Fun, fun, fun running the dog at the park

26/12/08

The park

Amika had a great trip to the park this morning. I also opened the bag of new “nature’s gift” kibble. It was a hit! I fed her through the crate as we drove in (useful to have a driver!) and she was pretty quiet. She also settled quickly in the crate and I brought her out without much ado. But then she didn’t orient to me, so put her straight back in and tried again. This, of course, caused a bit of whining in the crate, but not much. Second time out, she remembered to check in.

We did a little short lead work with the aim of getting her to focus rather than sniff. I think we are at a change-over point. Sniffing is no longer so important as a stress release, since she is less stressed about this spot. There is still the excitement of getting there, but I’m going to start changing this habit so the new pattern is “we’re hare, so lets start working!”. Long way to go, but best to start now, I think.

The lead session was short, and then we went to tyre pulling and running around. We interspersed this with sitting under a shady tree. My partner went up a tree when she was over with me getting a drink from the car, and she got anxious. I made her (reeled her in on the line!) give me some focus and a couple of sit / down’s before I released her to go find him. Boy did she GO!

When she did locate the tree he was in, she leapt up and down at the trunk whining, and when he jumped down she jumped ON him- something she very rarely does. She also grunted and made funny noises. She might have kept at it but I grabbed her and told her off (a loud “enough!!”). I held her still until she was capable of lying down to cool off. This happened last time we came too, but was a bit less intense. It is as if she is giving him hell for disappearing like that.

The fix was fairly easy. After some more resting and running around, we went back to the car and the water bowl. My partner went up another tree (good little climbing trees, these) where she could see what was going on while she had her drink. I released her again, and she flew over there. Her reaction was less intense because she knew where he was and less time had elapsed since he had gone (and she was getting worn out- remember she is towing a tyre around). She started the carry-on but Dion told her to “down”, which she did, so he came down. I think she jumped up and he asked her to go down again and she did. I caught up about this time so she came over to me for a few treats for a job well done. We’ll practice this some more.

The three of us had a great time out there, though I think we let her overdo it. After resting at home for a bit, we took her outside for a potty break (before the humans went out to yet another function). She looked a little unsteady on her legs, the way she moved!