More puppy play

This morning we had another puppy class at Whirlwind's. There were quite a few puppies this time. Besides the ones we met the first lesson, there were two new puppies as well: a border collie (Squiffy's sister) and a lagotto romagnolo. Still no smaller breeds unfortunately, but Skye did quite well anyway. If she got knocked of her feet by a bigger dog, she usually was quick to join in the fun again. Still, some puppies were quite rough with her, so I had to protect her a bit at times, too.

After some play, we first did a few handling exercises. We held each others puppies and looked in their ears, eyes and under their tails. I quite like this part of the lesson. Although I'm not sure Skye likes it that much too. She doesn't feel comfortable when people she doesn't know, touch her all over right away. She needs a bit more time. But she didn't do too bad. We'll keep working on this.

We also let the dogs walk over a ladder which was lying on the floor. The idea was that the puppies would carefully and deliberately put their feet in the holes between the rungs. Skye did this very well. Her co-ordination is very good. Lian's early work with wobble boards, mini dog walks and such, is really paying off.

After some more play time, we did a recall and some 'sits' and 'downs'. Skye's recall was pretty good this time. Even with all the distractions that were thrown at her. Skye was held by a helper on one side of the room, while I walked all the way to the other side. The others would sit in the middle with their dogs on a lead. So Skye had to go past them, before she would reach me. I brought some cheese, especially for this exercise. Skye loved it and came running to me quite quickly.

We ended this lesson with an exercise where the puppies had to step over two bars lying on the floor. Skye sat next to me while I threw one of her favourite toys over the bars. Skye went after it, picked it up and came back to me for a game of tug. I was so proud that she did this so well. She was very distracted by the other puppies at first, but she liked her toy enough to play this game with me. Clever girl.

I took a few pictures this morning, but most of them are pretty blurry. Here are a few of the ones that weren't too bad. ;-)

A blur of puppies.

Skye and Fiona (I think her name was...)

Skye and Toby

Anto and Squiffy, both trying to reach the little piece of cheese

in the middle of the table.

On our way back home, we picked up Joost, who had been mountainbiking in Epping Forest. A very muddy Epping Forest that is. So Skye had to share the car with a very dirty bike.