Dog Scout Camp!

We are back from Dog Scout Camp #1!  It was wonderful to spend 7 days with only my dogs to worry about, and as I expected, Lottie Moon had a wonderful time.  So many adventures, and yet, so many more in store for us next month when we return!

I was super-busy at this camp, since our Core Staff was short 3 instructors.  I taught my usual Agility classes, but without any assistant, so that alone kept me pretty busy.  Luckily, the campers were wonderful and working with them was a pleasure!  But it did mean that NONE of my 6 dogs I brought set foot on the agility equipment, except for Miss Lottie, who I brought out for a quick lesson our last day.  Of course, she was wonderful, and learned quickly to navigate and climb the small A-Frame.  I was so proud.  We’ll practice the large A-frame at the next camp!



Punch, Tango, Pascha and Lottie in
the fenced play-yard sand-pit



In addition to my Agility classes, I helped Chris with the new Trash Agility class.  This was pretty cool.  It is like Urban Search and Rescue Agility, designed to really test the dogs’ skill and balance and courage.  But Lottie must learn to master the large A-frame before she can attempt something this tough!

I also taught my expanded Animal Communication seminar, and we had a nice turn out of people interested in learning more about their pets.  And I did about a gazillion private readings for people, which I love because it gives me a great insight into the campers and their love of their dogs. 



Resting in the camper



Lottie "looking" for me
from the camper window!



So all my classes, and my work with Tango to earn his Wilderness Search and Rescue badge, kept me from spending as much time with Lottie and the others as I normally do, but the dogs all hung out in our new camper (which I love love love), and had frequent breaks to take a quick hike in the woods or go dock diving and play in the pond. 

Lottie wore her new backpack, which previously belonged to my friend Grace Stevens, who passed away a couple of years ago. Jill embroidered the pack to say “We Walk With Grace,” and Lottie looked great wearing it, and I like to think that Grace helped my little girl along at her first Dog Scout camp!  She walked 2 miles in her pack, and we will finish the final 4 miles next time so Lottie can get her Backpacking badge.

 

Right before her first swim . .  !

One of the other badges I hope to get for Lottie is the Puppy Paddlers badge.  To get this badge, she needs to learn to willingly swim out to me when I call her into the water.  She had a rough start at this camp.  I was with her on the dock one morning after our backpacking hike, and the border collies were swimming and dock diving, and Lottie was crazy excited, jumping around on the leash.  Well, she fell off the dock and into the water.  So she swam to shore beautifully!  Of course, she soaked her new “Grace” backpack, but I brought her back on the dock, praising her for swimming so skillfully, and she fell off again.  She really does swim nicely; she keeps her front feet in the water and doesn’t flail about in a panic like I’ve seen some new puppy swimmers do.  Later, we practiced walking into the water for a piece of cheese.  She would come in about 2 feet out, and about 2 inches deep, than even the cheese was not enough.  That’s okay, we made some progress and we’ll work more next time!







Resting in between walking and swimming!

We have a Talent Show every year, and I decided to enter Lottie.  She only knows a few tricks, but hey, she’s blind and deaf, so just a few is still impressive in my opinion!  I entered at the last minute, so I just put a fancy Freestyle dance collar on her and we went on “stage” and performed with our touch signals “Sit”, “Down”, and “Rollover.”  Although she does all three beautifully, she must have had stage-fright, or maybe just stage-excitement, because I had to pull out the cheese and bribe her to get her to perform.  But it was fun, and she went up and kissed Sandy the judge when she was finished, just to try and get some extra cutie-pie points!

We didn’t have a chance to work at all on our Dog Scout test, but Martha was nice enough to make some time for us the last day and we were able to check out on a few of the requirements for the test, and we’ll finish the rest of them next time.  We need to practice “stay” and “come” and “heel”.    I can’t wait to see Lottie in her DSA vest when she finally passes her test . . . . !

Driving home . . . .

I Wanna Be A Dog Scout

In preparation to pass her test and become a Dog Scout, Lottie Moon and I attended our first class in June. Kym Jarvis, owner of Anything Goes For Dogs, has graciously donated her time and wonderful facility to Columbus Dog Scouts prep class, and I was so excited to bring Lottie and work on her skills. Dog Scouts is a great organization, and that is my first big goal for Lottie, to pass her Dog Scouts test. For more info on Dog Scouts, go to http://www.dogscouts.org/






 
 

Lottie did amazingly well. This was actually the second class of a series of four, but I was out of town for the first one, so Lottie was working at a disadvantage to the other dogs. She did just fine, I was very proud. There were about ten other handler/dog teams there, all at different skill levels. We worked on sit and down, stay, and heel.  Lottie struggles a lot with "stay", but she is doing much better, and up to about 8 seconds and about 2 steps away from me. Kym had some good suggestions for us, and we discussed ways to work on her comprehension that "stay" will be for several minutes . . . seconds . . . nanoseconds . . . whatever! Seriously, she has really improved, and I know she will holding that stay just fine very soon. She's made so much progress already, and really, who wants to sit still when there is SO much to do?

Working on "heel" was interesting, as this was the first time we had tried this. Up to this point, we've just been practicing loose-leash walking. I've been concerned that she doesn't care how many times she bolts forward and crushes her laynex on her collar, she continues to do it. I switched her to a Easy Walk harness, and now she does much better. "Heel" means walk right next to me and follow closely, without leaving my side. That presents some problems for a blind dog. The trainer Trish suggested I teach Lottie to bump my leg with her nose while we walk, and I like this idea, that might be a way to get her to stick close to me. We'll work on some things and see how we do.







Lottie in her favorite position,
standing and "watching" the world from underneath me!