Focus on the Steamed Chicken and the Prehistoric Bird!

Wowee! I’ve just added a new treat to my TOP 10 FAVOURITES list! STEAMED CHICKEN! Mother wanted a healthy alternative to the other high value treats and decided to go cheap and picked up some raw chicken (she wanted roasted meats but no one could tell her what seasoning went into it and she didn’t want to take any chances!) which she steamed just before we went for our walk!

I LOVE IT! I’m getting more today apparently. Mother’s been trying to get me to focus more on her so she said she needed something that’ll get my attention (oh boy oh boy!) but which was healthy (she keeps saying I’m fat!). She also went out and bought 2 15 feet long leashes for distance work. We only used one yesterday. She’d at random places, stop and ask me to look at her. Then when she saw dogs in the distance, she would do the same, then wait until they got closer and asked me to look at her again! I know she’s pretty (coughs) but really, there’s just so much of her I can take! She also did the same thing with barking dogs behind gates. We’d go closer and she’d stop and make me watch her. She gets very happy when I staaaaarreee at her.

She trained “come” outdoors where there was some distraction (traffic, a couple of people walking). She said I did good when I bounded to her. Then she trained sitting at a distance from a stand stay using the same 15ft leash. And also standing at a distance from a sit stay, except every time she asks me to stand, 15 ft away, I tend to take one or 2 steps forward too! She’s not liking that! She says she’s going to increase the distance tonight. Then on Sunday, we’re going to take it to the Botanical Gardens – a place with even more distractions! She’s hoping to get a couple of strangers (esp kids) to feed me some treats! I already love children, Mother, but if you want them to feed me, SURE!

Last Saturday morning Mother took me to the Animal Resort! FINALLY! It was bright and sunny and Father drove us to the place. Uncle K was there training his German Shepherd. Mother wanted to go say Hi, but then saw that the GS pup was being trained to attack the training helper’s arm (looked like fun!) and decided against it! She was afraid I’d get mauled. PFFFTT. Please. First of all, Uncle K’s dogs are super well trained AND I can hold my own, thank you very much! So instead, she took me around to meet rabbits, peacocks, goats, cranes, geese (scary!) and a HUGE prehistoric looking bird that is as tall as a short man with a beak as long as a leg! It snapped its beak and I jumped. Father says it reminds him of Mr Burns from the Simpsons.

Sunday was dreary. It rained and rained. When it let up in the afternoon, Mother took me to walk around the neighbourhood. I met my rough collie friend and his ‘brother’ Sparky again! Sparky is so barky. Hurhur. No class on Sunday because there was some agility trials that day. Saturday saw me losing focus. Well, not really, I was totally focussed! Just not on Mother and training, but on Muffy the mongrel from Thailand! Muffy doesn’t really like other dogs and snapped at me when I tried to make my Casanova move which got me abit rattled so I ended up yelling at her in frustration. Pfft. You’ve not experienced anything until you’ve experienced The Romeo! Mother’s also getting increasing pissed off with the trainer coz he keeps pressuring her to put that prong collar on me. Mother’s just about ready to box his ears.