Angel had her first trip to the dog park today. We went to the one I started Shamas at, where they tend to self-moderate who comes in...older dogs go at one time, while younger dogs go earlier in the day.
We went early, with the young dogs so she wouldn't get in trouble for bad manners. Her manners aren't actually as bad as I expected. She was scolded a few times by a shepherd who wanted more space than she was giving him....but she barely noticed. She just ran off for a new playmate.
The group was good--well represented, in terms of breeds and temperament with attentive owners. I got a kick out of one young dog, who kept charging up and shouldering the people by way of greeting.....reminds me of Angel a month ago. Very glad she's grown out of THAT habit. We're working on teaching her not to lean so heavily on us now.
We stayed about 1/2 hour, then spent about another 1/2 hour trying to bring her in. Her recall's still sketchy at best...so I didn't bother trying to call her in. I'd rather catch her than let her practice ignoring recall. So my dad and I placed ourselves near her favorite dog, and the two of us, and the other owner waited for a chance to snag her. This lady had a slip lead, which she quietly slipped over Angel
s head as she came near....a trick I think I'll duplicate. From now on I'm bringing a slip to the park.
Once back at the car, we did treats all around--figure it's good for Angel to learn that coming out of the park leads to treating time.
Dad and I are going to take her out to a field on the horse lunge and work on recall together....stake the lunge into the ground, and call her back and forth until she's coming reliably. I know her mistress is going to want to take her to play, and a good recall's much preferable to catching the puppy lol! Her recall for her mistress is much better than it is for me....I only ever recall her from the backyard. I'm the ruiner of fun.
Which is why I've taken to leashing her to go out. So I don't HAVE to recall her from out back. When I DO let her out off-leash out back, I've been stepping out every few minutes to call her up to the porch for a treat and let her back out....but you can see her trying to decide if she wants to get close enough to take it. SO I give her the treat, and go back inside to let her play again. For bringing her in, I'm saying"time to go inside" rather than "Angel come" In time she'll learn that "Angel come" doesn't mean the end of fun time....
The other thing that happened today...and I'm quite pleased with the outcome....was that the clip n her leash let go. for about 8 feet she wandered off-leash. I pretended she was still leashed---simply stopped, put my hand out for "touch" and called her over. Then snapped the lead back on. Lucky she didn't notice the lead let go, we'd have been chasing her down for a good 45 minutes! That's the benefit to me having used the Flexi with her---I routinely give her "free" command and let her have her head, so that 8feet was easily within her normal "free" space.
I've been walking her either on the headcollar when I'm near roads, or on the front harness near/in fields. When we hit open space, I give her "free" and let her bound around like a puppy for a few minutes before drawing her back to walk beside me.
So I'm on the hunt for leads with a good Carabiner connecter now.....Shamas' leads are getting old and worn too, so I'll probably buy a few and replace all the leads in the house
www.myhartdog-academy.co.uk
