Pirate loves his puppy, Andiamo, more today than ever. Journey does too!
Yesterday was rainy and kind of boring for a certain puppy by the name of Andiamo. In the afternoon, while Pirate and Journey were relaxing to the soft rain sounds and the drowsy weather, I decided to take Andi to watch an agility trial that was going on in town this weekend. It was one of Journey and my favorites, so I did not tell him about it.
Andi and I just went out on our own. He is so well behaved and such a pleasure to take places. I am glad Journey has reached a point in his recovery that I can do a little more with Andiamo. New experiences are so important for him to have, especially while he is young and when he can have my full attention. Puppies benefit so much from carefully guided experiences and lessons on how to respond to various new input.
The fairgrounds is only a few miles from our home and the equestrian barn is easy to access. We walked into the CPE Agility Trial and it was so good to see so many old friends again. It has been months since I have been to a trial; ever since I first discovered Journey's hurt knee. Journey has months more recovery time before we know if he will be able to do agility. Fortunately we have Pirate, who is a wonderful companion for Journey when I take Andi out alone.
Andiamo did well with many greetings and all the attention. Some of the greetings were rather startling to him, as they came from friends of Journey, who thought it was him. When Andi looked nervous from a 'too familiar' approach, I suggested that he might want to shake hands. He enjoys that and he ended up making friends with dozens of people he did not know (or remember). For anyone who is not familiar with agility, spectator dogs are allowed if they are well behaved and not aggressive. The choice of allowing greetings is left to the owners and never done without permission. Since the sport is done off-leash, it is essential that the performers be well mannered and well trained. It is a good place to take a young dog for experience. I do not allow my dogs to get in another dogs face. Greetings must be agreed to by both dog parents. My dogs do not assume they can just stick their nose in another dogs face. Even Andi already knows he may, or may not, be able to greet a new dog. He waits for an invitation from me. The greeting is cautious, does not involve any feet, and unless play-bows are offered from both greeters, it does not last a long time. Should either dog utter any growl or warning sound, the greeting is over and you move your dog away from the other dog, calmly, but immediately. Of course both dogs are on leash so that you have control, should the greeting go south.
Andi is 17 months old and he has all this information down now. He has been to many classes and met many dogs. Neither of us like unfriendly dogs and he knows I have his back. He trusts me to direct him only to nice dogs. When I allow him to greet it is usually because I know the dog, or at least I know the owner and how they raise their dogs. I never just "trust" someone who says "my dog is nice". I watch all body language. It is probably my most important rule in dog interaction. I do not want my dog to have a bad experience, ever. The psychological damage done from a bad experience can last a lifetime. I know people who have spent thousands of dollars with trainers, trying to undo bad experiences. I find it much easier to avoid them in the first place. If I see bad body language signs from the other dog, we pass, on greeting that dog. I can just say my dog is feeling too nervous right now, or whatever. There are other times, other dogs that are nicer and that I will feel better about allowing Andi to meet. I don't make a big deal over it to Andi, I just turn and walk in a different direction with him and possibly give him a treat if he appears to need redirection.
All the above information is leading up to a very unusual experience we had yesterday. It was a first. A friend was there, who had met Andi for the first time since he was a little guy. A little later, she was passing by with her adult male Border Collie and because she is a responsible dog owner, she told me he was not always receptive to puppies. I thanked her and moved away from his crate area. Later, she offered to let Andi meet one of her adult female Border Collies, who was very friendly. This was a dog I knew, and she adored Journey. She moved toward Andi and after he checked with me, he moved toward her to greet. She was wiggling all over and very happy to greet. (She may have thought he was Journey). Anyway in a split second she was squealing at the top of her lungs, still wiggling like crazy. Andi looked stunned! He had not touched her. My friend told everyone in the vicinity that Andi had not touched her, "that is just what she does when she really likes a dog and gets that excited about meeting it." Since Andi was considerably larger than she was, I was afraid someone might think he had hurt her. Anyway, all was well, but the event left Andi very confused. He just stood next to me with his ears out to the sides, which I have never seen him do before. People near by were quick to pet him and sort of change the subject for him. He was fine, he was just very startled as he had never experienced anything like that.
We walked around and watched the events. Now that Andi is going to Agility classes, he is very interested in watching the dogs do the courses. He watched every move they made. He is really a watcher. He learns a lot that way. He watched Pirate do rally in our class on Saturday. Andi went out there and did so well on his first try at rally, after watching his brother do his turn. I have found that several of my white shepherds seem to learn best of all by watching first. Both Spirit and a friend's Labrador learned to memorize the agility courses by watching me and my friend walk the courses. That was in the days when you could tie your dog to the fence while you were walking the course. Spirit never took his eyes off of me while I was walking. When it was our turn I began to notice that he knew the course. My friend and I compared notes and realized that is what our dogs were doing. One time a woman who was standing next to Spirit told me she had inadvertently stepped in front of him while he was watching me and he had jerked his head to one side, as she was blocking his view. It was really funny and amazing how they could memorize the course from watching us walk it.
I am not sure about Quest. He may well have watched me too. I just don't recall that as much because by the time he got good at agility, people were no longer allowed to tie their dogs to the fences. Pirate learns almost everything from watching. He opens latches on doors, gates, and even fishing tackle boxes. I know Journey opens gates, but I do not recall him opening a lot of other things. He can open zippers on soft crates, but I taught him not to do it.
Andi is really good at it though. He opens trash cans with the foot pedal. I store their dog food bags in them, so he had incentive to learn. He is the first to learn that, as far as I know. When we do nose work most of the dogs walk around the floor sniffing the boxes to find where the scent object is hidden. All the dogs in Andi's beginners class did that, just as they were supposed to do. Then I started bringing Pirate to class and he had a little more experience at nose work. He would walk out on the course and put his nose up and sniff the air for the direction/location of the scent. As soon as he caught the scent, he would walk directly to the spot. He seldom even put his nose in a box. He knew what he was doing. Andi watched him and he also began raising his nose and scenting the air to locate the direction. Andi does still sniff the boxes sometimes though. It is interesting. I have mis-directed my dogs sometimes when they are doing nose work. Once the scent was in a magnetized, small container. The instructor had placed it on a metal upright coat stand, which was located on a carpet strip. Both of my dogs prefer sniffing carpets to sniffing bare floors. Andi often heads to the carpet, especially if the class before us had left dog scents on the carpet. In this case, the coat stand was on the carpet and that was where the scent was. I didn't know, and I finally got irritated that he was continually heading for the carpet. The instructor finally told me the scent was on the coat stand. (Bad mom!). Very important to be aware of what your dog is telling you.
Well, we are due to leave for agility class in a few minutes. It is going to be a rainy drive, but not too bad. It is all highway driving so we don't have to worry about halloween kids on the road.
Happy Halloween everyone!
