Last Friday, the ginger sisters were invited for a playdate at my friend's beautiful patio oasis with her Rottweiler, Tugg. Ruby and Boca had a wonderful time racing around the multi-level deck, sniffing the pond and fountain, and bossing the gentle giant around. Tugg was such a sweetheart and allowed the girls to steal his toys and bones. Boca seems to enjoy policing Ruby's interactions with other dogs like the big sister that she is, and I think Tugg was intimidated by their raucous vocalizations. Ruby was her usual relentlessly exuberant self, hardly noticing that Tugg outweighs her by about one hundred pounds!
My friend and I were able to catch up while the dogs romped, reminiscing about dogs past and sharing stories about our newest additions. She told me about the rally obedience classes she takes with her boy, and the format sounded brilliant! The dogs are allowed to play and burn off energy in a supervised dog-park-like setting while the handlers have a more focused discussion in a classroom, and then humans and dogs reunite for practice. A scenario like this might actually work for Ruby since she is unable to focus around new dogs. Once she has met them off-leash she can normally do what is asked of her. I thought this was such a great idea, and something I may look into.
On our way home we stopped at the Kyjen office to pick up the generously contributed Slo Bowl for Ruby's Gotcha Day Giveaway - congratulations to winners Sarah of Lola the Pitty, Carrie of Tales and Tails and Chrissie of Pupcycled! The ginger sisters hardly moved for the rest of the day, and by the evening they looked downright miserably tired. They weren't even interested in their evening walk. In the above picture they look like they are nursing the canine version of a hangover! I love that Ruby and Boca have so many opportunities to play until they drop with their pup pals and that their people are just as nuts about dogs as I am.
Sure sounds like a perfect day
ReplyDeleteLily & Edward
What a fun day!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fab play date!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the dogs getting to interact before the real training begins. That was one of my beefs with the training I took Blueberry too during the Spring. The dogs were almost NOT allowed to interact at the beginning of class either even though we were in a fenced in area and it would have made sense to let everyone blow off a little steam and get to know each other so they could focus better during the actual class. I mean - the training itself was supposed to be about fun so why not incorporate the meet and greet and play into it?
ReplyDeleteI love that your girls were intimidating to that big fella! Looks like they had a blast!
It was the same in the obedience class that we dropped out of, and I actually think that whole experience contributed to Ruby's barrier frustration reactivity. In Boca's class we are about halfway through, and since there are only two dogs in the class they have quite a bit of contact. Next week we are supposed to work on dog-dog greetings!
DeleteI agree that playtime before training works well for lots of dogs. It's the way Honey's puppy class was structured and it really helped.
ReplyDeleteI once read someone who called a dog who barks at other dog interactions a cheerleader. Maybe that's what Boca is?