Tuesday I took Princess down to Versailles for a class and evaluation. Unfortunately, I guess my signals were crossed with the trainer, and she thought I wasn't going to make it, so we ended up just watching, but even watching I learned a lot. The trainer was a wonderful lady, and even though she wasn't feeling well, she still gave me a quick evaluation of Princess. My pretty girl may be marked down for such a narrow face, and she might grow too tall, but the trainer thought it was worth the effort to train her up and see what happens. So overall her prospects were pretty good. Next week she will begin show training in earnest! I told her about Moon, and she told me to bring her by and she'd look at her too.
Meanwhile I was given the following homework: 1) Take Princess everywhere I can to get her more and more socialized. This will be a little difficult as I don't tend to go very many places other than work, but I will try to get her down to the park maybe this weekend, or out to the tractor supply. 2) Get her to leave her paws where they are placed in preparation to learn to 'stack' properly and stay in position. This will be much easier for me to work with, and I've let Jim know to try it with Moon.
Yesterday, the pups and Samantha found a section of fence I had not yet put down chickenwire on, and they decided to dig out and go for a hike. Fortunately they went across the creek to the vacant land, and didn't go near the neighbor's chicken yard. Freya and the boys stayed in the fence. I love those dogs! Princess, Ace and Buck stayed relatively close to the house, and came back rather quickly. Cat took a bit more time, but came back on his own. Samantha and Xena took a bloody holiday, and I had to come home from work to find them. Xena came to me when I called, and I picked her up and carried her 45lb bear-cub butt back to the dog yard. Did I mention she was heavy? Samantha came to me but ran off before I could get a hold of her.
Once I got Xena back in the yard, I went looking for Samantha again. I tried every trick in the book, laying down, jogging away, but nothing seemed to interest her more than exploring down the road. She was much faster than I, so I turned back to the house and asked Jim to get his car. He brought the treat jar with some chew bones in it, and we drove down the road slowly in the direction we had last seen her, calling her name and shaking the jar. Eventually the sound of the treat jar was too much for her and she came running after the car. We were able to pick her up and take her home.
So, last night I was laying down more chicken wire. A kennel owner's work is never done.
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