Miracle at O-Town Training

Guess who was chosen as the demo dog for The Down right off the bat last night? Yep—you guessed it! The dog who is NOT wearing her head halter!

Start off class with The Down. “Did we go over the down last week?” Yesssss. “Did everyone practice it?” Many looks of confusion as Nice One turns to me and asks if Big Z and I would demonstrate how to do it. Grab-It Gal, who has returned this week, looks at Nice One with amazement and says, “THEY can do it?!?”  “Oh yeah—I saw them do it last week!” Big Z and I go to center of ring and she sits. I signal for her to stand and then say, “Plotz!” with signal & food to the floor. Bammo—down to the ground she drops in her perfect little position! Grab-It Gal looks shocked. Nice One says, “Did everyone SEE that?!?” and then asked for a repeat performance. No problemo!

Grab-It Gal is now starting to speak nicely to me. Maybe I’m not the ass she thought I was—or I am but maybe I do know a little about this stuff. She came over and made small talk while others were working on the down.

Leave IT game – Oh yeah, our little star has this one down pat. Of course, I remembered that I MUST use three cookies!

We also practiced playing with a toy and then outing for food. Afterwards, the instructors introduced a new thing, The Two-Toy game. Last week we were instructed to bring two toys to class that were alike. Some people did and some people didn’t. However, it would have been easier on everyone had the concept of this game been explained ahead of time. I am the only one who showed up with the toys on a rope. Scored big points for that! Actually, it has nothing to do with scoring points. Hands off squirrel means less holes in fingers. The Big Z LOVED this game so was very happy to show off her tugging and outing skills as she tugged with one squirrel and then outed on command when the other became active. What’s not to like?! If I would have allowed it, The Big Z would have tugged on two squirrels at once!

I use the smaller version of the gutless squirrel. Scarlett has the giant size for Kai. At one point, the Big Z was watching Kai play with his squirrel. She was probably wondering how she could acquire such a giant-size squirrel!  A little while later, Grab-It Gal comes over and says that she noticed my dog becoming fixated on another dog. I assume she meant when she was looking at Kai. I told her no, Big Z was just checking out the sights. She has never given anyone a hard look and wouldn’t have a clue about that sort of thing. She said just so long as I was aware of it. Me, aware of dogs giving a hard look??? Maybe she should have the “hard look” talk to the guy with his growling Aussie that is 10’ away from me.

The best part of the night was The Recall. We waited our turn for the Big Z to be put on a long clothes line so we could practice our long distance recall. Nice One was helping us. I told Nice One to hold her collar and to let her loose when I gave the signal. Yeah, I told her how I wanted it done, rather than her telling me what we’ll be doing. I went to the other side of the ring, gave a little signal to Nice One and said, “HERE!” Big Z shot out of Nice One’s hands like a little rocket! Clothes line goes flying! (Now read this part in a high-pitched voice.) “Ooooo—she got away from me! She sure does that FAST!” “Want to do it again?!” Same thing. Same results. Even Nasty watched! I am not quiet when my little rocket is arriving, nor do I stand still. After that little demo, Nasty started telling other students that they were calling their dogs like dead fish. OK—I’ve never heard that expression before, but I’m sure you get the point.

The only thing the Big Z sucked at last night was heeling. She was way too distracted. First she wanted to outrace Kai and then finally said she was tired and sick of this crap. At one point I had stopped her to get her attention back on me. We happened to stop over near the little dogs (big dogs are segregated from little dogs) and Grab-It Gal comes rushing over. “Watch out for the little dogs! She’s close to the little dogs!” Good grief—she didn’t even notice the stinkin’ little dogs! The Big Z had been eating chicken breast during class. Do you really think she’s going to have a Little Dog for dessert?

However, even though our heeling was far from picture perfect, NOT ONE person got in my face and said that I MUST use a head halter!