flyball at the Ferntree Gully pet expo

As I said in the previous post, Penny demonstrated flyball at Ferntree Gully yesterday.

She ran well, despite the crowds watching and the excitement of smells and sounds from a variety of animals sharing the day with dogs.

The other animals had a chance to show they too can perform tricks. Here they are lining up for the egg-and-spoon race with their humans.



And another heat...



The sheep and its owner lost their heat and had to watch from the sidelines.



Penny ran clean runs, but she's not competitive. As you can see from her stance here, she's willing, but she's certainly not raring to go.




She would speed down to get the ball - her favorite thing - but not rush herself when coming back to me.



Until I had the brilliant idea of showing her one of the absolutely delicious biscuits we'd bought from a stall called BJ's Organics. She raced back at top speed for the delicious biscuit. I like to reward her with organically produced treat if possible, so this product was a great find on the day.

Penny goes to a pet expo in Ferntree Gully

Yesterday was a fun day. Penny joined a group of dogs from a cross-section of Melbourne flyball clubs to demonstrate the sport to the public at the Ferntree Gully Pet Expo.

While Penny was resting in her crate, I went for a stroll around and watched a demonstration of gentle horse-training techniques by Wrangler Jayne.



Since I've learned about gentle, reward-based training of dogs I've wondered how it applies to other animals, and at last I had the opportunity to see it in action. Wrangler Jayne's horse was exquisitely beautiful, standing free and unafraid in a small enclosure right next to our dogs, unfazed by the people standing around and admiring him.

As she rode him around the area, guiding him with gentle pats and the movement of a long stick, his ears were pricked and you could see he was attending to her with interest and with confidence in her and in himself.