No Show

Took the weekend off. We have shows for the next 5 weekends in a row, so thought we'd give it a rest.

We've been working on Shane's excitability. Discovered that the clicker shuts him up, so now I say Quiet and click every time he barks. We were walking the other morning when a nail gun went off in a nearby construction area. Woody and Shane were going nuts as they always do when we first leave the house, and promptly stopped when they heard the nail gun. A ha! Tried the clicker that evening and we had a lovely quiet walk. Woody is a soft dog, so he's already past the clicker and now it's messing him up. He just lays down and won't budge, so I've been walking them separately for the last few days. It's just been a pleasure.

So now we have the barking and car chasing under control, on to the last problem. Border collies. Shane just goes nuts when he sees Border Collies running on the agility field. He goes nuts anyway when he sees the field, but it gets worse when the dogs are running. I can distract him with treats or by keeping him occupied on an obstacle, but sometimes the urge gets to be too much for him and he runs after the dogs. His recalls are excellent, but I want to stop the chasing.

The other night, Shane lay down by my head and placed his face against mine, cheek to cheek. What a joy this little boy is in my life.