My name is Rae (she/her) and I’m 26 years old. I live in a Town in the Southwest of England and am very lucky to have lots of rural walks in my area!
This blog follows myself, my partner James, and our 2 year old husky x labrador, Juniper! We have plans to experiment with dog sports with Juno, as well as trick training, scent work, and general adventuring.
But this isn’t where my journey with dogs began, and not how this blog started! So let’s bring it back a bit…
I’ve loved dogs from as long as I can remember. My poor mother had to drill it into me from a young age to not run towards every dog I saw to touch it and ask their breed.
I begged for a dog for years. And we finally got one when I was around 9 or 10. A 4 year old Norwegian Elkhound called Otto. Rehomed to us through a breeder when his owner had a lifestyle change that wouldn’t accommodate him anymore.
I loved that dog so dearly well into my late teen years. And he is the main reason I have such a huge love of Spitz breeds.
When he passed I was devastated. And after a conversation later that week with my dad, we came to the realisation that the house felt wrong without a dog.
A few weeks later we brought home Hana, a two year old American Akita who became my first personally owned dog, and best friend.
Hana is the reason this blog came to be. As I, a fresh faced 18 year old, traversed the world of dog ownership and training. She taught me so much. My mind was changed so many times about different tools and training techniques. She challenged everything I thought I knew about dogs and training. She threw me on a huge curveball and I will never take that for granted.
This blog was originally hanatheakita, and you can still search our old posts by using the hashtags #hana or #hanecdotes
She passed in September 2022 after many years of companionship. And following a dogless depression, I picked up Juno from Dogstrust on December 30th 2022 with my partner.
And here we are! A new companion, a new journey, and I’m sure even more to learn!
does anyone have that one drawing of a greyhound from like the 1920s or whatever please please please i need it the one where it looks like a single piece of forlorn wire i need it
Loose direction, such as this way and lets go. I expect Juno to follow my general direction but not return to me. I’ve also adopted “not that way!” If she’s going the wrong way. She’ll look at where I’m walking or pointing and change her direction. No reward given for this.
General recall where I expect a quick response. Quick and easy “come” or “Juno come”. If with other dogs it’s just “dogs dogs dogs!” In a high pitched voice. I’d prefer an immediate response to this, but sometimes expect a delay if there’s something interesting around. Smells, dogs, people. As long as she comes back within a few seconds I’m happy and she gets a treat.
Emergency recall. Still working on it but going well. Three sharp sounds (like a BAP BAP BAP). Think dog whistle but a sharp vocal sound. I know I’d be useless with a whistle so haven’t bought one, but highly considered it. I always have my voice, so chose this instead. This sound means return at all costs. And a handful of treats are given. Scattered, by hand, tossed in the air to catch in quick succession. Huge reward, huge engagement.
I had to use emergency recall this week. Thankfully nothing dangerous, but in a local field we attend regularly. I could tell she was on the scent of something. Zig zagging, head turning, no engagement. She started to follow something I couldn’t see. Loose and general recall failed. She did start to follow me but turned and went back to locate whatever she was on to. So I hit her with the emergency recall.
I had to repeat the call, the first one she started bombing back to me and stopped dead, hesitating to leave whatever trail she was in. So I called it another time and she returned and got a treat party.
Now I shouldn’t have to repeat an emergency recall so I’ll work on this some more. But clearly she knew that whatever she could smell was higher reward than a treat or two. But the emergency sound? Now that was tempting. Thing is, this was a place we both know well. No livestock, clear vision of approaching dogs and people, saw a rat once but never a squirrel. No idea what she had smelled, but i didn’t expect her to ignore me and prior to this she was responsive and engaged. So even though she needed two emergency calls, I was grateful that we had solidified it enough to break her focus.
