NORWEGIAN BUHUNDS
We humans have been very lucky over the past 6 plus months, in being able to take part in online dog shows and other online canine activities, but our four legged friends have not been so lucky, therefore I was very pleased when I received an article from Jacqui Walmsley about classes she has been attending with Trelowen Amelia at Frostisen(Bunny).
Jacqui writes:- ‘When they started to relax lockdown, Bunny and I joined an Obedience Class. We started with two 1:1 lessons, and then we joined a class on a Saturday morning. We go to Puppycise, run by a good friend of mine Maura Kiely. Maura has a 3-acre site, split into paddocks. There is a complete Agility Arena, and best of all, a Polytunnel which allowed us to train in the rain. The whole area is securely fenced.
Our first 1:1 was to see what Bunny knew, and to my surprise she was pretty good. Just the basics, walking by my side,sit,stay and recall. We now train with 2 other dogs and handlers, and she improves each week. At the beginning of September we gained our Novice Obedience Certificate, the equivalent to a Bronze Good Citizen Test. We are now competent in Heel Work, Sit, Stand & Down, Stay and Recall. We like to mix up our training so the dogs don’t lose interest. We normally start with a meet and greet. Dogs relaxed by our side, taking no notice of one another, we then go for a walk together, with the same principle applying. Then we might do five minutes of Sit, Stand and Down on command. Bunny is top of the class on Stand! We then do our Stays, we walk across the paddock in line, Maura instructs us individually to leave our dogs, and we continue walking, we then about turn, walk past our dogs on the lead side, about turn and collect our dogs on the move, the dogs continue to walk to heel until we are told to finish and praise our dogs. Onto the recall, Bunny struggled with this for a while; I think she was confused with Stay and Wait. Don’t get me wrong, she never ran off, she just wouldn’t move. We are on top of this now, and ready to start recall with a stop on command, while the others are working on, I think we look like a display team, with our synchronised heelwork.
I am very proud of my little girlie. You all know what she went through as a puppy, which makes me doubly proud of her now. Maura says we could have our have our intermediate by the end of the month’.
Thanks Jacqui reading all the things Bunny can do, I am sure you will soon be writing that she has her Intermediate Certificate. I think Obreedience Team might be calling as well.
I have had dogs since I was 10yrs old which is many many years ago, but something happened to Time last Tuesday (15th Sept), which has never happened to any of my dogs before. We had a bush at the end of the garden which had became very overgrown, and was damaging our neighbour’s fence, and about which he had quite rightly complained. So a few weeks ago we had it cut down, showing that quite a number of fencing panels needed replacing. On the Tuesday the two fencing men arrived, meaning that after the dogs returned from their morning walk, they had to be shut in the house. Unfortunately, it was a very hot day reaching 31degrees in the afternoon, but it was relatively cool in doors. The men left about 4pm so I opened the door and let Fizz and Time out into the garden, they of course went to inspect the work, and then Fizz came back indoors leaving Time playing in the garden. I was watching something on the I player when Time came in rushing in, and tearing round the house and scratching at his and Fizz’s bed and the carpet, he is inclined to rearrange beds, so I did not think too much of it. He then lay down the other side of the table so I could not see him but I could hear him panting. Instead of calming down the panting seemed to increase, and when I looked him I realised it was very laboured, and to my horror I suddenly realised he was suffering heat stress. I quickly soaked a towel in tepid water and took him into the shade in the garden and wrapped him in it, but it didn’t work he just kept trying to get the towel off .There was only one answer I took of most of my clothes and took him into the shower. He had never been in there before but was very good, I quickly soaked him in tepid water and then took him back in to the garden, he was still panting and as he was drying off quickly, I decided to call the Animal Hospital for an appointment, as my local vet would be shut by then. He then suddenly flopped down and seemed much calmer, within half an hour he was back to normal, leaving me suffering from shock. He had not been competing or being walked he had just been running round the garden on his own. I am sure the sudden very hot day and the fact that he had been shut in the house for most of the day, so he had some pent up energy to get rid of had played a part, as when we had those very hot days in August there was never a problem. I still can’t get over how quickly it happened and how he did it to himself, although there were extenuating circumstances. Lesson learned if we have more very hot days I will make sure what he is up to in the garden.
Margaret Deuchar margaretdeuchar@gmail.com
The views expressed in Margaret’s Breed Notes are hers and hers alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Norwegian Buhund Club of the UK.