Everyone else had taken classes before and were regular members of this class. Mostly I just wanted a chance for Boogie to partake in a group class so he could get used to the distractions of other dogs around.
The instructor told us to have treats. She taught us a few new commands and then had us do a course. Boogie was perfect! The instructor was raving about what great attention I had from him - now if only I could have that same attention in competition! The other students were all so impressed...actually so was I. They all thought I must practice hours everyday. Not hardly.
We only had a couple little incidents. Ha ha. We were doing the new exercises and Boogie was doing perfectly so I had the leash very loose. Suddenly I feel the leash jerk away from me. I get my bearings and look at Boogie and he is chasing a hummingbird across the field. Leave it to Boogie. What a cutie pie.
After class, one of the students wanted to work on long stays. So we all put our dogs in a row, put them on a down, and walked about 20' away. The dogs were supposed to stay for a full minute before we returned to them. I don't know what Boogie thought but it felt like forever before we were instructed to return to our dogs. Boogie was perfect. He didn't move a muscle - and we've never practiced this before at all. Good boy!
Then they had us do the same thing in a sit position. I knew this would be more difficult as Boogie's default position is a down. But we gave it a shot. He was doing great! About 45 seconds into the exercise, Boogie turned his head and looked at the dog next to him. That dog, a border collie rescue, looked at Boogie and I knew immediately what was going to happen! But it happened too fast for me to even make a move. The two dogs went into full play mode - which as you might imagine distracted the other "good" dogs that were trying to maintain their stays as our two dogs romped around and over them. Good thing everyone was friendly!
From there we drove to an off-leash dog beach in Del Mar. I don't think I've ever been so exhausted from going to the beach! This was a very nice beach actually. It is an off leash dog beach from September through June 15.
Even though the beach is long, everyone enters from the same place. We didn't realize that at first and started playing as soon as we got on the beach. The problem with this was that it was always busy there with dogs coming to the beach and leaving the beach.
We had given each dog a ball so we were trying to keep track of four dogs and four balls. This is not easy with our gang as they are always dropping their balls here and there when we throw one of the balls for one of the other dogs. Here are two happy dogs, each coming back with a treasured ball.
It was really hard to take pictures as I was so busy keeping track of the big dogs, four balls, and, oh yeah - Boogie who was running up and down the beach following every dog he could see.
And he sure found a lot of friends.
I don't mind him playing with other dogs but I do like him to come when I call him - which he did quickly in this case.
But he left again just as quickly!
Not only did he play with all the new friends he could find on the beach but he made sure to play with his sister as well.
It takes a lot of our attention when we go to an off leash area as we have to be aware of absolutely everything going on around us. We do this to protect little Slugger. If there is ever an incident of any kind, he will always get blamed no matter what. So we are always very careful when other dogs approach. We try to throw a ball way out into the water so that other dogs won't get near him. We figure if he's not near another dog then there can't be any misunderstandings.
Since we were at the beginning of the park there were a lot of dogs coming and going so we were extremely busy. I don't think either Mike or I have ever been so exhausted during a trip to the beach. After a while we finally got smart enough to move down the beach a ways. This helped quite a bit and we could relax and enjoy playing with the dogs a little more.
Even the dogs seemed to calm down a bit when we got to a quieter spot. Wazzu had time to watch the birds overhead.
And Boogie had a chance to lie down and try to demolish his tennis ball.
But that didn't last long and Boogie was right back at it again.
I think Boogie wants to be a beach boy. Romping...
...playing with his ball...
...and actually lying down looking at the sights!
Sparkie RARELY pays attention to any other dog on the beach, even when they come up to her. But she came across this chow mix and decided she really wanted to play. She kept doing these huge play bows. It was fun to watch but Boogie finally noticed and decided to come over to join in. That broke the mood and Sparkie left. But it was fun to watch while it lasted.
Boogie's favorite playmate at the beach today was a young pit bull. Although very playful, the dog was a little timid. Boogie was relentless. I guess he thought the dog was just like Slugger so he played with that dog the same he plays with Slugger. Boogie kept biting and pulling on the dog's neck. Over and over and over. I felt sorry for the poor dog. Boogie was relentless. Good thing that was such a sweet dog.
We finally decided to let everyone calm down a bit by walking down the beach in the opposite direction. Dogs are allowed on this part of the beach but must be kept on leash at all times.
It was a very pretty walk and as you can see, the human beach isn't busy at all. The beach itself was beautiful.
On the land side, the beach is lined with very pretty houses. Slugger kept trying to pull Mike up all the stairs so he could go visit all the people that must be there waiting to pet him!
And what do you know, as we continued our walk, I found two really cute dogs on the beach!
We all had a great time but Boogie didn't want to leave. But needless to say, we made him come with us.
Debbie
2/4/08
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