Monday, August 5, 2013

A walk in the other park


On occasion, Elka and I hop into the car and go to another park that's just outside of town. It's nice and quiet there, and there tend to be few people or other dogs around. 


The other park is a great place for us to stretch our legs, but also work on varying training things. Mostly recall, but also occasionally ignoring other dogs. Right when we arrived, there was an adolescent Vizsla on a retractable leash. He wanted very very much to get to know Elka, and was far too spastic for me to even begin to entertain that notion. We started to take a wide angle, and the owner kind of did, but not really. The Vizsla ended up dragging out about 4 feet from his locked retractable leash before I essentially curled a lip and said "Get your dog!" and the owner got the picture.

Elka was staring at him, as she does, and she was getting ready to bounce around, mohawk, and perhaps bark. After I said that, and before she did any of those things, I turned to her, said "That's not your problem" and stuck a pork rind in her mouth. Well. She completely forgot the existence of that other dog, and we sallied forth through the park.


We also work on down stay, up close and also at a distance. Though this is a new park with all kinds of exciting smells, it's also fairly low distraction. No critters running about and, as I said, few other people.


I brought treats, obviously. Other than pork rinds (I only brought two of those), I had leftover pork loin that I diced up. Somebody was very, very good at maintaining a heel when she realized roast pork was involved, even without my cuing her to do so. For recall reward, I had a small stuffed hedgehog that squeaks. Poor hedgehog probably isn't much longer for this world, as stuffed toys, even in the tiniest doses, are clearly not actually made for dogs to chew on.






9 comments:

  1. So that's why pork rinds are so popular! Astute intervention on behalf of the ineffective owner and Elka. Because I can't swallow, I have no food in the house for treats unless I buy it specifically and when I do, yep, the pork and the braunschweiger go over very, very well :).

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  2. Sounds like a good day out. The pictures of Elka in this post are gorgeous!

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  3. Haha, I use the same cue with Nola!
    Nola's Mom

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  4. Sure sounds like a nice little park
    Benny & Lily

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  5. I'm also very, very good at maintaining a heel when roast pork is involved. :D

    It's really great to read about dog owners who actually take the time to train their dogs. We have too many of the other kind in our area. :(

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  6. Ma thinks retractable leads should be banned. At least for dogs like, well ME. Never have I been on one. Nor will I ever. I am very good at sit and stay and all of that stuffs..unless a dog barks at me furst...then all bets are off! Ma has tried (along with a trainer), to fix this problem, butts so far no luck. She keeps tryin'. Maybe someday Ma will find something that works...
    Anyhu, looks like Elka doesn't have that problem! Yea! You ROCK Elka.
    I do love me some pork....
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

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  7. Amazing how the scenery fades when one is focused on a pork rind. :-)

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  8. I like that cue. "Not your problem."

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  9. Haha, too funny. Reminds me a lot of my Golden when anything pork comes out!

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