Defra, Doggy Dancing and Doggy Daycare

Well this month has been chaotic, it took three weeks for the floor to dry. We are all back to normal how except we still need to get a new office carpet. The reception, training area and day-care are all sorted. The landlord supplied us with lots of fans and dehumidifiers and also some guy came and sprayed the centre with some antibacterial stuff, that kills bacteria and stops mould growth and stuff. He used this machine that looked like Nu Nu off the Tellytubbies

I went to college on the 25th for a block week. It was my birthday on the Tuesday and we all got together for some drinks in the evening which was fab. I even got a chocolate birthday cake.

My freestyle assessment for the advanced dog training was at 9am on the Thursday and the practical coaching assessment for the counselling skills and case histories was at 10am!

On the Wednesday some researchers came from Defra to explain some research they are doing on electric shock collars. They are testing the resistance across the skin of different dogs and also on wet and dry skin. They have this specially altered collar that sends an extremely mild current and records data. They are also doing some research into stress and cortisol levels. They asked if any of the students would let them test on their dogs. They were allowed to feel the current themselves first and also could stop the testing at anytime if they felt they wanted to. Some of the students did and most of the dogs did not even react in any way, but a couple showed a response that they felt something. As they were looking ideally at small dogs I decided not to. I will be interesting to see the outcome.

Wednesday afternoon I took Dinky into the training area and ran through our routine, she did it perfectly, which was a little worrying, would she do the same tommorow??

I didn’t sleep well Wednesday night and was up bright and early. We got to the training area and I had a bit of play with Dinky and did some moves to get her going.
Pauline and Lynda turned up armed with assessment papers and video camera.
I was a bag of nerves and Dinky picked up on it and decided to switch off. The routine started pretty badly and at one point I was considering just stopping! I was determined not to turn it into a training round and get my treats as I would lose 50% straight away for this. So we carried on, we managed a full routine, I got Dinky going again several times and we got through it and I passed!!!!!

I was really disappointed as I had worked so hard at it and it came down to those 3 1/2 minutes, but I guess that’s just dogs for you!!!

My 10am assessment was much less stressful. I went over time a bit and was penalised for it but I passed.

Thursday I was shattered and set off back home. I was back in Work Friday walking dogs and then training later. Matt walked all the dogs for me and Stewart, Jayne and Matt ran the classes while I was away.

We started another puppy class on Saturday due to the others being fully booked up till March!

As the last of the flooring was laid at the weekend we made an appointment on Friday for the council to come and inspect the daycare facility and they have issued us with a boarding license.

So we start offering daycare as from Monday.

Oh and in all my busyness this month I forgot to enter Crufts!!! It will be the first time in 15 years I have not competed!!