Back to school

Back to school, originally uploaded by Poodlematic.

After all the recent sickness, holidays and girly issues we are back to training today.

Mia is getting much better at being near other dogs but she still managed to have a go at a little white scotty doglet and made two lady humutts paranoid their dogs were next!

We are learning to 'high 5'. I am not sure what that is but I do get treats when my pet human says those words and puts my paw on his.

Babette

Back to clicker school

My mom turned into the farm driveway and I knew I was going to meet some new friends and we did some training but I was too excited to perform like a circus Poodle and all I did was run around and sniff everywhere and dominate other dogs and I had lots of fun. Mia

Today we learned to 'wait'

This is a photo of some of our classmates and their humutts at this evening's session at Petiket.

We got to sniff each other today and there is a young Boerboel that thinks I am the best thing since self-opening pet food but I overheard his owner saying something about 'having him done on Thursday'. I hope it's a lot of fun, whatever it is!

Babette

Learning to 'heel'

I am just loving this training stuff. This week we've been learning 'heel' and 'down'. I am already familiar with the 'down' command as my humutt had taught me this when I was much younger. However, to re-learn it with the funny metallic click and then get a treat, over and over again. Such joy! Sometimes I get all excited when I see the funny little blue plastic thing.

The 'heel' command is somewhat more challenging as there is so much out and about to keep my attention but somehow when I hear the word I tend to slow down and then that magic sound quickly followed by a treat. I am sooooo looking forward to Tuesday's training. Not having had a chance to chat to Mia today I can only assume that she's looking forward to it as much as I am.

Babette

Clicks = Treats

Mia and I got taken to a place where we met some new friends and we got yummy treats every time this funny clicking noise happens. There is some relationship between something we do, the noise and the treat. Whatever, it was such a fun time!

This is Mia showing her humutt mom that she is capable of ignoring other dogs when she is asked to 'kyk'. 

There are two big boy dogs that we are keen to check out and some small doglets that are interesting too. See you all next Tuesday!

Babette

'Point, point'

Our human that lives in Bantry Bay was so disappointed that the walking human didn't take a photo of us 'pointing' at that cat the other day. So, although not quite the same, Mia has kindly agreed to demo Poodle Pointing on some test subjects that are readily available and relatively used to us. Bear in mind that as we are not able to life our front legs, the 'point' follows the direction of our nose and stare.

This is the Seated Point. This indicates interest and a desire to see something happen - whenever. Note the flying yellow thing is caged and thus, not providing much interest in the way of movement potential.

This is the Standing Point. This shows intense interest and a readiness to interact or chase before anyone knows what is going on. Note that the C.A.T is lying down (behind the flower pot and pretending to sleep) but is able to move freely in any direction, including up or down.