The Dog Diary

I can’t really remember how the first night went with Conan. A friend of mine stayed over and we had some fun playing with the dogs until they were exhausted. As a result of that, I think my new puppy slept for most of the night. The peaceful nights were, however, to be short lived!

The following day, I was due to take Dexter to his agility class and I was determined that my boy would not be neglected just because there was a new dog in town! I was a little concerned about leaving Conan alone so soon after bringing him back to his new home, but Paul Connolly of Wolfspeak had told me to be brave, leave him in his dog crate, and come to training class. He assured me that a good way to conquer separation anxiety before it even started was to get the dog used to being alone for short periods of time from day one.

So, I made sure the pup was fed, watered and had been outside to do his business, then I locked him in his crate and left for training class.

A few hours later I returned, fully expecting to see a sleeping puppy, but the sight that greeted me was somewhat different! There he was, my 8 week old pup, asleep on top on my slippers which I had placed on top of the shoe bench by the front door. Have you ever looked at something and done a double-take? I was convinced I’d left him in his steel dog crate, locked and bolted. Was I going mad? On closer inspection, I discovered that the little cannonball had broken out of the crate. How he did this is still a mystery to this day, but yes, he had obviously gotten himself into such a state of separation anxiety, that he had broken right out from behind his metal bars. I knew from that point forward I was going to have trouble with this one. And Dexter had been such a great puppy. What on earth had I let myself in for?

A Picture of Innocence?

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!