancing, angrily stomping, they can demonstrate sadness, and even apathy and defeat. How a horse reacts is determined by how we treat and care for them.
During one of my summers, there was one pony in particular that was docile with people riding him when he had a saddle on his back, but woe be it to anyone who would try to ride him bareback. I found out the hard way when at the end of the day, I took off his saddle and hopped on. Before anyone could say anything, he was off, bucking wildly and trying to bite my legs. I hung on for dear life (it was my first experience being bucked). Of course in the end, he got me off by slamming me into a tree. I had a bruised leg for weeks. That same week I realized he was out to get me! He demonstrated quite a bit of slyness and would suddenly strike out and kick me as I walked past or if I got near he would try to bite me. I realized for the first time that horses were not just work animals and that he was expressing his displeasure with me. I was amazed and developed a new- found respect. I resolved to establish a relationship, and by the summers end, we were working as a team. There was no more kicking or biting.
Throughout history, horses have been loved and revered by pharaohs and kings alike. There is evidence of domesticated horses going back thousands of years. In fact, in ancient Egypt, it is thought that horses were treated better than the Egyptians and that they would even be fed before the Pharaoh himself. This was due to the ancient Arabian horses incredible beauty, speed and endurance and having saved many lives during war. This animal could withstand the harshness of the desert and maintain its beauty and strength.
The Lipizzan Stallion is another incredible beauty, powerful, yet docile horse. It was said that this was the horse Napoleon choose to ride during war. He was not a large man; therefore his stallion was bred to jump straight up in the air so that he could get a better view of what was going on in the field below.
There are so many different breeds of horses, and they are being bred for different things, speed, beauty, work etc. To me they are beautiful, even spiritual and I know there are so many others out there that feel the same as I do. There are even many beautiful horse posters available to adorn ones walls. I think this relation of man and horse will always be there. Enjoy them! I sure do.
Willie Jones
Willie Jones is a freelance writer, researcher, floral designer, and artist. “When Art Inspires, Dreams can Become Reality”. http://www.artinspires.com “Make sure you enroll in the free motivational poster drawing. All winners receive a free framed print.”
Jumper courses are very demanding, calling for technical accuracy on the part of the rider and absolute obedience from the horse. Connecting with the horse from the hind legs, through the back to the bit will prevent most of resistance problems that horses have with jumping. As the riders head toward the jump, they focus on the rhythm of your horse’s strides.
Elements of successful show jumping include riding lines, related distances, bending lines, and jumping off of turns. Competitors in jumper classes are judged on number of faults caused by knocking down or refusing to jump obstacles and on speed. A typical jumper course is 8-12 fences consisting of natural as well as brightly colored jumps. Most jumper classes consist of a first round (or two rounds) followed by a jump-off among all riders with clear first rounds. A jump-off course has fewer fences than the jumper class.
Penalty points are assessed if the horse refuses a jump, or brings down the highest element of an obstacle. Additionally in the jumper ring penalty points are added if the allowed time limit for the course is exceeded. Riders near the end of the starting order have the advantage of seeing how the first riders complete the course.
Classes are broken into a variety of sub-groupings. Amateur owner jumpers must be ridden by amateur owners only. Adult amateur jumpers must be ridden by amateur rider, but do not have to actually own the horse. While Junior jumpers must be ridden by riders under the age of 18. Schooling jumpers may be ridden by anyone.
In the jumper show ring, style does not count; jumper classes are purely athletic tests of speed and strength. Competitors in jumper classes are judged on number of faults caused by knocking down or refusing to jump obstacles and on speed. In addition to the faster speed of jumper class competition, courses in jumper classes are also composed of more varied obstacles.
The dynamics and beauty of horse and rider soaring over fences makes jumping a thrilling sight.
Some Observations on the Colour and Mark of Horses – Info from 1751
Tip! Learn Trust – Horses must be able to trust their handlers. One of the first things that your child will learn about handling and riding horses is to be trustworthy and dependable, because if the horse doesn’t trust its handler it will not obey him/her.
Having recently been lent an original copy of the ‘Treatise on the Diseases of Horses’ written by William Gibson, Surgeon, in 1751, it has been interesting to compare horse lore then to now. This article looks at one of the early chapters on the colour and marks of horses. Beautifully written in expressive old English this book is a real pleasure to read.
We would still agree with Gibson today that ‘so much of the beauty of a horse depends upon his being well marked and of a good colour’ and also that ‘we often meet with good horses that are very ill marked and of bad colours and sometimes very bad horses, that have almost all the beauty that colour and marks can give them’. Reading this chapter from three centuries ago it becomes obvious that then marks and colour were taken to determine the character of the horse, and that much store was put on good looks. It is obvious, for example, that a gentleman in 18th century England would never be seen on the type of coloured horse which is becoming popular today! Some pictures from the book are reproduced at http://www.limebrook.com/1751horselore.html
Bays, Gibson suggests, are ‘perhaps so called from their resembling the colour of dried bay leaves’. In his opinion the bay is ‘one of the best colours, and horses of all the different kinds of bays are commonly good, unless when accidents happen to spoil them while they are colts’.
Although Chestnut mares have a poor reputation in the 21st century, it is interesting that this treatise does not mention this, although he does say that ‘when a chestnut horse happens to be bald or party or to have white legs…such horses are not very agreeable. Chestnuts, however, were preferred by most people to the sorrel, both ‘in point of beauty and goodness’.
The brown horse is described as a colour not so beautiful as the bay or chestnut, and ‘plain brown [horses] are esteemed more ordinary. Many of them are coarse, but strong and serviceable, fit for draught, for burden or for the wars’.
Tip! Learn Respect – Children will learn to respect their horses and themselves. Horses are large, dangerous creatures and they demand respect, yet in order to be handled safely they must also respect their handlers.
Gibson is impressed by black horses, finding them ‘very beautiful, especially when they are of a jet shining black and well marked, and have not too much white’. Too much white, apparently, adds ‘nothing to their goodness’. A little white, however, is good. A star or blaze, ‘sometimes a white muzzle and one or more of the feet tipped with white always looks beautiful and lively, and is no diminution to the goodness of a horse, but most think an addition’ although some ‘form an opinion that horses with mark are generally stubborn and ill-conditioned’. He has however ‘found many of the English black horses, especially of the largest breeds, not so hardy as the bays and the chestnuts etc. However, if they are black brown they are ‘generally the strongest in constitution’.
Of greys he states; ‘The greys are so diversified in colour, and so common and well known that it would be a needless curiosity to describe them particularly’. The dappled greys are ‘reckoned the best and are founding most parts of the world.’ Silver Grey is ‘extremely beautiful’, Iron grey has a ‘gay appearance but are not accounted the most hardy’, the light plain grey and pidgeon coloured grey soon change and turn white.
Of the roans Gibson notes that ‘many of them turn out much better than they appear to be’. Many roans make ‘good road horses’.
There are so many colours of horses that Gibson states would be ‘no great use to describe’, But ‘sometimes horses turn out very finely spotted, some like leopards or tigers, some like deer, with black, red, yellow or other gay colours, and when these happen also to be comply in shape and appearance they are generally reserved as present for Princes or other great men’ but ‘others again as so disagreeably diversified in their colours, and in such a remarkable manner, that no Gentleman would care to be seen upon their backs, or even suffer his servants to make use of them wherefore such are usually condemned to the meanest drudgery, and no properties they can have, will be sufficient to recommend them to any other use.
Tip! If you choose to work with green horses (youngsters) you have to recognize that you are taking on the role of teacher/parent/
disciplinarian and in that role, anytime you lose your temper you cause more work for yourself down the road and you confuse the horse. It is specifically for this reason that I don’t recommend HOT clubbers purchase green stock.
As Gibson fails to describe coloured horses (piebald or skewbalds) one can assume these are those which no Gentleman would ever ride!
As to the markings on horses Gibson says that some have reckoned horses to be lucky or unlucky by the way in which they are marked, but in his modern times of 1751 ‘believe few persons in our times are so superstitious as to regard such things’ He does follow this up by saying though that some people ‘denote all the good or ill qualities or a horse form his marks’. He himself though thinks that a ‘horse always looks the more beautiful for being well marked’.
The most common mark is a star, and an artificial star is often used when it doesn’t occur naturally. Gibson describes marks: ‘When the white descends pretty broad towards the nose it is called a blaze; when it descends into a smaller line it is called a snip; and when most of the horse’s face is white he is then said to be bald. All these marks are beautiful when they are not to extreme, for a very large star is not reckoned so beautiful as one that is of moderate size, neither is that baldness that spreads over a horse’s whole face and cheeks any ways becoming. As it gives him the looks of an ox, and such horses are often plain headed.’
Tip! Learn Patience – Horses are like children themselves, and training a horse is much like teaching a child. When your child has become a confident and skilled rider, letting them help train a horse will be an excellent experience for them.
Unfortunately Gibson has strong views about some horses: ‘where a horse’s pasterns, hoofs and all his four legs are white, especially when the white rises about the knees or hocks, it looks ugly, and a horse thus marked has too much of the pye-bald, which are seldom fit for gentlemen’s use.
Of feathers he is more a fan, saying, ‘wherever they happen to be, they are almost always signs of goodness, and some of them are exceeding beautiful’.
Reading this treatise from 1751 it is obvious that much store was put on what colour the horse was – certain horses would be condemned as war horses, or committed to a life of drudgery simply by their colour. Others, more happily marked (sorry, the 18th century language is addictive) end up living with Prince’s. Although today we still value the look of a horse, we do not tend to group them so much by colour, and a good show jumper or dressage horse can be any colour. It is hard to imagine that a horse would fail to make the Olympics just because he was of a colour that no gentleman would want to be seen on!
Trish Haill is the Webmaster for Limebrook Farm Riding School and Livery Yard. This ever growing website is a great resource for riders and horse lovers everywhere. Check out the site at http://www.limebrook.com/index.html
Leave the Thinking to the Horses; They Have Much Bigger Heads than You
Tip! There are a lot of similarities between training young horses and young children; the fundamental difference is about 1200 pounds. As anyone who has raised young children can attest, a 30 pound child can drive an adult out of their minds on a bad day and factor in the additional size of a young horse and you will have a sense of the challenges that can arise when working young, green-broke stock.
The SBS/SAS and Navy SEAL Special Forces Training courses are designed to physically and mentally test the Trainee and how he thinks to the absolute limit.
So much so, that your initial reasons for wanting to become an SBS Combat Swimmer/Frogman, Navy SEAL or SAS operator all but would have dissipated like snow in the sun if it was not for your ability to access the power of the mind.
Once that subtle barrier to the mind has been passed, the Trainees are able to take control of their thoughts. Feelings of fear, anxiety, stress, exhaustion or any other aspect that would hold them back are now being controlled by the power of their sub-conscious mind. They are able to will their bodies to continue indefinitely under any circumstances, while undergoing physical conditions and mental demands that would otherwise be humanly impossible to achieve. This is also known as the power of the sub-conscious mind over the conscious mind or Will-power.
Once a Trainee reaches this Phase in the training, usually nothing will stop him, and he would be able to continue under these circumstances almost indefinitely unless he becomes injured, which sadly does happen from time to time. This Phase in the training sets the stage for a total identity change and a tremendous boost in self confidence. The concept of something being impossible is broken forever. This is why the SBS/SAS and Navy SEAL Special Forces are able to undertake operations and endure physical and mental conditions that for others are all but impossible.
Tip! Teaches Sensitivity – Horses can be very sensitive creatures. They have keen senses, and can sense if someone is afraid, angry, happy, etc.
The trainees have reached the stage in their mind that turns all negativity into positive objectivity with the trained, inbuilt desire to always find a solution that will turn any negative experience or set back into an immediate or long term possible, positive outcome.
Leave the thinking to the horses; they have much bigger heads than you. That was the reply from one of the SBS instructors in response to a trainee’s desperate cry in my 1967 SBS training class when he THOUGHT his legs couldn’t move anymore due to sheer exhaustion when doing a forced run through the sand dunes while carrying an inflatable boat or Zodiac with his team mates.
It’s a common trait in most of us and it is a typical human behaviour to hide and suppress the real issues that are troubling us in the back of our mind until it is too late.
It is a typical trait in most of us to hide behind our follies and blame our weaknesses when the going gets tough and if that doesn’t work to then blame everything and everybody else except ourselves.
We get the conscious mind to temporarily override the sub-conscious even though we desperately want to find a solution to our problems or suffering. So the easiest way is to put the blame with somebody or something else for our inability to continue with the task and for our bad luck in life. Luck, however, is the residue of design and this is very much emphasized in the SBS Special Forces training.
Tip! Learn Patience – Horses are like children themselves, and training a horse is much like teaching a child. When your child has become a confident and skilled rider, letting them help train a horse will be an excellent experience for them.
In the SBS/SEAL training your true self is fully exposed for everybody to see as you are methodically “hammered” physically as well as emotionally and mentally week after week. You can’t hide your emotions anymore and there is no shame in that, because we all have become equal in the eyes of our Instructors no matter what rank we hold, or how big and tough we considered ourselves to be at the beginning of the course. Teamwork then is another factor strongly emphasized in the Special Forces training of the SBS and SEALS. The needs of the many are greater than the needs of a few and failure of one individual can bring the unwanted attention of the instructors to the whole group.
One thing is for sure. You will never win a self softening up contest in the SBS/SEAL training courses and the same principle applies in life.
In the end you will always be the loser. Making somebody else responsible for the inevitable fall out of your own decisions because of your inhibited thinking process and your refusal to learn the lessons, which the SBS/Seal training course is trying to teach you will only make you a victim in the long run and life is no different.
Tip! Learn Trust – Horses must be able to trust their handlers. One of the first things that your child will learn about handling and riding horses is to be trustworthy and dependable, because if the horse doesn’t trust its handler it will not obey him/her.
In the end, you can only blame yourself for failing the course or letting Victory (achieving your full potential) slip through your fingers on the battlefield of life.
Special Forces soldiers are not born, they are created; they create themselves with the help of their instructors, their role models, their buddies and with a lot of self sacrifice. They create themselves to do a Special job that only very few of us can do. That is why they call them Special Forces soldiers. They are special in every way.
You too are special. Which ever way you look at yourself, there is no other like you in the universe. Only you can bring about the changes you so desperately seek in your life. Perhaps it is weight loss, a daily exercise program, a better education or improved health; or perhaps an improvement in your confidence and self esteem levels; ultimately you are the person in control of your life.
Tip! Learn Respect – Children will learn to respect their horses and themselves. Horses are large, dangerous creatures and they demand respect, yet in order to be handled safely they must also respect their handlers.
I believe that the only way you can do this is to go back to the drawing board of your life; to delve deep into the recesses of your own sub-conscious mind. Like the instructors in the SAS, SBS and Navy SEAL training courses do; they take you down to places in your own mind where you have never been before to unearth the ultimate commitment and belief in yourself.
I believe that you should learn and acquaint yourself with some of the short burst energy psychology techniques of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and regularly apply these during the course of days and perhaps even weeks to clear the accumulation of negative emotional habits and thought patterns gathered over a life time of experiences.
I also believe that you should make short burst aerobic and weight resistance exercise a standard approach to living your daily life, so you can assist the mental and emotional recovery process using EFT.
The main difference between life and the SBS/SEAL Training is that the latter is of a limited duration and if you believe in yourself, have the right mental and emotional attitude and physical ability and don’t get injured along the way, you know you can achieve your goal and that is to pass the course.
The length of Life’s Training Course is an unknown (thank goodness), which makes it so much more difficult, especially for those of us who have found themselves locked into a negative mindset at an early stage in our lives. This is often because of incorrect emotional interpretations of life experiences in childhood and adolescence. We then lack the ability to overcome our problems and setbacks along the way; the emotional habit of self sabotage takes over and we get stuck in the mud of life forever.
Tip! If you choose to work with green horses (youngsters) you have to recognize that you are taking on the role of teacher/parent/ disciplinarian and in that role, anytime you lose your temper you cause more work for yourself down the road and you confuse the horse. It is specifically for this reason that I don’t recommend HOT clubbers purchase green stock.
Horses may have bigger heads than you, but you have the ability to make choices while horses function mainly by instinct. Choose to think only positive thoughts; banish the negative ones and life will become a whole lot easier to manage.
Your blogmaster is Steve Symes. Steve would like to bring the some of enjoyment he has found in owning, training, and riding horses to his visitors. Please comment on our postings! We do like to hear your views. more about »
