Well, I've got yet another big achievement to bragg about here - I can't quite believe it myself yet As we were walking back down the side of a big field, along the edge of trees and bushes, where there are hundreds of rabbit holes. By the time we walk along there, I've never seen any rabbits, but this morning, around a big hole there must have been 20 of them all running around in the circle Very strange, and Zena caught sight of them, her little ears pricked up, she was just going to investigate when I called her name, she stopped, turned around and just sauntered back to me Admitted, they weren't exactly running fast, but there were soooo many of them and I honestly thought she'd race over there and I didn't want her going in amongst all those big holes or those horrible burrs, let alone catching one, but she showed NO interest whatsoever, I was far more exciting Now if that had been Georgie, he'd have had at least one of them even at his ripe old age, coz he has in the past. So that's squirrells and rabbits now cracked, just gotta work on those pheasants a bit harder coz she does chase those!!!

Ok, really, what's your secret? You're drugging her, right?! A dog that doesn't chase a gang of 20 rabbits? Not possible! With Cain I don't think rabbit/squirell pie will ever be off the menu! How old is she now, nearly 2? Maybe it's maturity setting in

Nothing major here but a few mini things. Lead walking going well with the new method, he's never walked so well. Did a training walk last night and I managed to get a number of sits, downs and "looks" out of him while on the street, even with strangers around. His attention span seems to be just a tiny bit better. Oh, and he's sort of letting me brush his teeth without too much fuss he's been very settled around the house lately and is barking much MUCH less. We no longer need to leave him locked up in the kitchen at night (he used to bark at all car headlights going by so we shut him in the back to keep him quiet), instead the door is open. He'll lie with me until my mum comes up to bed and then he'll take himself off downstairs to his bed, awww. All little things but it's making him much more of a pleasure to live with. So that's inside sorted, just gotta crack outdoors!

That's really great to hear that Cain is much more settled indoors, I do remember what a nightmare he was for you,. so that really is a great achievement there to have him settled and ignoring those car headlights!

Lol I'm not drugging her honest!!! I just think I've been very, very lucky that I've had her total focus and attention since she was really tiny, and although of course, she's a lot more independent now, she walks on ahead a lot further, at least she's still paying me the attention I deserve, just because she loves me sooooo, I'm sure of it!!

A rabbit lollopped happily past Daisy and Shamus and neither of them reacted. Shamus was trying to flush it out of a bush, not noticing that it had come out the other side
and Daisy was too busy trying to get me to throw her Ballie. She just gave it an evil glance in case it came too close and has designs on her Toy. Ball-obsessed dogs are great!

Of course, that's my little secret too!!! Georgie never really liked a ball, he much prefers running rabbits!

Today's:

We let him off the lead for the first time down the park (it was empty) and I've never seen a dog move as fast! Generally he came back though, had a bit of a sticky moment when two dogs came out of the gloom and he ran off to play chaseys, but he did come back when we called him a couple of times... not sure my nerves will take it though cos he's very much a run around and go bonkers when let loose case!

Ah yes, just remembered the othing I was going to say. Cain was off lead in an empty park having great fun chasing pigeons. One took off bit couldn't get any height, flew for about 30m before crashing to the floor. Realising it was hurt (not due to Cain) I ran after him. I got there and he was sniffing the pigeon with great interest. I told him to Leave It and he did Admittedly I had to tell him three times but ye did listen and come away even though I was standing some distance away. He's never had such a challenging Leave It at a distance before, so I was fairly pleased with him.

Sorry, me again I haven't had much to write on this thread lately as we had a bit of a blip and I was feeling a bit negative. So now we're back on track and I'm focusing on the positive!

I am SOOOOO incredibly pleased with Cain. Last night we went to dog training class for the first time since Christmas and its quite a small hall and sometimes if we get 6 dogs in there, its a bit cramped for Cain's liking and he finds it distracting if the other dogs get too close for comfort. However last night only two other dogs showed up. One he knows and the other not so well. When the one he didn't know showed up, Cain was totally distracted by him, getting hyped and pulling over to it and staring. However after a few mins he settled down, ignored the other dog and worked. He did SO well, he learned how to push a plastic chair around the room with his nose (not a functional behaviour, it was just a training exercise in shaping and Cain had a whale of a time doing it), he did some excellent obedience heelwork including turns, a brilliant down stay for 3 minutes, he started learning how to hold a dumbell for the end of a retrieve, brushed up on his sloppy sits and downs, did some brilliant "looks" while other dogs walked by, and we ended it with some HWTM marching together (he lifts the same paw as I do my foot). Previously he learned to do it in front of me, then he moved to my side and last night we tried it so he was sitting between my legs.....very difficult as I'm short and Cain's huge! It was very funny and a lot of fun. Cain hasn't worked so hard in a long time and I could see by 2/3rds of the way through he was getting so tired, he was really thinking hard. I think having the extra space helped and thus I was much calmer and more relaxed, I haven't enjoyed training class like that in a long time Now if only we can get that level of attention outside in the big wide world.....! I was feeling really positive by the end of training last night. And we're going along to our first "have a go" fun agility class soon. The dog trainer said as long as I was happy for him to wear a blue bandana marking him as a dog "which needed respect and space" and realised that it might be a long time before he can go off lead (no surprise there lol!), then we could go and try it out. It's got to be a good thing, like the reason I take him to training class is to get him to focus on me and ignore other dogs. Agility will help give him exercise, even if on lead, and hopefully re-enforce the working with me even when other dogs are around. I think Cain'll love it - lets just pray for no rain on Sunday or it'll get called off.

Here my first little brag... I've slept in my own bed for the last 2 nights and Freckles has slept in her crate with the door open and not moved all night

Long may it continue

Fantastic Love reading all these new updates on good doglets, it's a real tonic! Yes, Amdanda, do that agility, it'll be great training for that "focus" on you, and lots of fun, we love it!!

Nothing much to report here, except I'm still walking in that busy area and it seems to be paying off. This morning we had a young spaniel come charging up from the rear, Zena greeted it with great enthusiasm and let it have her ball and then they ran off together playing, awwwww, that's what I like to see Then we met the 3 big setters that I'd always put Zena onlead to pass, so I stopped and told the owners about why I always put her onlead, and then all 3 of them came over greeted Zena sooooo nicely, she wasn't scared, her tail was wagging, she was sniffing their faces, so I let her off, she ignored them all and plonked her ball at my feet whilst I chatted on to the owners! They told me there's only a couple of dogs I've got to watch out for over there, two of which are gsd's coz they're guard dogs and although he's very good and keeps them out of everybody's way, they are very intimidating the way they come over and bark at your dogs before he calls them back. We've already experienced that last week though, and Zena just wasn't interested in them, she picked up her ball, and came running back to me, she wasn't going to be intimidated by some big gsd!!!

Onwards and upwards everybody!