Amber verses the ditch π
The danger of having another human with me, they can video me being an eejit with the dogs π
The crew were all interested in a flock of pigeons, so after rewarding them for watching calmly I thought I'd encourage them to have some fun, and catch the pigeons π hunting with your dog helps you bond, while doing something your dog loves (if they're a hunter)
Thanks for being camera person Justine Haycox π
A challenging recall for Rusty....does he come... Will I have to go in a bush and find him....stay tuned til the end to find out π
Bounce! Nice little conversation with Roo and Rolo at the end. Rolo was done and said so, but his 'that's enough' growl is very similar to his play growl, and Roo didn't understand the difference. I wasn't sure either to be honest , it was his second grumble with added movement away from Roo that made me realise he was saying enough
A springer doing what a springer does. You can just see the crow take off over the hedge row. Ollie waited so I moved forward to see if it would trigger his movement, it did and he flushed him out, as professional as a real gun dog π
Treat and retreat. I'm playing this little game with Lilly now (at first we just retreated), if she decides something is scary and moves away I let her go a few paces then gently say her name. If she's able to hear me I then drop some treats with a find it cue. If not we continue to retreat then try again or go to home, which is safe. This is doing several things, she gets a double reward of moving away from scary thing, and food, making the situation more positive. The sniffing helps calm her and I'm creating more safe spots by making areas positive with food. I'm scattering in the same spots when we just pass them too, again to create positive feelings there, so she'll not feel the need to go all the way home each time she's worried
Orla going full gremlin π
The eejit and his stick π
It doesn't seem like much, just a dog doing a dog thing. It's all about context though, Roxi isn't overly confident, preferring to stick close for safety. Here Roxi has gone to sniff where Skye was laying, and even more impressive, chose her own route back, deciding to move further away to get back on the path, rather than return the way she came. Feeling safe at that distance is amazing for our shy girl π
Orla making friends with Dylan π sorry, I'm talking quite loudly due to the road noise and distance between us, please turn your volume low.
Don't they all do amazingly, especially with how busy the place is. Not ideal at all, I hadn't realised it was end of school, one minute there were a couple of kids, the next a herd came π but we worked with what we had. You can see Orlas excellent choice in moving away when Dylan turned towards her. A shake off and she was ready to try again. Murphy was a star too, I had to just keep his lead short to be able to video safety, it must have been frustrating for him to not be able to keep up, but he didn't complain. Dylan was his usual, awesome self, he was always my first meet dog before I got Pizza, and he's still able for it at 14. He did so well concentrating on Josh, rather than me, which isn't the norm, and he's always great with nervous dogs, he becomes everyone's friend because he knows just how to act