Caraline

Last Sunday was the last obedience class of the year. We resume the first Sunday in February. Though this means that Sonny’s 8 week Beginners Obedience class gets split up into 2 sections, it also means we won’t be training in the full blast of summer, which is a good thing. We had our half way mark assessment & Sonny passed with flying colours.

Taking both dogs to training has been the best experience. Sonny & Beau have really different personalities & it has been fun using their personalities for success. Beau is totally fearless, very food driven, competitive & eager, whilst Sonny is a little timid of new experiences, responds to smoochies better than he does to food rewards and isn’t particularly interested in what the other dogs are doing. This has made Sonny’s walking, sit, stay & drop a snap, but a little more challenging with things like fetching or running through tunnels & hoops.

The experience of having Sonny as the focus has been hugely beneficial for Beau as well. For large chunks of the class, Beau must sit & stay calmly while Sonny is being taken through his paces, and this has meant that Beau has had to grow up pretty fast and learn patience, and also trust that I will return to him if we are half way across the paddock.

We had our club Christmas party also last Sunday and as well as festivities we were treated to demonstrations of advanced obedience, agility, gun dog etc. It was totally awesome. Watching a dog being placed in a sit stay, then from 100s of meters away being given a command (verbal & hand signal) to come, then when the dog is half way there, being given another command to drop was really inspirational, especially when there were lots of people, children & other dogs around as potential distraction.

Anyway, we will be missing our classes over the next 8 weeks, but it gives us something to work on over summer & something to look forward to come February.