Rally Success!!!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Rally Success!!!

    We did some practice around town yesterday while my roommate did her running around. Maze and I practiced down stays, sit stays, left and right hand finishes in the bank. She gave me the right hand finish with ease and happiness. Usually she's kinda unsure but yesterday is great! And she didn't bark or protest at all. The tellers were quite impressed. Lol.

    Later we did some heel work outside of Shoppers. One of the busiest sidewalks in the mall. We kept it short and upbeat. She kept her head up and was happy. She gave me amazing focus, ignoring the people and cars beside us. She lagged a bit but by this point she was getting tired. We ended the training session with a meet and greet with an elderly dog. She did great! I was able to call her away and there was no growling or hackles raised.

    After that we just continued with our walk. Although we did get kicked out of the drugstore. Which I am not impressed about. We have been going there for 5 years. An elderly guy complained about Maze (who was sitting at my side nicely), and the owner looked like he did not want to ask me to leave. However, Maze will still be coming with me cuz if the cashiers don't see Maze atleast once a week, they worry. Lol.

    • Gold Top Dog

     Yeah Maze! I'm guessing by your posts that Canada is pretty dog friendly.

    • Gold Top Dog
    Well I don't know about the rest of Canada, but Sechelt is pretty dog friendly. All the banks allow dogs, alot of the book stores, the drugstore, ummm pretty much every store that doesn't carry/serve food, you're allowed to bring your dog. As long as they're well behaved or in training. Heck, I bring Sandy to the medical clinic with me.
    • Gold Top Dog

     Oh My, what a small world it can be. I thought the name Sechelt sounded familiar. I met one of the owners of the Four Winds Beach House and Spa B & B at the United State Dog Agility Nationals in Louisville Kentucky last fall.

    • Gold Top Dog
    Holy crap!!!
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    • Gold Top Dog

    Get her working around a ton of other dogs.  Lots of breed variety if possible, if not, then at least breeds or body features she's never seen (like big white fluffies or bushy tails or teeny tiny toys or giant Bernese or Leonbergers, etc.  Dog shows are all about dozens and dozens of dogs milling around performing in the ring & warming up outside the ring, etc, etc.  Get her proofed against more of that.  Nice that the people and cars are distractions (and there will be plenty of both at these shows), now make sure she is performing very well around LOADS of dogs.

    I am at a show this weekend inside a dirt-floor arena w/an open side to the race track w/horses pulling sulkies just 30' away from the ring.  The metal roof was pinging so loudly with the rain that you had to shout to talk to the person next to you, forget about how the dogs will hear you.  The birds fluttering under the eaves distrated more than one bird dog there.  Know your dog's triggers for distractions because they WILL come out at a dog show, very easily.