The tutor dogs at Little Orchard are sociable, adult dogs that naturally display good communication skills or signalling. These dogs must enjoy interaction with other dogs and when they first display the potential skills we encourage and guide them to become a tutor, along with very high level recall and distance training control.
In the groups the tutor dog will often teach a shy puppy to take its time and settle in and keep others from knocking its confidence and they control a bouncy puppy that wants to bounce on other youngsters. These dogs are essential to the running of the groups as puppies cannot learn canine etiquette and communication from humans or from inappropriate dogs with fear or aggression. We have a team to be proud of which has successfully helped many puppies and dogs with socialisation or rehabilitation!
Bailey (June 2002) is a Cocker Spaniel; he is very well adjusted dog and enjoys making new friends. Bailey loves to run and play and his favourite role is to invite them to play using his playful body language and cute eyes, he often ends up succeeding and playing a game.
Pimms (May 2005) is a Jack Russell Terrier. She is bouncy and energetic. She grew up with Charlie and therefore has had a great teacher on canine etiquette. Due to her size she has learnt to use her voice to separate rough play. She is very useful in teaching bigger dogs to respect smaller ones. Pimms is often found darting around the field keeping an overview on all that’s going on.
Gemma (April 2007) Is a Golden Retriever. She is a very calm influence on a lot of dogs with fear or aggression, they find her easy to meet as she is very calm and reliably steady for them to get to know. Gemma is currently learning more about keeping puppies under control as her baby sister Bonnie has joined the home and so she has her hands full. Having a young puppy at home will add to her already advanced tutoring skills and she will learn more new communication skills.
Amber (May 2007) is a rescue GSD x Border Collie and has always had so much energy! She takes work seriously and will always be the dog looking around the group at everything that is going on. She is trained to a very high level. Amber has such ability with difficult dogs and wants to keep order within a group but she is also gentle with and has a lot to teach the young puppies.
Molly (September 2006) Is a Border collie X Spaniel and first came to social groups because she was very shy and would hide behind her mum and growl at new or scary things. Molly now has become a tutor dog which we are all very proud of. She has a lot of skills to offer both to puppies and nervous dogs. You can often see her on lying down for puppies to easily interact with her or running around playing with the dogs. She uses her voice to alert if there is something she is worried about and is keen to now meet all the new students.
Seamus is a Black Lab. Being laid back, friendly and obedient, Seamus is very good with nervous or shy dogs. He always approaches these dogs slowly and with his head lowered and tail wagging which helps to put them at ease and, if they are confident enough, he may even entice them to play. Within a group Seamus provides a solid and calm influence.
Ru (October 2006) the rescue golden retriever (Sonny’s Brother). He enjoys playing with young puppies and a morning roll in the wet grass. He has good body signals for other dogs to learn from.
Sonny (October 2006) the rescue golden retriever (Ru’s Brother). He enjoys to run round the field with other retrievers, getting them to play and enjoy themselves and roll in mud.
Alfie ( February 2008) the GSD X Rotti. Although Alfie can look tall and butch, he is a sensitive youngster. He enjoys interacting with puppies and is just starting to learn about separating rough-play.
