H&C

“The weekend started with a bang – literally! In fact, there were quite a few ‘bangs’ on the Friday night as one of our neighbours hosted a party with loud fireworks to finish. For many animals, the firework season causes significant distress, but, in our household, we appear to be very fortunate because our own dogs are not fazed at all by the annual light-and-sound displays around the village. If they are outside in the garden, our dogs will either go about their business completely disregarding the fireworks, or have been known to sit in the middle of the lawn and watch the displays as they light-up the night sky. This year was no different, and our own dogs were joined by Ruby, who was very relaxed outside in the garden, perhaps due to the continuous socialising or the frequent exposure to lorries, trains and other loud noises. On the Sunday, Ruby attended a party of a different kind, held down on the village playing field. It was thrown for one of our friend’s dogs, Blue, in celebration of his 13th birthday. There were ten other dogs in attendance, and Ruby had huge fun running around and playing. She also enjoyed a small doggie bag of treats! During the week I met with Claire Lush for our monthly one-to-one, when we visited town with Ruby and sat in a cafe to practice her settling skills (Ruby’s, not Claire’s!). Claire and I chatted for 15 minutes while Ruby quietly sat underneath the table and, despite the close proximity of a selection of discarded crumbs, eventually lay down and went to sleep! She was very calm throughout - a real star.”

“For much of the week it was largely business as usual for Ruby, with short training sessions in the local Tesco store and a walk around the town centre, including time spent by some noisy roadworks. I was pleased that the pneumatic drills and diggers did not concern Ruby at all. I have reduced the number of treats that Ruby receives during training, and I am glad that she has responded really well and was very focused throughout the visits. At home, life has also returned to normal, and I am happy to report that Fergus, my three-year-old chocolate Labrador, has made a full recovery. Ruby also seems very pleased that this is the case, as she has her play-mate back and they have been chasing around the garden as if to make up for lost time! In the later part of the week I attended an enjoyable monthly Puppy Class run by Claire Lush at the Dogs for the Disabled Training Centre. We carried out a number of training exercises, including heel-work and the ‘stand’ command, which Ruby coped with very well. The heeling session was made more challenging by the introduction of bowls of food strategically placed on the floor around the training area, so we also had the opportunity to practice the ‘leave’ command as we walked around. Ruby was definitely tempted, but managed to avoid lunging into any of the food bowls – for which I made sure she received plenty of positive praise and some high value treats! To finish the week, Ruby came along to the first hour of a Birthday Party that was taking place in a marquee in the village. There was a fancy dress theme, which was the 1980’s, and so Ruby spent time socialising with a host of celebrities including Madonna, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Cher and Top Gun’s Iceman. Ruby did not appear to be star-struck in the slightest, although, when she saw Adam Ant with his painted face and highwayman outfit, she did have a quizzical look and tilted her head to one side. Of course, in fairness to Ruby, in the 80’s we looked like that at Adam Ant ourselves!”