Juniper

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.

We have 3 types of recall.

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.