Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Choices! Choices!

Out walking this morning with Amber and Corker - throwing a ball for each of them at the top of the hill where the grass is not quite so long. Corker, bless him, has only taken eight and a half years to bring the ball back to my feet rather than 10 yards away....... Anyway, I threw his ball and it bounced quite high in the air about 30 feet from me - as did a cock pheasant!
Corker is mid-air and faced with a choice - flick head left and catch ball or flick head right and catch pheasant??? What to do? Corker doesn't like choices as they confuse him, but it is all happening so fast - he has to make an instant decision or miss both. You could almost see the cogs going round as his eyes stood out on stalks!! He remembered that I would throw the ball again if he brought it back, but who knows what I might do with a pheasant (Actually Corker, I do know what I would have done with the pheasant!) And he remembered that he is not supposed to be interested in anything live and catchable - next door's cats excepted....
So, I got the ball rather than a nice supper for later in the week. Never mind - he was so pleased with himself for actually making a decision straight away all by himself that I clicked and treated.
Bless him!! He thinks he is such a macho man......

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Catching Up.

Not a lot to report from the last couple of shows.
Dog Vegas at Bakewell was dry but soooo cold!!! The last camping weekend of the year for me, and was I glad that I worked out how to use the central heating on the new camper!! Bryn managed 3 clears all weekend - worked well generally but not at his usual speed, so no places for us. :( However, the fruit wines from the Farmers' Market made up for any disappointment - lol!
Today we were indoors at Myerscough for Lune Valley Show. Always a well organised show, so, despite the noisy venue, I really like this one. Again Bryn worked well BUT insisted on snogging the judge in one jumping class, and demolished a couple of jumps in the other. Got a 6th place (yippee!) in Grade 4 Agility - looking faster than he actually was - but I over handled him in a corner of the 4/5 Agility and messed up a course that had our name written on it. Oh well! It is just a game after all....