A lesson he didnt know he was having!

Today Rafi and I were invited to the Dog barn to walk in their large fenced in walks, by my friend Nic.
When we arrived Nic was already there and as we were slightly early we waited in our cars until the person before us had finished their time slot. We drove in and parked on the tarmac then just shut the gate and opened the crates, both dogs jumped out and began sniffing all the interesting smells that were in the pen.
Nic and I had some work to do so we sat on the bench and did ten minutes of catch up on TRiM cases we were covering. All the time Rafi and Corky were sniffing and playing with a tennis ball, when we were ready we walked round the pens letting  the dogs play or just sniff. Every now and then I called Rafi back to me for a treat making him sit. ( RECALL) the rest of the time he was playing with tennis balls and sniffing all the new smells in close proximity to Corky. (SOCIALISING) When our session had ended we put the dogs in the back of our cars and went our separate ways, Corky gave one little grumble to put Raffi in his place, and there was one lip lift which was acknowledged by Rafi and he stopped bouncing at Corky.
Really good play date for him and  great for me to be able to see just how good he is off lead and recall.
Good teacher good student.

How to keep cool on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK

Rafi had another 1 to 1 training session today, he is doing so well I am really pleased with him. It was also lovely to be in the dog barn for the session as it was so lovely and cool. Before we left I got him a cool coat which you soak then put on the dog just like any other dog coat but its so cool its lovely!
Straight after training we went to Therapaws for a swim. His third swim session and he couldnt wait to  get in. The first few times he went down the slope then as he grew more confident he went in from the side. It looked as if he was waiting for  the judges to score his dive, Bless him. I would have given him a 9.9 as it was a little splashy!

Second training session

Today was Rafi's second one to one training session, he was also fitted for his new Perfect Fit Harness' and the most impressive thing of all...
We left him for a whole hour in the house on his own! When we got back he had chewed nothing and eaten nothing, he was such a good boy!
Its taken it out of him though, he flopped into his bed and hasn't moved since!

Go Team Ginger

Tonight Rafi and I went to misper for one of our team members who has a Vizla, we call them team Ginger due to the colour of the dog.
Mispering, means hiding in the woods waiting for the dog to find us, (missing Person)
Team Ginger needed to do a night mock assessment in order to go to the Nationals and qualify as a Path and Route Search dog and be able to go out on live call outs, they have already passed their day mock so we all had our fingers crossed.
It takes a good two years plus to reach this point so the whole team were routing for them. I was one of three Mispers who had been put out ready for them to find. I can tell you that at night in the dark and quiet the sound of harness bells (Hawk Bells by any other name) and the appearance of collar lights and harness lights can be seen and heard from quite a way off so I was worried that she had gone passed and missed me until I realised the sound was coming from the other side of the bend in the track.
Suffice to say team ginger made the grade its off to the Nationals for them.
It was lovely laying on a mat in the dark, the sound of Night jars chirring and owls hooting was lovely, the sound of buzzing followed by a sharp pain by my right ear wasnt so nice though! Bloody Mozzies!
We finished training at 11.35 pm and I got home at 12.07am yawn.

Houdini

It has come to my notice that I called my dog by the wrong name! He should have been called Harry Houdini! At least twice today he managed to escape his harness, I was, at the time in a working lunch at a rather nice Inn, fortunately my friend who was working on the 'project' with me is extremely sharp witted and has a car full of .. well everything really. She managed to catch Rafi and then had a second harness collar and lead that we were able to put on him.
Harness shopping monday then.
Once we had eaten and had a rough idea what it is we want to produce, we decided that both our dogs could do with a walk, we took them to a harbour where Rafi promptly followed my friends dog into the water. A lucky tennis ball find meant that she could throw a toy for her dog right out in the water and Rafi could swim for one much closer, he loved every minute and had about four retrieves which he had to swim for.  On the way back to the cars he walked perfectly behaved beside the other dog not once did he do his tail biting over zealous behaviour, I am sure he was probably shattered but he was still excellently behaved.