We've just got back from a weekend staying with some friends in Empuriabrava. At this time of year, it's getting really busy, so the dogs have been experiencing lots of sights and sounds. I walked them early in the mornings, about 7am, along the beach path, to the designated dog beach. At this time of day, it was quite quiet on the way out, and somewhat busier on the way back. They got to interact with all sorts of breeds of dog on the beach and path. I repeated the same walk in the late evening, once it had cooled down, and it would be a lot busier, both in terms of "traffic" on the path and also with the volume of people on the dog beach. It was very successful. They didn't even flinch at all the bicycles or runners. They generally ignored all the other balls flying around on the beach; Willow was interested in a blue rubber duck that someone was throwing into the sea for their dogs, but didn't run after it. They seemed to realise that these things weren't their toys, which I was amazed at. Shadow did fetch a tennis ball that was thrown way into the sea for a JRT - no way its little legs could keep up with Shadow's! - but he was fine to give it back and I threw it again for the JRT and told Shadow to leave it, which he did. We had one difficult walk with Willow trying to pull on the lead, which was frustrating for both of us; it was because we had got behind the people we were walking with (our friends and their dog - littermate of ours - and J with Shadow) and she wanted to get back to them. So there was a lot of stopping and starting, walking in the opposite direction, her whining in frustration etc. It would have been so much easier to let her pull towards them, or to let her off the lead, but I persisted and we got there eventually; she seemed to suddenly twig that she got where she wanted to go faster by slowing down. But it took a while, and tried both our patience! However, other than that, it was brilliant. Shadow and his sister, Annie, had one barking incident on one of the early walks, where a lady was power walking with sticks. They didn't seem to like the clacking of the sticks on the floor, so ran up to her. They did bark, but it was so obviously at the sticks rather than the lady, and was more gruffing than proper barking. Luckily the lady was fine with them and they came back when called. They generally ignored all the other dogs, which was fine by me. The odd one they played with for a few minutes (two lurchers in particular - they LOVE lurchers!), and Willow told one dog off for bouncing on her too much, which was fine by me; he immediately ran off to find someone else to jump on. I feel really confident with Willow that other dogs will listen to her and nothing ever escalates past her having a warning growl at them. There were obviously lots of children around, and they didn't bother with any of them, except one time when we stopped for an early morning coffee on the beach. There was a very young boy running around naked a way off and both Shadow and Annie barked at him. Annie started it, though (as every good parent would say, sticking up for their kids!) and because they were a long way away, neither the kid nor his parents even noticed. I did find it interesting, though, because Annie has been brought up with lots of kids around, so it's weird that her owners say she's still nervous of them. A real frustration is that, since Annie is from the same litter as ours, she "came" ready-trained to a recall whistle - three pips. For some unknown reason, our friend has changed this to a single blast. So, when she blew it, Annie would run back and my two would follow. A single blast for us should be a stop whistle. Argh! I very rarely walk with them, and there wasn't the chance to say anything this weekend, but next time we do go out, I'll ask her if she would mind awfully blowing the three pips again while she's with us. Annie responds fine to that still, so it shouldn't be a problem and won't break my stop whistle. Oh, and one last thing. I've been working on a "quiet" cue for my two if they bark at noises outside, or at people on balconies overlooking our terrace. This seemed to work really well when we were there; they have a large outside area, which is walled in, but people do climb up and look over the wall, to see the canal at the back of the house. Yesterday afternoon, there were lots of them. Shadow barked at them all, then looked at me, and I gave him my quiet cue and he stopped immediately. Every time. I'm more than happy for him to bark at what he may see to be an intruder, but stopping on cue is fabulous. Very proud of him. Willow didn't seem to bark at them at all, although she'd trot towards them with Shadow to have a look. That's fine by me, too, because she used to bark a lot. So, in general, we had a great weekend. A couple of testing bits, but nothing more that you'd expect with a gaggle of Labs Sorry for War And Peace
Sounds like a wonderful weekend, early morning beach walks...lovely! Willow and Shadow sound like such stars, especially in such a different environment than at home, and so much busier! What fun to walk with another of their litter mates, would be very curious to see how Bensons siblings have turned out
In two weeks, we've been invited to a birthday party for the pups that is being thrown by an elderly couple who took another one from the litter! There will be five out of the eight there, not including Annie, so there will only be two others that we've not seen. Mum and Dad will also be there. We got a proper invitation, promising birthday cake for humans and doggies alike
