Training English Mastiff Puppy Around Pigs

Will what's going on? We are socialising Eileen to the pigs. Today's going to be the first time that we're going to go into the paddock with the pigs and see if they're going to be as good friends as I'm expecting them to be. What other animals has Eileen met so far? Eileen, we've done lots of animals as part of her socialisation. Loads were out in the countryside, sheep, horses, different bits. We've got chickens here on the farm so she's been very well acquainted with chickens. We've got our new piglets here. You might have seen the video where we were doing this socialisation with Riley and today we're going to be doing it with Eileen. It'll be a fascinating difference to show kind of the difference of your lab puppy Riley who's kind of higher energy, higher drives, kind of hunting dog with Eileen who is the most chill, low energy, relaxed dog in the world. She's proper my spirit animal. Also quite a size difference in comparison to them so she's going to be a lot bigger than the pigs whereas Riley pretty much the same size to be honest. Absolutely, yeah. So that'll be interesting. I think it's time that we kind of dive in and see how this goes. Let's get ourselves in there. As with these things, that's a classic example. You never know how it's going to go. That's why there's no one size fits all to train in a dog. That's why we preach about the importance of mindset and having as many tools in your toolbox as possible to be able to be flexible and bespoke to be able to overcome any challenge that we find ourselves in and this is one of those situations where we don't know what we're going to find ourselves in. We've got our Fenrir longline which is going to be available soon, don't worry, and this is going to give me the flexibility to not add any pressure so I can stay nice and loose and calm. No lead pressure but should things go a bit squirrelly I have the ability to interject because it's a slip I have the ability to provide slight bits of lead pressure to be able to communicate with her especially if it's more of a correction based thing that needs achieving. The pigs are wallowing in the mud so this is an excellent time. I do have to point out at this moment that I didn't realise this video was being filmed today and I'm currently wearing Crocs. You're living the dream mate. We're going into the muddy pig pen but hey ho. Lead by example. Yeah so again we're leading the situation. This is definitely something that's making her feel somewhat unsure which is okay. Obviously she's now going to be experiencing a million different scents that she's never experienced before but as always I'm remaining calm and assertive and I'm leading this situation. So we've got a couple of pigs now behind her that you're gonna she's about to notice so you're about to watch this happen. Being an English mastiff you're not the brightest spark are you? There we go. Leaning calm. I'm bringing no negative energy into this situation whatsoever. Well they're coming from every angle now. This is wonderful. She's being as I was expecting Eileen to be. Wonderful and respectful. What just happened there is everything I preach. Guidance and direction. Coming to me for guidance and direction. She's found herself in this interesting situation where she wasn't sure how to behave. By my rules boundaries and expectations she knows that I require calm relaxed behavior but when she was unsure she came to me to take control of this situation which I'm now doing. I'm asserting myself. I'm giving her reassurance knowing that I feel a bit unsure about this boss. Okay it's cool. It's fine. I'm here. I'm in control. All I need you to do is just relax and I feel like Eileen might be kind of half pig and actually I've got a feeling these are gonna get on like a house on fire. She's gonna love it. She's gonna start wallowing. Yeah she loves it. It's gonna be a whole thing. So this is what I talk about though when it comes to kind of like energy. It's a hard thing to explain isn't it? Even off camera when we talk about it. It's one of the things you can't necessarily teach but it is very innate and it isn't just humans. It isn't just dogs. Many many animals share that and that's why how quickly the pigs are comfortable with the dog and the dog's comfortable with the pigs and they have that communication that does spread across species not just human to animals but between animals. So again this is what a good example of quite an overwhelming situation for Eileen to be in. What I could do here is panic because yeah we're kind of enclosed by pigs on all sides but what all I can do for Eileen in this situation is to kind of let her know just remain calm. Everything's calm. I know I understand it sound when when I talk about these things and it sounds kind of very like I say hippie and wooah and stuff but I'm hoping the more we demonstrate it in real life situations like this the more hopefully that will come through and like yes my ability to remain calm is informed by my skill set and my experience of being in many different situations with dogs but that doesn't mean it's not something that you can't achieve as well and that you can't learn as well. She's being calm and relaxed about it. She's checking in with us. She's checking that we're remaining calm and relaxed. She's coming to see me. I'm letting her know good job. This is all I want. Brilliant and I don't have to be paying it. I don't have to be doing food reward. That's good and it's got its place but you don't have to use it as a crutch to kind of live off. If you're going to have a crutch have that crutch be calm consistent leadership. Have that crutch be your energy in these situations because it's those things that that allow us to have these wonderful experiences which ultimately these are experiences that that I absolutely live for. This is the joys of owning a dog. A dog that can be with you just living life and being awesome. This to me is perfect canine companionship. This is what I dream of. This is what I live for. This is what I love helping you guys achieve. So I don't know whether I hope. How badly did I waffle then Joe? Only a little bit. I was just wondering when you're taking them all all of these pigs and dogs for a walk? It's a plan mate. We're going to start doing some lead association with the pigs here. I'm going to get them used to a slip lead soon. They've been here a few weeks now so they're kind of as you can see they're they're happy around us as humans. We've built a relationship. I'm going to get them on a lead and the plan is to be able to go for a pat walk. So if you're still here watching this video you've got something to look forward to of me trying to pat walk pigs and dogs and alpacas because uh that's that that is the the big goal of the year is the video where I'm pat walking multiple dogs, multiple pigs, multiple alpacas and the way I'm able to do that is through calm consistent leadership. So there we go. Our very own Dr Dolittle. We're trying mate. We're trying.