Penelope
23rd July 2009, 21:52
Last night, Harriet took her test for the gold good citizen award.
Last week, she did everything perfectly (as did all the other dogs in the class)
Last night..... well, just picture the scene.
What she is supposed to do is wait whilst I walk away from her, I turn a corner and call her to heel and then walk round the hall in a large square meeting another dog and walk them "dog to dog" whilst Harriet is supposed to ignore the other dog.
What actually happened -
I put her in the sit, and told her to wait.
I walked away and got to the corner, where I turned and called her to heel.
She galloped to me, whizzed straight past me and out to visit all the people who were watching the test. She went to have a chat with all her doggie friends who were waiting to do their tests, the ladies who run the tea stall and the other trainers who were waiting to come into the main part of the hall...... whilst all the time, I kept walking and calling her, and calling her, and calling her.
She finally came racing back to me - and proceeded to do the "wall of death" around the rest of the hall, bouncing off chairs, off people, off anything that wasn't nailed down. :014::058::058:
By now, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, but eventually she came back to me and finished the exercise perfectly.:059:
The worst thing was, she did EVERYTHING else perfectly - even the 2 minute down stay followed by relaxed isolation when we had to leave the hall with the dogs taking the test staying in their down positions.
She even did her Stop the dog (which we have really struggled to achieve!)
and all this after just 10 weeks of half hour classes.:058:
So, we failed!!!!
The only saving grace was that for various reasons, the rest of the class also all failed so at least it wasn't only us.
Looking back, it was actually quite funny but at the time:058::058::058::058::058:
Still she is not doing that badly considering she is only 14 months old.
Last week, she did everything perfectly (as did all the other dogs in the class)
Last night..... well, just picture the scene.
What she is supposed to do is wait whilst I walk away from her, I turn a corner and call her to heel and then walk round the hall in a large square meeting another dog and walk them "dog to dog" whilst Harriet is supposed to ignore the other dog.
What actually happened -
I put her in the sit, and told her to wait.
I walked away and got to the corner, where I turned and called her to heel.
She galloped to me, whizzed straight past me and out to visit all the people who were watching the test. She went to have a chat with all her doggie friends who were waiting to do their tests, the ladies who run the tea stall and the other trainers who were waiting to come into the main part of the hall...... whilst all the time, I kept walking and calling her, and calling her, and calling her.
She finally came racing back to me - and proceeded to do the "wall of death" around the rest of the hall, bouncing off chairs, off people, off anything that wasn't nailed down. :014::058::058:
By now, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, but eventually she came back to me and finished the exercise perfectly.:059:
The worst thing was, she did EVERYTHING else perfectly - even the 2 minute down stay followed by relaxed isolation when we had to leave the hall with the dogs taking the test staying in their down positions.
She even did her Stop the dog (which we have really struggled to achieve!)
and all this after just 10 weeks of half hour classes.:058:
So, we failed!!!!
The only saving grace was that for various reasons, the rest of the class also all failed so at least it wasn't only us.
Looking back, it was actually quite funny but at the time:058::058::058::058::058:
Still she is not doing that badly considering she is only 14 months old.