You can never become complacent when training your puppy. One minute they get promoted to the next class and the next they won’t take a blind bit of notice of anything you tell them. Of course Wilma knows how to sit and at home she will do a stay now for a whole minute. However in her Tuesday night class she was taken with a spirit of non-cooperation. This is the class where she has previously had rounds of applause. This week she was trying for the entertainment vote. She kept going up to everyone except our Mistress to see if they were offering better treats than our Mistress was. In our Mistress’s words ‘she was showing no manners whatsoever’. Oh she did eventually pass every activity they were doing, but not before making our Mistress’s life as difficult as possible. She is now under a stricter training regime and is doing more work with distractions. It’s easy to do things in the peace of the office setting. She is beginning to get the meaning of being sent to her bed, in a good way, not as a punishment. She’s learning to balance a treat on her nose too, but that requires a lot of concentration.
On the plus side, she and Shadow had a lovely walk together and for the first time our Mistress tried using the double lead with them. It was originally bought for Megan and Shadow but didn’t work out as they would always argue if they were that close to each other. That’s not the case with Wilma and Shadow and they seem to have a very amicable time. Wilma is already taller than Shadow and our Mistress says if she gets much taller then the double lead will be no good as it’s awkward on harnesses of different heights. She said she might try it on their collars to see how that goes, instead. The fact that our Mistress had a hand free to video them tells you how well it went!
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealAlfieDog/videos/vb.241867412543568/1046793935384241/?type=3&theater
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Oh, dear Alfie, I know very well this spirit of non-cooperation! When I was at Wilma’s age and two, three months older my mistress considered several times to leave me at a motorway service area or to send me to the moon. Of course she really would do that in no case, but it was a hard time for her. I was such a lovely little thing, but e.g. when she called me back during a free walk I looked at her, because of course I heard her calling, but then turned in the opposite direction and ran away over the wide mountain pastures of my (and Wilma’s) homeland in Switzerland. Being a model pupil (I really loved my classes) and having a strong desire of freedom are not mutually exclusive. As we say in Switzerland: durehebe! – Hold out, Alfie!
Dear Susi
Oh she’s lovely really. She takes good care of me and I appreciate that. Don’t tell the others, but I rather like having her around.
Alfie