Sirens! Oh the terror!

I had a work Christmas function at a house near the beach on Friday, so I got N to bring the dogs, pick me up, and let them loose on the beach. While N was parked out the front a few of my work mates came to see the dogs. Barbie got a lot of pats from one in particular, and when she left, Barbie tried to squirm out the car window to follow her.

Once we got to the beach, Barbie found a Dalmatian who was very happy to run with her, wrestle with her and generally play. Barbie ran big wide loops but the Dalmatian didn't seem to notice that she was faster. The dogs ran for a bit over an hour before we took them home. They certainly enjoyed themselves.

The CGC on Saturday was postponed because the independent assessor pulled out at very close to the last minute and a new assessor could not be found. The test is now in February!

As there was no CGC test, and it was Barbie's gotcha day, we decided to take the dogs to the river for a doggie date with the two mini schnauzers (Sonny & Taco).

Barbie showed a polite interest in them but when she realised they would not chase, she lost interest pretty quickly. She did run a little with a fox terrier type dog. She also bothered a little white dog which wasn't allowed off the lead. I had to shoo her away. After we had been there for a while (and Taco swam properly for the first time), I noticed some smoke rising from a point on the other side of the river. I didn't think too much of it until it started wafting over us. Then the fire engines came, and fire engines mean sirens.

Barbie put her ears back, her tail down, and started at a trot, which built up to a higher speed run. I didn't know where she was going to go, so I followed her. I called her name and she ignored me, so I gave up and kept my eye on her. She ran a wide lap around the area and ran along the car park where we had left the car. Our car was the only one there, but for some reason she didn't recognise it and went straight past it. She then ran to the next car park, where there were many cars, and picked out a shiny black car which looks nothing like either of the cars we own. She commenced jumping up at the driver's side door (I hope not scratching it in the process!) I was close enough to her that I grabbed her pretty quickly. I didn't see any damage done to the car. I now had her by the collar, and needed to go back down to the river side to get Nic, as she had the car keys. The sirens were stopped by then I think, but the smoke was getting thicker. She refused to go closer to the smoke. I got her to trot, and we got within yelling distance. I called Nic over and told her we had to go because Barbie just wanted out. We had been there too long anyway, Bender was overtired and had ingested too much river water while swimming for his ball.

We all got into the car and went to City Farmers to grab more dog and cat food. We met the mini schnauzers there again, but I couldn't spend much time inside as Bender was not feeling well and was likely to puke or poo at any moment. Barbie was fine. As long as we were not near the sirens and smoke, she was quite happy.

Funnily enough, we have been near other types of sirens and if it's an amulance or a cop car she doesn't react. I think fire engine and smoke together are the trigger for her scared reaction. It's going to be a difficult one to work with!

Canine Good Citizen and Separate River Visits

This morning Barbie went to her first Canine Good Citizen class. She is so good sometimes it feels like we are cheating some how. She is quite subdued in class. I am going to have to get her to be a bit more 'up' at agility classes. After coming away from that class, I think I'm going to have to work on getting her jumping out of the car more willingly. We have to open the door, not body block the dog at all (which is going to be a bit hard with the Civic), put the leash on, then the dog is supposed to jump out on command. No treats as lures. It's going to be interesting. I need to use the Civic I think because my car requires a treat bribe to jump out of.

We went to the river after class, and Barbie met a greyhound friend. I let her off the leash and she went for a run. I recalled her, and she was heading back at usual velocity when the other greyhound decided to chase. They ran together quite a way and they were pretty equally matched. Barbie wanted to go again but the other grey had had enough after one chase. Barbie then tried to get a teeny dog to chase her by running past it, and sort of running while playbowing at the same time, dancing around like the clown that she can be.

She wasn't paying me enough heed when I called her so I leashed her and we went for a stroll. We met a Whippet. The Whippet's mother was very interested in Barbie and asked a lot of questions. Barbie really wasn't much bigger than the Whippet!

I bought Barbie home, we rested a little, and then I took Bender down to the river for a doggie date with two mini Schnauzer puppies, Sonny and Tacoma.





Who said the greyhounds get to hog all the 'action shots'?

Tacoma and Sonny were a bit scared of Bender at first.



but then they realised that he was a big softie and wasn't going to eat them.



They were a little confused that they couldn't fit the ball into their little mouths.



They were a little cheeky but I think they enjoyed their first outing to the river!