Mouse, meet Beach!

I don't particularly like the beach in summer. The sand burns your feet and you have to share with everyone else who thought visiting the water was a good idea. As we are heading in to winter, and half of Perth's population seems to be away due to the magical combination of public holidays and school holidays, we decided that it would be a good idea to try Mouse at the beach again.

ooooo yeah

Mouse has been to the beach a few times. When we took her down to Esperance she was on leash only, much to her frustration. We had only just adopted her and I didn't trust her to stay with the 'pack'. The last time we took her to the beach I let her off leash a couple of times, but they were both only short periods, as she immediately sprinted up to people and other dogs and then harrassed them by running tight circles around them. People don't like being tripped over by strange dogs. I retrieved her and she went back on the leash.

This time we saw a huge improvement! She did scare a big standard-poodle cross type dog but she left him alone when I asked her to. She didn't try to head up into the dunes, and she mainly just played with Bender and Barbie.

Mouse making sure she doesn't outrun Bender by too much

I recalled her to me a few times, and she was great. The first recall we did, I said her name and when she looked at me I started mumbling praise. She then started walking towards me and I praised her louder. She broke into a sprint, aimed right at my legs, and I told her to slow down. She came to a complete stop and a sit right in front of me. It was beautiful. Of course she was rewarded with her favorite treat - chunks of cheddar cheese.

A quick game of chasey is always fun!

Barbie is just perfect off leash at the beach now. She mainly just wanders along just behind me, and when she does zoomies she tends to do tight circles around me rather than disappearing down the beach, like she used to. I believe Mouse will be just as perfect some time in the near future.

crazy Bender causing trouble!

The only time Mouse got into trouble was when Bender spotted a lady throwing a ball for her dog. He took off, and Mouse took off after him. Nic tried to tell Bender to stop but he was using his selective hearing. I said Mouse's name once, and she stopped for a while and looked at me as I walked towards her, but I took too long and she turned tail to join Bender running around the lady with the ball. I don't think the lady would have minded, but Bender got her dog's ball and wouldn't give it back. I had to fish it out of his mouth for her and put him on the leash. If only Bender would play fair.

having the time of her life! 

I'm looking forward to many more future beach visits with the hounds - there are a few other dog beaches I would like to visit in the next few months. I expect there will be plenty more beach pictures to come!

Resisting the chase!

There is a lady who lives nearby who has two little brown Italian Greyhounds, or iggies. I have seen them around, and N has met them up close because their human is a massage therapist who N went to maybe a month ago.

Anyway, we were out on our nightly walk, and I saw a woman walking towards us with a dog on the leash. I told N to take Bender to the other side of the road as we are working on his leash reactivity. I was looking across at them when I saw a small, brown shape flying across the road towards them at high speed. This brown shape was barking it's little fool head off. I told N to look out, but the high speed dog turned and headed for Barbie. I realised then that he was an Iggie. He demonstrated amazing agility by sprinting towards Barbie, twisting in the air, landing facing the other direction and taking off again. His owner was yelling his name over and over but he wouldn't listen. He was just darting around all over the place, on and off the road. Barbie was completely non-plussed. She just stood calmly by my side. I was actually shocked that she didn't try to chase him at all. She didn't even tell him off for saying nasty things.

I was just worried he would run onto the road, and I could see a car coming, so Barbie and I moved as far away from the street as possible. By the time his owner arrived, with the other Iggie on a leash, he had calmed down and was sniffing Barbie's butt. She ignored him completely.

Now, I let Barbie off leash in safe locations, like at the beach and in fenced dog park areas, but I would never dream of walking her off leash in the suburbs. I really have to question the sanity of someone who would let a little sighthound like that, who clearly doesn't like other dogs, off the leash when cars are an everpresent danger.

Just 5 minutes before, walking down the same road, we saw a high powered car speeding down the street, doing at least 80kph and being chased by an underpowered Police car. If that car had been heading towards us, the Iggie's chances of coming out of it unscathed would have been much, much smaller.

Yes, yes, Bender is good to chase!

I just can not get over how good Barbie was. She did not show any signs of wanting to chase this very fast, small dog which hopped and twisted around in the air like a bunny rabbit!

Bender the Tracker...

Trackwest had an open day today, and I took Bender along (with a bit of encouragement from Desma) to see how he would go. As it was just me, I laid the scent trails, and Desma and the other instructor handled Bender. Bender did awesome! He was fired up and he followed the scent well. It is so easy to boost his energy up that there really wasn't anything special I did. I just took his tyre and rope and played tug o war with him at the end.

We put the dogs away and had morning tea together. The vibe of the club is really lovely. There isn't any competition between members - people are just in it to learn how to read their dogs really. All of the dogs can track. Bender has a great attitude for it. At morning tea our instructor said that there were a couple of dogs in her group that could get their TD title in one season if we were committed to it. Bender was one of them.

Desma was really impressed with how he went, and kept comparing him to her dog Blake. Blake is a bully breed like Bender so they have some shared genetic heritage and a similar mindset. High energy, single minded and stubborn. I asked what Blake was like when he was younger - just like Bender, hyper. And when asked to do something, so enthusiastic. Sometimes too enthusiastic, but for Tracking - it sounds like you can't possibly be too enthusiastic!

One hurdle though is going to be teaching Bender to pick up the scent articles. He has been taught for 5 years he's not allowed to pick up socks and other random bits of clothing, and now I have to teach him it's OK again. May not be easy with Bender considering how he consolidates what he has learned into very solid habits.

When I took Bender out I was very impressed with Barbie and how she handled herself. She did not howl. She merely gave me a pleading look as I left out of the front door. I think it's good that the dogs are used to doing things separately now. They have just accepted that is the way things are.

The cats always get left behind, so the dogs should be used to it too by now. When I got home, Barbie sang a little more than usual and gave Bender the third degree. Bender was pretty tired after doing 4 simple tracks to find me.

I took Barbie out to the river where we met two other greyhounds as soon as we got out of the car. One was a 12 year old lady, blue and white. She was off leash and came trotting over to us straight away. The guy had a black one on a leash - he was the foster so wasn't allowed off leash yet. He didn't have either of them muzzled though. I only muzzle Barbie when I let her off leash at Riverside Gardens so they got to meet each other without dealing with the face cage.

Barbie and the old lady said hello and then Barbie started waddling a bit - she needed to go to the toilet but didn't want to do it with these two greyhounds and their owner so close by, so I took her for a walk on the grass so she could go.

We went down to the water after that, and Barbie sat in it to cool down. I put the muzzle on and took her leash off and she laid down in the water. She did run a little but her recall was immediate and fast. She didn't stray very far away. Then she found a young mastiff x girl to play with. They chased each other around a bit, and even the 12 year old greyhound joined in. The mastiff x had never met a dog faster than her before but she loved it. The chasing ended after their third go at it when they collided a bit too heavily for the mastiff's liking. She was a young 18 month old pup so a little concerned about the impact. They both came back to where we were standing and we had a good yarn about greyhounds and dogs in general.

Her recall was so good today that I called her off chasing another dog! I think she is ready to give agility another go soon too.

I am so committed to my dogs! I can't help it though, I love them so. If I didn't, I don't think I would have them.

A night of training/play in our house

I generally do about 5 to 10 minutes of training every night with the dogs, and then take them on a half hour walk. Tonight on our walk, I spotted a white thing running across the road. I realised it was a dog by it's gait, and it was hassling another pedestrian on the other side of the road. It's owner stormed after it yelling it's name over and over... 'ROXY ROXY ROXY SIT STAY ROXY ROXY!' I realised that it would probably run to us but was hoping that he would get it back under control. He got it back into the park and I thought he would have the sense to put it on a leash. Then I saw it running after someone else in the park, barking and yapping at this person. The owner was yelling at the dog like he was going to kill it. Then it noticed us and came to us. It has a really aggressive demeanour and Barbie was having none of it. She barked at it, and when she did it darted away. I went wide so that if it ran it would only run to the park. Eventually the owner's yelling convinced the dog to move away from us and it zipped back into the park again. I told the guy that he needed to take her someplace with a fence or keep her on the leash. I hope she doesn't end up in a shelter, or worse get killed by a car. He really had no clue.

Barbie got to run offleash quite a bit in the previous 5 days, and I think more off leash time makes her more feisty. We didn't go out at all last night because I was busy doing other things, and she decided that she would just roll around on the carpet talking to try and convince me.

When I get home she now does the same thing as Bender, she goes straight for her toys! Anyway I decided to harness that energy. Who would have thought a greyhound could crawl so fast?



I then bought Bender in for some work. Bender demonstrates his version of 'commando' - Barbie does a great down/stay with distraction (considering how much she loves to commando herself), then Barbie does roll over and Bender does a spin for good measure.