The challenges thrown up by a dog staying for
residential training can be many and varied - that's why they're here in the
first place.
Wally, a young Border Collie is a prime example. A real fear of traffic made
lead work very difficult, with the young lad pulling furiously, but little by
little we are achieving success. These are still early days, but I feel Wally
is trusting us more and more and with that will come even better results.
The sight of a loose lead when faced with on-coming traffic is wonderful - well
done Wally !
 |
| A loose lead on a relaxed dog |
 |
| The sharpness of Wally's eyes |
 |
| "Car ? What car Janet ?" |
 |
| A beautiful young dog giving me his undivided attention. |
The BFG -aka Chester- has returned for a few days boarding. By the looks of things, his relaxation in the river was quickly disturbed by Sumo- who can't understand why any dog would want to relax on holiday. Surely that's when you can have more fun than usual ?!
Poor Chester ! He ends up looking broken, sitting on his bottom holding only a small piece of "his" stick. Same time next year Chester ?
 |
| Time to relax ...... |
 |
| ... before that pesky Sumo bothers me ! |
 |
| One big dog with a stick |
 |
| One little dog with the same stick |
 |
| One broken and dispirited dog with the end of his stick ! |
The feeling I (and Paul) get from training gives us a real sense of satisfaction and the drive to carry on with even the most difficult of dogs. One such dog was Magda, a young Cockerpoo.
She was very uneasy around other dogs, wouldn't think twice about having a snap at a hand ( through nervousness) and would be the last dog to have outside the house without a lead on.
But how things have changed !
Paul has worked hard with her and she is now a different character. Today he decided that she was good enough to be trusted off lead on a "proper" walk, and to his great delight she rarely went further than a few yards before checking in with him. No interest in sheep or running away either and as usual, he had his camera at hand to record the event !
 |
| No lead, just a beautiful view which Magda is enjoying |
 |
| The freedom to run for miles - but she never does |
 |
| We've hit the summit, out of breath but happy ! |