When I last reported before Christmas, Epic was coming up to her 6 month “birthday”. Between a short holiday over Christmas and being incredibly busy at Prairie Dog Daycare, it was easy to let things slide.
Epic is just over 7 months old now and old enough to come to ‘big dog’ daycare. She comes to work with me 3 days a week and plays with a number of other dogs both larger and smaller than her. She is definitely what I call a ‘play chameleon’, meaning that she is able to adjust her play to the intensity and preferences of her playmates. That being said she is not a pushover and, if dogs are doing something she doesn’t care for, she uses appropriate cues to end their behaviour usually, she stops, stands still walks away and, if another dog is really pushy, will bark and snap at them.
Training-wise, we have not been focusing on anything specific. We have been working on pivots, individual rally exercises, heeling, hand stacking for conformation conformation gaiting and conformation stand for exam. Since the beginning of February we have been attending a pet dog class and a conformation handling class to work on all of the above in a busy, noisy environment.
While outdoor adventures and exercise are pretty much impossible in this weather, we still go to the groomers, to the dog wash, to the vet weekly for weigh-ins and last month, she came with me to a rally judging assignment in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.
Now that I have a better idea of who she is, I am beginning to set some goals which I’ll share in my next post.
Ayoka Bubar BA, CPDT-KA 