Ellie attended the second week of the new formal training season last Tuesday. It wasn't her best week, and her nerves got the better of her a little. Given that, Christina, the course instructor has suggested to Jan that she move her to the Gold class. Not because she's at a Gold standard, but because the dogs in that class are a little less intimidating for Ellie, than the two Great Danes, a Rottie, and a Mastiff. I don't personally mind this, as long as the learning pace is still within Ellie's reach. Owning a timid dog can be very challenging at times!
However, while there, she did do the following:
We then were presented with four different things to do.
1. Send away around a traffic cone. Perfect!
2. Stand on a low step, or sit on it, or balance on it with two paws. Jan sent her away to the step and she sat right on it first time.
3. Pick up an object and place it in a bucket. Ellie has been doing this trick on and off for quite sometime now, and so she remembered it. She happily placed the ball into a bucket.
4 Send away into the centre of a hula-hoop or jump through the hoop. Jan started to teach Ellie to jump through the hoop and although they only managed it a few inches from the floor and it looked like she was just walking through it, she did it without too much fuss.
In other news, it was a dark day in the Ellie household on Saturday. Yes, dear readers, Jan took Ellie to a heel-work to music class. I will save my comments on heel-work to music for another post.
After that however, Jan attended her first meeting as a volunteer at the training class. She came back particularly enthused and, with typical Jan enthusiasm, has put herself forward to work help out in difference aspects of the classes and related activities.
Overall, Ellie is in a mixed mood at the moment. My spider sense tells me that she may come into season soon, but it's been telling me that for a couple of weeks now. She seems a little "down" for want of a better description, and not her usual bubbly self. She is licking herself a lot more, and, certainly last week at least, kept looking for "nesting" places to curl up under, such as the table. This is very unusual for Ellie. On the other hand, she may just be growing up and becoming all hormonal. Time will tell.
Behaviour-wise, she's still the perfect dog. Still hasn't chewed a single thing that doesn't belong to her, still happy to train, and still the most loving dog that you could hope to know. But oh, that timid nature....
It also occurred to me that she's going to be eight months old in a few days. Wow, that went quickly.
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