Benson helped out some young, slightly leash reactive and excitable graduates at yoof club. So very, very proud of him! Rescue dog, nervous lurcher, and 2 very excitable young spaniels The exercise was about getting the young adolescents used to other dogs moving around and running, but in very controlled and safe setting. They were used to each other, having all been in classes together, but not Benson. So 4 very excited young dogs were lined up at a comfortable distance from each other, and on lead. We had already walked Benson calmly on lead around them which was fine.So this was the next step for them. Benson was off lead in a sit, about 15 metres from the first dog. I walked away from him leaving him in a sit position looking at me. Then recalled him so he in effect was running past the first dog in the line. The owner then rewarded her dog for being calm and not reacting to Benson. The more nervous the dog the further away we started the fly by..In total Benson ran 4 flybys, each time perfect and sat neatly and calmly focussing on me and not the other dogs. It was lovely to chat to the owners after, and reassure that there really is light at the end of the tunnel, one couldn't believe that the calm dog sat next to me was really a nutty chocolate labrador! OK not a big deal, but for me and Benson it is a huge deal, as when we started out at Widgets he had the attention span of a gnat on speed....
Sounds fun! Leave the "chocolate" out of it though . Well done, wonderfully calm and obedient Benson and handler! Makes me feel that I should be trying harder; you're an inspiration.
