We didn’t have time this weekend to write a post to mark a full week with Tilley. She has been good as gold and Peli has done some splendid work with her. I walked her for 15 minutes one night with a loose lead and no pulling at all. It’s not her natural walking state, shall we say, and it’s taken a lot of patience (using Victoria Stilwell’s ‘reverse direction’ technique) to get to this point!
The bin men came and went without any noise from Tilley, we even had someone knock on the door and she didn’t bark. Though when the postman did his drop she had something to say. Dogs never change!
A normal day in the dog house, I get up around 4-5 in the morning depending on what time we put her to bed, just to see if she needs a leak. We get up again at 7.30 – 8 am and immediately take her for a walk. Our morning walks are rather chaotic – she understandably has a lot of energy in the morning after a night in her crate! Then we chill a bit with some gentle training – sits and downs and stays and a game of ‘ping-pong puppy’ which allows us to practise her ‘recall’. Then feeding time at the zoo is noisy because we hide her kibble in various toys and bottles, so that she has to work for the food. She loves this, and her tail never stops wagging as she hunts out the grub! It also exhausts her and she tends to have a good long nap after food.
Sorry for the lack of photos and quality, just got so into it that I forgot and when remembered only had a phone camera at a hand.
Just before 10am I leave for work and Peli has her for the day. Peli’s well tired when I get home and Tilley is still happy to play more! She gets training walks, play sessions and quick bursts of training throughout the day, interspersed with lots of dozing, depending on what Peli’s schedule is. When I get home at 6pm Peli shows me the new tricks and a run down of the ‘day at school’. đŸ™‚
While Peli cooks I check the internet (to see if it is broken) and since we don’t have desks yet I sit on the floor. I usually then have a cuddly and rather tired Tilley plonked on my lap, half on me and the other half on both sides of me, most uncomfortable but she snores away and is generally affectionate and adorable!
On Saturday we took her to a local reservoir for a walk. Getting her in to the car was a bit tricky as she isn’t that keen. The idea was to get her to get used to the car and the journey with small ones at first, so she hopefully would learn that the car would mean a fun walk at the end. Sadly the five minute drive ended with her emptying her guts (again) in her crate. We’re going to have to work on this!
All the training that Peli put in was right out the window since this was new ground to be explored. Tilley saw her first rams, met seven other dogs and three kids covered in great smelling candy.
She did brilliantly when she saw the rams and got within 3 metres, OK she was pulling like a mad thing and was keen to get closer to them, but there was no barking or growling or even herding. The same was with the other dogs though she went extra mad when the other dogs were off lead. The three little girls got to pet her and feed her treats, though she was more interested in licking their candy-covered fingers. She’s definitely a gentle soul who likes meeting new people.
Getting her back in the car was hard work and we had to part-lift her in. She was rather glad to get out when we got home, but went into the crate to sleep as we went shopping for more dog food.
You can’t go into a super pet store and only go out with dog food, we came home with a Kong Wobbler for to play with. She was nicely tired for the rest of the day after she had food from the Kong.
The next day she was very good meeting and playing with two new friends (Peli’s sister and her partner), with next-to-no jumping. (Though she did try to take some cake from a plate on the table, of course you see how far you can push it when guests are around, especially when the cake in question is so delicious!)