Friday 22 July 2011

To stay or not to stay

That is definitely the question!
We have been going to obedience classes with the goal of getting Molly the KC Good Citizen Bronze award and now have a date for the test on 16th August.  I am fairly confident about the majority of the test but at the moment the 1 minute stay is a major hurdle for us to overcome.  In the grand scale of things if she is not ready and fails the test then it really does not matter - but I would like us to be able to take it and pass so we need to spend some proper time working on stay to give us a fighting chance. 
I have never had much problem with teaching stays in the past so as ever suspect the problem has been caused by the two legged part of the partnership but I am trying hard to break it down into the seperate parts and teach properly.  I have gradually been building duration - but I don't think I have done anywhere near enough building distance so need to work on this so she is comfortable in classes when I leave her.

Just to add extra spice to our life when I went to agility on Thursday, our fourth session, we were put into a different group and told we were going to be taking a test to see if we were ready to move up a group.  It was by far the most complex course we had ever done and her first run was fab.  Unfortunately after that a spaniel came over from another class to play and after that she decided that maybe she wanted to run and play rather that doing what I asked her to.  I suspect we may have failed our test!!  But Molly had a very good time indeed!!

Sunday 17 July 2011

Friends

I met up briefly today and we included a quick walk for the dogs where Molly got to meet a few of her friends.  Firstly the new guy Sidney taking everything in his stride.
Then the regular pack from her daycare, Dan, Sally and Cash - please note, they are doing the active playing and chasing the ball, Molly just mooches and makes sure she does not get trampled underfoot.
and finally just Molly - running free and happy as a dog should be.

This evening we were invited round to a friends for dinner.  It was Mollys first proper posh dinner invite so I was alightly unsure how she would behave.  I think she charmed our hosts, despite trying to jam her head under the back gate to see if she could get out, chasing and catching a bee where we had to intervene to rescue them both from being hurt, and running upstairs and refusing to come down until she had checked out every room. 
I judged it the right time to leave when Molly started to empty the waste paper bin, eat the pot pouri and prod the glass vases with her paw to see them rock - I thought it better to leave before disaster struck!

Saturday 16 July 2011

Soggy doggy

A certain someone seems to have devoted much of the week to getting as dirty as possible this week so I am afraid it was time for a bath

She was not amused at all and reverts to a very skinny dog when wet.  Once out of the water a quick rub down and she is ready for a good shake.
She then glares at me for a while.
Before showing me exactly how bored she is with the whole thing!

The final indignity was me insisting on using the hairdrier to dry her off when she started to get shivery.
 

Bronze class

We finally made it into the bronze good citizen class on Tuesday and I was really pleased with how Molly worked in the class.  She fetched a toy for the first time in class and happily played tuggy as well as doing nice heelwork and although we still need more work on stays she is making good progress.

Agility on Thursday was also good and she worked off lead without problem although we have not done enough for her to really know what I am after so is a bit of a loose canon at the moment and she sometimes does her own thing!

Monday 11 July 2011

Not quite the look I was aiming for

I had half an hour to spare so thought we could do a bit of clearing in the front garden.  For some reason it turned into 20 minutes gardening and 10 minutes to clear all the garden from Molly.  Horrible sticky seeds just really stick to her coat and need combing out and she was covered.

We have been doing a bit of practice on our stays though and now up to a reasonably settled 30 seconds which we practiced this evening on the common at the back of my house.

Securely fenced

I am starting to trust Molly more off lead now so decided over the weekend to give her a walk over "the wedge" which is a lovely countryside area with fields, ponds and streams.  All was going so well until we reached the small woodland area and although I knew it would be super tempting to a bird chaser like Moll I thought it was a good trial as it was "safe" as bordered on one side by a nice secure fence with a school behind.

Things were going very nicely until we reached the corner and Molly was rummaging in the undergrowth, I walked on a little and called her, saw her wandering through the thick bushes - and then suddenly she was not there any more.  Tried not to panic and just called her a few more times with no result at all - could not see her, could not hear her.  Just to add to my tension I had fogotten my mobile phone so could not call anyone for help and also would not be available if she had wandered up to someone who might try calling the number on her collar.

After what felt like forever but was probably a few minutes I decided to try to push my way through the think brambles and nettles (lovely!!) to see if I could see a route she had followed.  The clearest place seemed to be near the school fence so I pushed my way through and there in the school field was Molly!!!  Running somewhat frantically up and down as presumably she tried to find her way back out again.  I called her and she came straight to me - so recall not totally broken - but something of a problem as we were seperated by a very solid six foot metal fence, topped with spikes.

After a bit more panic and a tiny bit of thinking I managed to find a bit of the fence where there was a slight gap underneath and dug a bit more soil out which gave Molly enough of a gap to wriggle through.  Panic over but I think we both gained a fair few grey hairs with that little escapade.

Friday 8 July 2011

Quiet week

Nothing much to report this week.  General training is going pretty well with the exception of stay and wait - although to be fair to Molly we have not done a huge amount of work on them as I tend to get distracted by doing more interesting things so I think I need to put more focus on training them.
She has now learned both left and right hand finishes and to spin both ways but do need to settle into a bit of the more serious stuff so she can do her Bronze good citizen test.

Tonight she decided she was bored - and a bored Molly looks for trouble so I decided to give her a try with the DogSmart.  She did get the idea of lifting the wooden blocks - although thought the prize was the blocks rather than the treats hidden under the blocks.
We did try some stay training after that - fairly steady stay for 20 seconds so we are making progress.

Sunday 3 July 2011

Festival!!

It was the weekend of the Godiva Festival which is a local celebration with live music and entertainment.  We were invited along by a friend so went on Friday night for a look.  Molly was pretty good at not being phased by the crowds and initially was doing her usual looking for birds to chase but soon realised the benefits of lots of people meant food dropped all over the floor and people she could persuade to say hello to her.  My friend and I got into the rock and roll spirit with a cup of tea and coffee respectively and Molly got to play with the cups when we had finished which kept her happy too.
Saturday we went into town for lunch - lovely cafe which did gluten free toasties - delicious - and then watched the carnival.  I will say Molly was not a huge fan of the carnival and we ended up retreating down a side street for a while as she thought it was a bit too noisy.  In the evening we met another friend for another evening at the festival.  It was far busier than the night before but thankfully Molly took it all in her stride and (mostly) behaved well - other than a bit of screaming at pigeons and leg grabbing that is!

Friday 1 July 2011

2nd Agility session

Last night was our second session of agility training.  I was really pleased that Molly seemed happy to be there (once she settled down) and we did our first practice session with her on the lead where she jumped really well and amazingly had remembered the tunnels and went straight through with no hesitation.
After that first run I decided I really needed to try her off lead and she was actually pretty good and I have to say the mistakes were mostly down to me not giving her the clear direction she needed. 
Last week she had not wanted to go near the higher stuff like the A frame and dog walk but this week she was happy to go straight up them.  The flat tunnel amazed me even more as she was perfectly happy to push her way through with again no real hesitation.
Looks like I need to get in training to own an agility dog then!