Playing and learning dogtricks

Penny and I are working on a new trick.

I began Penny's original training at my dogclub, Kintala in Heidelberg - check out their great site - but the training time is Saturday morning and I usually work at that time. So I'm going to two other places for dog training, both of which are heaps of fun.

One is with Jenny Pearce's company, A Perfect Spot Dog Training. (Love that name.) It's on a Sunday morning - at the crack of dawn, as far as I'm concerned - 9am in the Preston area. Often Penny won't do any activities that involve putting her bottom or belly on that cold, wet grass. But with the drought seeming ready to take hold again, I guess dampness won't be a problem for a while...sigh... Anyway, she just loves training there - we probably don't look too efficient as a training partnership when she drags me from the car to the training ground. I guess we've got a bit of work to do on 'walking nicely on lead'.

The other training is at Lilydale, at K9 Kompany. They're associated with Animal Aid in Coldstream. It's here that we are in the early stages of learning 'say your prayers'. At this stage Penny's learned to sit with her paws up on a chair. I was surprised at how many weeks we've taken to learn this. Next we'll move on to her lowering her face onto her paws, the way a child puts her face onto her hands when kneeling beside her bed to say her evening prayers. I reckon it would look super cute if I could find a little bed for Penny to do it on.

Apart from our 'formal' training - that's agility and tricks - we love playing games together. A book that I've found useful is one that is published by Barron's. (I think it was originally in German, but I'm not sure.) It's called 'Fun and Games with Your Dog'. Just to give you an idea of what's in it, some of the topics are:

Learning Life's Lessons through Play
Making Light Work of Training
Indoor Fun and Games
Make Your Yard into a Canine Paradise
An Obstacle Course in the Yard

I've found the section on indoor games helpful. It's designed for those days when it's too cold to go outside, I guess, but here in Australia it's also great for those days that are too hot.