Today my wife and I took Holly into Cardiff for the first time. We thought a midweek visit would give her a quiet introduction to this new environment. She did her first bus ride and sat quietly between my knees all the way into the city centre. She gave us one or two nervous looks when the bus went over a rough bit of road but any worries were quickly solved by a tickle behind the ears. We walked her up and down the pedestrian precinct for about half an hour. It was the first time she's been in a crowd but she didn't seem to mind. She passed the roundabout with its loud music and ignored a street cleaning wagon that came straight toward us. She was quite content to wait with me while my wife went into shops. The only thing that made her jump was a sudden noise from the air brakes when the bus pulled up. She experienced lots of new situations today without any signs of anxiety. We're both amazed at how well she coped with everything, and very, very, proud of our pup.
Re: So proud of Holly That sound just great, well done! Charlie is a total hooligan on a bus - he wants to jump on everyone to say hello! He's getting a bit better now. Holly sounds much better behaved.
Re: So proud of Holly Charlie sounds like Gypsy, a Lab/Collie cross we had in the 1980s. She was dreadful on a bus or a train as she wanted to run up and down the aisle and introduce herself to everybody
Re: So proud of Holly [quote author =Hollysdad link=topic=3112.msg32920#msg32920 date=1383169876] Charlie sounds like Gypsy, a Lab/Collie cross we had in the 1980s. She was dreadful on a bus or a train as she wanted to run up and down the aisle and introduce herself to everybody [/quote] Yup, that's ma boy! ;D plus a not keeping his paws on the floor problem. He can have the same effect on a packed London 159 bus as if a saltwater crocodile had calmly got on!
Re: So proud of Holly Well done Holly & what a great experience for her....now you just need her to carry the shopping home ;D ;D
Re: So proud of Holly When she's old enough you should train her to carry dog panniers (you can buy them) or even pull a little cart. I taught my first Lab to pull a cart that I made out of a large plastic tub and we even got the shopping in it a couple of times. It didn't have good wheels though and created a lot of 'road noise'. No pics, unfortunately.
Re: So proud of Holly We have a special task for Holly when she's bigger. I fly model rockets for a hobby. The rockets return to earth under a parachute and sometimes drift with the wind. Occasionally they drop into crops or moorland and get lost, so a dog that can find a downed rocket could be very useful.
