Dexter and I continued with our rehabilitation on an ongoing basis, during which time we entered the world of Dog Showing for a few months based on the advice of Dexter’s groomer, a great lady who knows her dogs, and is very well connected in the dog world.
That lasted a few months and was actually quite hard work, what with getting up at 5am on the morning of a show, grooming him to perfection, driving to the show and then keeping him looking good until it was his turn to trot around the showring to try to win a rosette for himself.
He did quite well in his few months as a show dog, picking up a total of 9 rosettes in his 6 month show career!
I always thought it was quite hard for him in the showring. He’s a feisty little character, bursting with energy most of the time and there was a lot of standing about waiting for classes and the like.
Meeting Paul Connolly of Wolfspeak led us into a completely different set of activities.
We started attending Paul’s Obedience Classes, just to keep the learning going for both of us and to give Dexter some structure.
This soon led on to his absolutely favourite pastime….Agility Class! Paul suggested we try Agility to give Dexter something to think about, as he was an intelligent dog and it would stimulate him. After a few weeks getting used to the various obstacles in the training field, Dexter started to get the hang of things and started to bound over the jumps with such prowess, that he rapidly became the star of the class!
Most of the time he was the smallest dog in class, which was generally occupied with Collies and German Shepherds, but, determined not to be considered the ‘underdog’, Dexter continued to jump the ‘big dog’ jumps and didn’t see the point in the rails being lowered to suit his small size.
I was so proud of him and he thoroughly enjoyed it. So, we continued to go off to Agility Class once each week and still do to this day when classes are held during the summer time. Dexter absolutely adores it and is pretty good at it and it’s so rewarding to see him having such a great time.
I'm Happy But He Doesn't Look Too Interested!
