Something about Ardella

Ardella and I have had two busy days doing dog work. Yesterday, we got together with Karren and Annalynn at a tennis court where we were able to let the dogs run after balls and work on recalls using long leads. I was so proud of Ardella. She came to me every time I called her, even with Annalynn around.

Today we started an obedience class at Animal Enrichment Center - it's the next-up class after beginning obedience. We'll be learning to heel, heel up, work with distractions, among other things. Ardella did very well in this class, too. In fact, she won the "wait" contest where she stayed in place until I reached the opposite side of the room and called her. She did really well with distractions, too, and Emily, the instructor, tried very hard to distract her. Fortunately, the class is small - there are only 3 of us, and 2 of the dogs have been in some sort of service training. The other dog is a collie, who I will call Drop Dead Gorgeous. Then we have a dog that's just too cute that's a Schnoodle.

We decided to wait a bit on agility. Ardella did this class well and it was great way to encourage her to do things that were challenging. However, I can't see her doing competition, and we have a more pressing need to work on obedience these days.

I've been seeing such a change in Ardella lately - a good change - in that she's more calm and follows commands much more reliably. She's just much easier to teach these days. There are times when I've wondered if we'd just been able to wait a little bit longer, maybe she would have made it into training. But then, I'll do something like take her to the dog park where she starts immediately drooling and frothing at the mouth and cannot respond to one command if she tries because she is so freaked out. We started worrying about her hearing the one time we took her there. We could not get her out of the dog park fast enough! It's times like this I see that she could never have been a guide dog. It's not just dog parks, which I think are very stressful places for a lot of dogs - it's any place where there are larger dogs that invade Ardella's boundaries.

Lyn and I picked up some Ex-pens at his sister's house today and visited with her and her husband and two Lab teenagers. We had wanted to introduce the dogs. They are still very puppy-like and are on the exuberant side of Labdom. Linda and Dave have an Invisible Fence and Ardella quickly learned that if she stood in the area where the Invisible Fence was, the dogs would not come anywhere close to her. However, she stood there frozen like a log, so once again, we called the visit short and left. How did I get such a fragile flower?!

Next week Karren, Annalynn, Ardella and I are going to an all-Lab play date. We're hoping to have a sister reunion with another littermate. I'll see how long we last; somehow I think I'm going to enjoy this more than Ardella, but I still want to expose her to fun situations with other dogs. Karren and I are also planning to continue working with the dogs at the tennis court.

I worked at the animal shelter yesterday in the cattery. I learned that the shelter confiscated 80 snakes and are keeping the 10 nonpoisonous ones, plus a large alligator. Fun times! Why people keep snakes as pets is beyond me. I want to hug my pets - I prefer fur and hair to scales!