Jonah, Dave and I went out to the Poconos for the New Years weekend. Romeo stayed with my parents where he was pampered with love, a bath and hours of grooming. He looks like a new dog!
I had thought the weekend would be basically agility-free, but there were some unexpected situations that offered unique training opportunities.
On Saturday we went for a nice walk at the Mill Pond. The pond was frozen and Jonah ran around on it happily, although he wondered why we weren't quite so brave. Later on, we came to a spot near a little waterfall where the water was not frozen and there were two beavers swimming around. It was a neat treat to see them. Further along the trail there was a set of bear prints in the snow. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a clear set of bear tracks--they were quite impressive. You could see the pads clearly, and then the sharp claws. In all, each footprint was at least 6 inches. I thought bears hibernated, but apparently this one was out and about. I'm not sure what Jonah would do if he saw a bear, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be good. The last point of interest on our walk was less impressive: deer poop. Jonah had run ahead of us and started rolling in the snow. Before we realized what was happening, his whole white neck was brown. When we got back, we gave him a bath in the basement sink.
After the bath, it took Jonah a while to dry off enough to go upstairs. We had limited towels, which quickly became wet, and Jonah would only tolerate short periods of hair dryer. In between, Dave and I worked on getting Jonah happy and excited in a situation where he was naturally scared and unhappy. It would take a little time, but enough running around would get his ears perked up, and then he would start to play tug with his leash. This was great because we don't usually have a way to replicate situations where Jonah is nervous, since the only time we usually see that behavior is at class around other dogs. Anyway, we'll see if there's any carry over to agility, but every bit of information we can get about how to shake off his nervousness and get him happy is useful. Maybe next time it will take a few seconds less time, and the next time a few more seconds, until we (hopefully) someday have a technique that can help him get ready to roll even when he is uncertain of his surroundings.
This is not agility related, but we went on another walk yesterday, and Jonah was happy and friendly to everyone he met along the trail...except for a pair of hunters. They came out of the woods with bright vests and carrying guns on their shoulders, and Jonah was immediately growling and barking at them. He didn't approach them to attack or anything, but I just thought it was interesting that he reacted that way. Who knows what experiences he had with guns in TN. He was terrified of loud noises when we first got him, and now this...Good thing we hardly ever see guns at home!
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