Today Mother and I went for a walk. We went for a walk with Mothers Boss, her son and their dog Ava. Ava is a two year old labrador (just a few months younger than me).
Ava and I have met only a couple of times. Mothers Boss works opposite shifts to Mother, meaning they very rarely work at the same clinic on the same day. The Boss works part time, so usually covers Mothers day off in the week, and when they do work the same day its usually at different clinics. So Ava and I have met all of three times over the last two years. The last time we met was when the Boss came to our clinic for a meeting with other staff. We met briefly on our morning walk, but both of us were on leads, and we were by the side of the road. Mother says I can’t play with other dogs when one or both of us are on leads, and definitely not by the side of the road.
But when we met, Mother and Boss both said we should set up a play date for us. They’ve said this a few times before but it never amounted to much. I suppose both Mother and Boss are very busy a lot of the time. The first time we met, Boss was teaching Ava to sit calmly by her side while she ate, and Ava appeared to be very engrossed in being well behaved. Mother was quite jealous that Ava appeared to be picking up her training quicker than I was at the time. But this time, we both seemed equally into playing so Mother was hopeful we’d have a good time if we met up.
It was arranged for this Sunday. We went to a local country park with lots of lakes, the one where we do our parkrun. The Boss is interested in doing the parkrun sometime, apparently it’s one of her new years resolution, although I’m not entirely sure what that means. So Mother and I showed the Boss, her son, and Ava the parkrun route. Mother let me off the lead, and I showed Ava all the best sniff spots.
Ava is so much fun. She runs and runs and sniffs and sniffs, then we swam and chased and ran some more. We had 90minutes together today playing. Boss’s son played with too, chasing and hollering and whooping and playing. He threw sticks for us, and ran around with us, and threw the ball for us. He’s about five years old, which Mother says is a great age for dogs of our energy levels.
But one thing Mother noticed on our walk, is that Ava isn’t very well trained either. Mother has always been rather paranoid that she’s not a good dog owner. I’m her first dog, and she tried very hard to make sure I’m trained well. She struggled with me because I was past the important socialisation period when she got me, and then I couldn’t be walked, so training was limited, because of my broken leg and recovery, and the following delay in vaccinations. She used a Facebook group, and their book, to help her with training (see link).
Dog Training Advice and Support Book- Amazon
Despite Mothers best effort, I’m trouble. I know sit, but sometimes I think why should I? I know stay, but where’s the fun in that? Mother says leave, but sometimes I just want it. When Mother calls me to come back to her, I always come back to her. It’s just that sometimes I take the long way around, like I sniff everything, and maybe go via a tree or two before I get to her. Mother tries to make me ask before I go up to strange dogs. She’ll ask an approaching off lead dog if it’s okay for me to say hello, or she’ll put me back on the lead when we’re approaching another dog who’s on the lead. Sometimes though, I ignore Mother and run straight up to them first. I’m much better at that than I used to be, and Mother is regularly complimenting me and saying I’m a good boy these days. Mother often says I’m not a good boy, but I’m not a bad boy.
On the walk with Mother and Boss, son and Ava today, Ava was naughtier than I was. And she wasn’t naughty, not really. But she was about as well behaved as I was. Within minutes of getting out the cars, Ava had slipped her lead and collar and was running around free! Boss ran to get her back on the lead, but she was so excited for freedom that she ran around like a loon first (I was jealous and was barking to encourage her). Once we were safely away from the carpark and the busy area, that’s when we were allowed freedom.
I was only naughty once… fishermen are my downfall. Mother warned the Boss about fishermen and keeping an eye on us dogs about two minutes before I found one. I love dancing around the fishermen and the wires, especially when Mother starts shouting as me to come away from them!
Besides the fishermen, I was a good boy. But Ava said hello to every dog. She ran off regularly too, and Boss didn’t trust her to not run away so she shouted after her regularly. Whereas Mother knew I’d come back so I didn’t get shouted at. When Ava was saying hello to the new dogs, some of which didn’t necessarily want us to say hello, she wouldn’t come away from them straight away. It made me look very well behaved when I came away from them immediately, or when I didn’t even approach.
Mother felt a lot better about her general dog training skills when comparing to another dog of a similar age, especially since Boss has other dogs at home. Boss lives on a farm, and the other dogs are farm dogs, so Boss has little reason to let Ava off lead anywhere but at home on the farm. Boss said that’s why her training isn’t great. Regardless of the reasons (excuses) for it all, either way Mother felt better about me. Boss described Ava’s training as casual training.
Mother put a lot of effort into my training, I went to classes, had a trainer come visit us and everything. So I’m not sure how we feel about it possibly giving a standard of obedience that we refer to as ‘casual’. Then again, Mother often refers to me as stupid-smart. It’s when I know what I’m meant to do, but I just don’t do it. So maybe Mothers training isn’t the problem and I am just a ‘Penis-face’ as Mother calls me.
Either way, my level of training is adequate enough for the life we live. I’ll always come back. I don’t cause too much trouble, and I’m way more reliable these days than I used to be. I ask permission before saying hello to dogs most of the time, I struggle more with not saying hello to people. If people look at me or talk to me, that must mean they want me to say hello, right? Mother tells me off because I’m usually muddy, or wet, or recently rolled in fox faeces. We met a dog today on the lead that the lady said I could greet, who had been put on the lead cause he’d been naughty and rolled in fox faeces, so I’m not the only one who’s naughty! Mother mostly walks me in quiet unpopular places to avoid these problems any.
The moral of the story is that today I learnt I am not as poorly trained as Mother thinks, especially in comparison to other dogs my age. Also, I love play dates!