Back to town for obedience training, over 350Km driven just for the mutt.

Arriving at the venue she was a bit of a pain but when she realised “Oh, damn, no running here” she settled down. Even did recall with the mutt off lead—wasn’t worried about that.

Leave just in time, get to obedience lesson just on time, phew! (lots tourism, getting stuck behind a caravan or two could seriously delay arrival at whatever destination.)

Involved “sit for examination” with dog on lead: dog sits, I tell it stay and move as far as the lead will let me from the dog, instructor then gives the dog a quick pat.

Socks was brilliant at it! Again, instructor pointed to Socks as to how to do it! This didn’t happen with Demi  The difference between the breeds is more than size etc.

My neighbor with some animated mop as dog struggled. A doddering old fart giving no leadership to the mutt. When telling his dog to stay he raised one finger at it    I told him “Act like you are a traffic cop, hold out your hand flat, all fingers extended. Doubt that old dodderer will get anywhere. Oh well.

Sunday be busy, obedience then drive about 40 minutes—fun run!

Gosh, Socks LOVES to run!

Churchill told some younger bloke about conservation of energy: why walk when you can stand, why stand when you can sit, why sit when you can lie down? He used all that as an old man running WWII from a cellar in London.

Well, Socks thinks: Why stand when you can walk? Why walk when you can run? Why run when you can ccchhhhhaaaaarrrrrgggggeeeee?

At the fun runs she can ccchhhhhaaaaarrrrrgggggeeeee!!!!!

Drove to dog obedience training. Dog did OK.

After that drove to a town, did some shopping, took Socks to the big reserve that is there, let her run to her hearts content for a while. Called her—she actually came. Did five minutes of heeling/sitting/standing/dropping etc—all off lead—and Socks did fine. Let her run, called her again, put her on the lead, another 5 minutes obedience practice, took lead off and let her run a few more minutes then moved to the car and Socks jumped in no probs.

Reason—can control dog a bit more when it is on the lead and teach her that being put on the lead is not always the end of having fun.

One problem: the recall. Socks takes off enthusiastically when called then can’t stop in time so runs past me. Will do more recalls inside with me standing in the front passage where she can’t run past me. She needs to temper her enthusiasm when running on the recall. Will work on it, no probs.

Dog obedience training today.

Got there an hour early, deliberately, to let Socks run and walk and walk on the lead practicing bits of obedience training. Aim—to get the “piss and vinegar” or a lot of it out of Socks (temporarily of course.)

That sort of worked.

Lots of the items of obedience went great! The recall—I call Socks and almost immediately tell her to sit. Socks applies the brakes and sits in front of me. All a bit untidy BUT:

1. She does come to me when I give the recall command

2. She no longer rushes past me and  then having to backtrack.

After years of sitting nice and straight on my left side she sat at right angles to me and did that repeatedly. However, all told she did pretty well today and other students congratulated me on her improved behavior.

Weighed Socks at PetStock: 25.75Kg, bit less again but not drastically so and she had not eaten to that stage: remember I wanted her to run heaps before the lesson and a dog running with food in its guts can get torsion bloat which is pretty much a death sentence for the dog.

Went to this big park after the lesson—want to create a routine where we have exercise before the lesson then, after whatever bits of shopping I do after the lesson, we drive to this big park and she can run, play in the little river (when this settles down after rain) or we walk 5-10Km all along the river. So, she puts up with the spoiled walk which is what the obedience lesson is to her after her early morning running/walking then gets more running and fun after the lesson. See if she gets that message.

Needed to restock my pantry a bit with some ambitious dinners planned so drove 65Km to the local slightly-big smoke. Gave me a chance to let Socks have a short run in the dog park there.

Well BUGGER! The fine food shop was shut for a couple weeks. Damn!

But Socks had a nice if somewhat brief reunion with some of her friends there. I narrated how Socks had grabbed the lure in midflight two fun runs ago then had a lacklustre run the next meet.

Anyway, thought the above walking out the bottleshop. Then got Socks out of the car and we had a nice walk of 2-3Kms along a couple of streets.

Saw the beach across the main road. “Hmmmm” I thought “the sand there deposited where a river entered the sea won’t have any big rocks and lots of lawn to get Socks to recall properly.”

And it worked out like that. Was even another dog on the beach, one we had met at the dog park so the beach walk was even better. Crossing the road to get back to the car it started raining—perfect timing!

Socks happy as Larry (not the Larry here, doubt he is ever happy) doing her “dance” because she had walked streets new to her and had a short beach walk off lead.

Did walk the other side of the river—couldn’t get to the river. So walk some streets new to Socks—she was happy.

Crossed the main road to the beach. Last time—Socks found a rock she tried to pick up and would not come when called. Oh well.

Was after lunch time and I hadn’t eaten lunch. Went to the nearby cafe and ordered some chips and a sandwich to take away. Ate the chips in the car there and they were nice and crispy and not greasy.

Of course, I was soon surrounded by seagulls. Tossed them a chip, expecting a huge squabble but, nope, one gull one chip. Tried a couple more. Nope no squabbles among the gulls but there was noise, oh yeah: Socks on the back seat barking that is

barking!

Sheesh she trying to destroy might right ear as well?

However, while Socks was barking

really loudly

not a single gull dared grab the chip lying on the ground about a metre from the car