Tag Archives: Booker

Booker IS a Canine Good Citizen!

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booker_cgcOur obedience club, the North Shore Dog Training Club, had its after-session Club Night this last Tuesday, with a CGC test for members and people who train with us. I decided to take the plunge with Booker, as did Hope with Torque. Both Booker and Torque are extremely friendly dogs – they love everyone, and every dog! Part of the test was to walk your dog in a crowd – with other people walking their dogs! That was difficult for both Booker and Torque. Another part of the test was greeting another person who had a dog – and the dogs not say hello to each other! Again, very hard as Booker feels he NEEDS to be a greeter! But both Booker and Torque weren’t extreme in their jumping or trying to say hello, so they passed! And now we can add the title “CGC” after their names!

Back to reality

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Fran on Friday –

042912tangooutsideSorry, I missed a couple of weeks. I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the Florida Keys with Tango and Booker! Not Key West, but Marathon, in the Middle Keys. If you’ve never been to the Keys, it’s like the Caribbean but in the US! Laid back and friendly, but with all the comforts of home. Plus, the locals speak American English. The seafood is tremendous, and you can drink the water!

Tango and Booker had a great time – we took multiple long walks every day. It was warm and breezy most days. We sat in the shade in the late afternoon. I read my book, Tango barked at people passing by, and Booker dozed. We all had fun.

But now, it’s back to reality. Routines are good. It was great to get away and recharge, but now it’s back to work, training and family. Booker seems to have remembered how to weave (whew!) and Tango, after a little refresher, remembered where “heel” position is.

But it’s supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow, and temperatures will be in the 20s. I’m used to the 80s, so this is a true shock to my system. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but in the meantime, it’s just rude!

Sleeping dogs

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Fran on Friday

Thinking is hard work!

Tired Booker after class

Is there anything more restful than having a sleeping dog? I don’t think so. As with most Fridays, traffic has slowed down this afternoon. Tango is napping in a bed (we have many scattered about the office – which is amazing, since the office is quite tiny) and Booker is snoring behind me on the chair. I don’t want to disturb Booker, but his little snorts are putting me to sleep!

Tango has had a busy week. School on Tuesday and work on Thursday and Friday. wrapngo_tngo_redpldsd_smWe don’t often use Tango as a model because it’s very difficult to get a good picture of a black dog. But he’s our smallest and we needed a model for the new Red Plaid Wrap-N-Go harness, so he was recruited! Hope reminded me that it’s easier to photograph him now because he’s turning (prematurely) gray!

And Booker had school last night and a couple of vigorous training / play sessions today. Rough life, right? So I have the radio turned up, bouncing along to Taylor Swift, working and trying to ignore Booker’s snores. I may have to wake him up, now that I think of it – I want him to sleep tonight!

Play = work

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Fran on Friday

Booker

Booker

It occurred to me that I should start training Booker some higher-level behaviors. If we can conquer the group exercises in AKC Novice Obedience (long sit and long down), then we’ll need some new skills. So I started training him to hold the dumbbell. Booker already likes to fetch things, so perhaps it won’t take long for him to bring me the dumbbell. The AKC Open level requires the dog to retrieve the dumbbell a couple of times and to hold it in his mouth until told to drop it.

The hard thing will definitely be for Booker to hold the dumbbell for any length of time. He did hold it for half a second or so today, but he’ll have to do better than that! I’ll start by having him hold it while heeling, perhaps. Then it won’t be as big a stretch for him to hold it when I’m stationary. Hopefully! That’s the plan, anyway. And in dog training, plans always have a way of changing. As dog trainers, we have to be flexible. Something is always changing, or not working right. And if something isn’t working, we have to find a new way of training.