We had great fun on Saturday at our training class, which is like a pre-gundog class. There are eight of us, with labradors or golden retrievers, all around a year old, all learning basic obedience before we move on to more advanced dummy work. We spent some time on a new activity, which is called 'The Pedestrian Zone', whereby the dogs are put into 'down' position around the edge of the middle area, and the owners all mill around, chatting and walking, like in a pedestrian zone. Then one at a time each owner collects their dog, and walks them around the pedestrian zone, first off and then on the lead. The dog is to stick by his owner, and sit quietly whenever the owner 'meets' someone and stops to have a chat with them. I was astonished by how well this worked!!! And Poppy (who hates lying down) was really very good while it was her turn to wait, and only got up once to come and find me... : Afterwards, to celebrate the fact that we have been through eight training sessions together, we all went to lunch at a local restaurant, taking the dogs with us! It was brilliant - they were all exhausted, and just went to sleep under the table, while we chatted over beer and schnitzels! It's really good fun and nice to chat with others who are just as interested in their labs as I am, and I am amazed how far the dogs have come in such a short time - and how much closer I have got to Poppy as a result of working with her. Happy mama here!
Re: Lovely training session Sounds like you are in a really nice group. Maybe some of you will stay in touch after the classes are finished. That sounds like a really useful exercise. I haven't heard of it before but Lady would certainly have benefited from it I can tell you!
Re: Lovely training session Awe, sounds wopnderful...I really wish there was something along the lines of that here but unfortunately no such luck. Dogs here are strictly kept for guarding nothing more. As far as I've seen. Tied to a tree and left to bark at innocent passers-by. I guess the economy here plays a huge role with this. Dog trainers come to the house and cost an arm an a leg to do things I'm trying so desperately to do myself. Hence most giving up after puppy stage. So sad...Good for Poppy !!! Can't wait to here more, this kind of thing always makes me smile.
