Formal Training Class - Week Five

As we were waiting for the instructor to arrive, once again, Ellie was accosted by the Ridgeback dog, which attends the same class. It isn't strictly an aggressive dog, though that depends on how you define aggressive of course, but it is most certainly out of control. Neither of its two owners are able to place any degree of control over it. You would think that, knowing this, the owners would take greater care, but no. Once again, we ended up with their dog running around us and entangling leashes. It's very annoying, because the owners should take more care.

After the usual warm-ups of sit-stay and down-stay, we introduced a new behaviour, having the dog walk around an object. In this case, a road traffic cone. Again, I have to say, Ellie just instantly grasped the concept and had no problems with it. I can't imagine why, because we haven't done this with her before.

We then practised the "go to bed" command. This was incredibly easy for Ellie, as we've actually been practising this for a few days at home now too. Though it didn't help that Christina gave us a sand coloured blanket on a sand floor! :)

Christina, the instructor, mentioned that Anna, the instructor for the previous puppy training course we attended, had been asking how we were getting on. Christina mentioned that we're top of the class. Yay for Ellie!

Christina then reminded Jan that the post for a training volunteer was still open for her, and she was eager for Jan to fill it, as they have a very busy year ahead, with demonstrations and exhibitions. Jan will be filling the post after Christmas.

As is usual, we finished off with some agility! Yay! Ellie loves her agility. As per usual, the loved the tunnel work and the jumps. This week however, the dogs had to jump onto a table after leaving the weave poles, and lay down on it.

Again, Ellie instinctively seemed to know what was needed of her, and needed very little prompting at all. We can't explain why this is, and if we could, we'd bottle it and sell it. It's like having a magic dog!

It was nice to hear Christina telling the other dog owners how much effort and hard work Ellie was doing at home between classes. I guess that means we're getting it right.

As always, we're especially proud of her, and thank our lucky stars that we found her. We were and are incredibly lucky.