Training the Trainers

I've mentioned this on Twitter and Facebook, but thought I'd expand a bit here. On Saturday we were down in Forfar being guinea pigs for the Kennel Club testing its trainers - there are three levels for dogs to earn - Bronze, Silver & Gold. As regulars will know, Maddie passed her Bronze a few months back and we're supposed to be working on Silver. Actually I think she could pass it, she has a good sense of occasion and tends to behave impeccably in the training environment. It's out of the training environment she misbehaves! (She "rescued" something else from the counter top last night - a bag of onions. What she was planning on doing with them I don't know - they were, unsurprisingly, untouched when I rescued them back this morning)

So we headed off with both in the back - I have to train Murphy at the same time as Maddie otherwise he barks and she gets distracted, so I figured as long as Richard used the correct words and signals he'd be fine. Luckily they need dogs to get it wrong so the trainers can show the examiners they wouldn't pass just anyone!

We were both outside with another person-and-dog-combo, pretending to cross busy roads (the roads weren't pretend, there was just no traffic) and pass other dogs without mugging them. I was watching; Murphy & Richard were doing well. Then (we were at the Guide Dog Centre, did I mention that?) the trainee Guide Dogs got let out into their runs for their morning exercise. Their runs are round the outside of the building, either side of the main entrance where we all were - and Murphy clearly thought his time was up and he was getting put into kennels. His backside hit the pavement and he refused to go any further. There followed a severe tug-of-war with his (brand new) lead (& Richard on the end of it), during which he rapidly chewed through it. It's not unknown for him to grab a hold of his lead and hold onto it if he thinks he's not going anywhere fast enough but he rarely chews through it unless upset so that was the end of his involvement in the day's events.

As a result he got taken round Forfar Loch a couple of times while Maddie performed excellently at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels apart from the "making a dog stop from a distance" event. Well, it's too advanced for her we've only just started on that one. I don't think it counts when she's running towards me and I shout "STOP!" and put out the foot and flat palm to show her - and she duly carries on and finally stops and sits about 2 feet away, looking at me enquiringly - "Is here ok?". Um, not really!