Well done, Cain, bless him x

Gelert was a star today. Off lead surrounded by other dogs, cyclists, joggers and kids and he was really focussed on me (and bally lol). He did go deaf when he saw a golden retriever but nine out of ten isn't bad - amazing progress for Gel. He also played really gently with an eighteen week old little terrier thing (who approached us and not the other way around - again, huge progress!) which was lovely He wasn't off lead the entire walk, I thought it best to keep him on on the busy, narrow pathways but on the fields he ignored all sorts including people playing cricket and someone practising their golf.
He still finds people sitting on the ground fascinating, he did zoom over to a couple on the grass so that needs work.

Sorry for the brag, I know this is pretty standard stuff but considering how into everything he generally is it was so nice to be able to let him off lead somewhere busy and have him (mostly) behave.

Aww, way to go Gelert Sounds like he was really attentive and well behaved! Well done

Can I just take a minute to brag about my lil' Lily Bug please

I'm also a member of a Cocker forum and we had a meet up at Bolton Abbey today, there was about 10 Cockers and Poppy (she was made an honorary one for the day )

Lily was the youngest dog there at 5 months and her recall was brilliant, not once did she fail me - we've been working on the recall and sit facing me and apart from adding a bouncing flip off my legs when she got to me at full speed she was perfect

I was so proud of her especially as there were other adult Cockers there on long lines as their recall was non existent

She's such a little star

P.s. Poppy did really well too once I got her out of the water

Had a nice walk with Polo today. We were approaching some people with two dogs a golden retriever and a crossbreed. The dogs were roughhousing a bit so I did a 45 degree body swerve but the golden decided to come over to Polo. His tail went up and he poked the dog but it took no notice and went into a playbow and he was happy with that.

Next was a woman with two collies coming directly towards us. Polo looked tense and both collies went into a crouch. Did another 45 degree bodyswerve but to no avail. The younger collie charged at Polo snapping its teeth. Polo dealt with it marvellously. He gave a low growl and sort of pounced at it to tell it off and this dog was giving him a bit of grief but he didn't get into a fight about it and left it at that and came away with me as the other dog's owner told her dog off. (Bit late but still.)

All this is actually an achievement for Polo as he is not just going straight off the deep end into attack.

Well done Lily for such good recall....wait till she hits her teen though! Kidding

Good job Polo, with restraint like that you'll be able to meet Cain soon

Cain made friends with the neighbours today. Cain a bit of a so and so about boundaries around the house, must be the shepherd in him. He can get quite barky around the front windows, door and garden fences when he's in that sort of mood. Well today was too exciting for him and the neighbours are suddenly (after 6 months inside for winter) using their gardens again, a real novelty for Cain.

I need to ask my neighbour something so I shouted over the 6 foot fence. He popped his head over and Cain flew at the fence barking. I called Cain off and the neighbour went and got a mini step ladder firstly, while we were chatting, I managed to verbally control Cain and stop him going near the fence again....an achievement in himself. Further, I decided to get some biscuits for the neighbour to toss at Cain. He asked Cain to sit, Cain did and neighbour threw a treat. Then his little four year old girl popped up to say hello. It was so cute watching her say "Scooby Doo, Sit!" and watching Cain sit nicely as she asked then her throwing him treats so sweet. And he's never once reacted to the little girl. I've rarely risk him around kids, but Cain seems to like them.

Anyway, it was just a bit of a breakthrough and hopefully summer will be quieter once he's made friends with the neighbours. I just found it very funny that Cain was willing to take commands from a pair of floating heads that he'd been barking at earlier. I guess it's true, the way to a mans heart really IS through his stomach

Way To Go Cain.:d

Good boy Cain Amazing what a few biscuits can achieve.

Well done Cain.

Probably won't be celebrating later as we had a rough night with lots of pacing and whining on and off but the dogs have been left long days this week as OH is away with work for a few days (just pee breaks midday) so I'd not expected Kiki to be too good when left - especially as we seem to have had a rough couple of weeks with worse behaviour than we've had for a while.
But Monday we just had 5 minutes of barking and spinning, an hour after I left, and sleeping/calm behaviour the rest of the day. Even better, yesterday we had absolutely no barking at all! A little unsettled pacing in the morning but she chilled out and slept most of the day yesterday too. I really needed a couple of good days after the last week or so, the constant battle and setbacks is really getting to me and after nearly 6 months of dealing with it, I'm getting sick of this SA business. I know it's really not helped by me working fulltime but it's so frustrating when she was previously fine to be left, now having an invisible ball and chain tying us to the house in the evenings or weekends. But days like these two give me a bit of hope that we can get there, eventually!

I'm hoping last night's whining isn't going to put her on edge and have her barking today, she's done it before when OH has been away overnight and she spent the evening at my nan's as I had to go to evening class for a few hours, so a little unsettling for her. If anything, I'm hoping that a bit of a restless night and this morning's walk will knacker her out and get her to sleep all day!

Fingers crossed!