Home training Day 1

This was written on Monday April 11th

When we got back yesterday and after lunch, I took Maya out using the borrowed choker and short lead we’d bought a little while ago. This is something we had got right, that being using a short lead for training and not a long one wrapped round our hands. All that had done for us was cause discomfort, some chaffing and a couple of minute cuts from the fabric of the lead. Maya was so good, the walk was a pleasure and when Hubby took her out later in the evening, that too was an excellent walk.
Not so this morning.

Forever confident, we decided to drive into town to get a choker from the pet shop, then Hubby was going to walk Maya back along the prom while I drove home and walked Kela. This sounded feasible and practical, but by the time I’d walked Kela, Hubby was still not home and I was more than a little anxious.
I decided to walk towards the park as this is where they would be coming out, but as I got to the end of our drive, they were walking up the road. Hubby looked drained. Maya was behaving but he’d had to keep stopping. As soon as he saw me, he made her sit, then told her to ‘Find Mum’. One tornado of GSD fur came flying towards me, so lots of fuss and praise. Recall was beginning.

Hubby said it had been a hard walk because of so many distractions, though when there was no-one about, she was very good. However, the short lead we have is too short and the poor love was being throttled instead of checked as he walked her. Luckily, we have a variety of leads, so it was a case of finding one suitable and trying again.
We’d kept just one of Maggie’s leads so used that and I was able to hold her as I had on Graham’s lead yesterday. I walked her up the road, but it turned out to still be too short as the slip link on the choker was on the top of her body, not hanging down as it should, so the walk wasn’t very long and we came home.
The red lead that came with her collar wasn’t much longer and the lead Hubby had made up was way too long. The two slip training leads we’d bought though were a good length, and Hubby was able to remove the slip link on one and replace it with a proper bolt clasp. I shall be trying that out this afternoon.

We are making a list of things to ask when we go to our next class, which at the moment is mainly distractions. Leaves, seaweed, feathers, birds, tin cans, wrappers, not to mention other dogs and she’s lunging to pounce. We know it’s because she’s a puppy and wants to play or investigate, but that will come later and we shall encourage her curiosity just as we did with Maggie, bless her.

Advertisement