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Here Beth takes Buoy for a short walk, keeping Buoy on-leash. She worked him around the parking lot, illustrating the commands she used to control direction. You should decide on the commands you will use for direction (e.g. left/right, haw/gee), start/stop (e.g. hike/forward/go for start, whoa/halt for stop, etc.) and be consistent in their use. Try to use something different from obedience commands, since it can be somewhat confusing to the dog when one command means several different things, depending on whether it's raining... |
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Another shot of this team at work. Notice that Buoy isn't forging ahead, or whacking Beth in the back of the knee with the shafts. |
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Buoy is now off-leash, and moving alongside Beth at a trot. Now, this may not be recommended for Pyrs. Given their wanderlust, off-leash anything is often ruled out. However, it is easier to catch a Pyr with a cart hooked up! |
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Here you can see the nice heel position that Buoy is maintaining. Note: You need not always cart with the dog in heel position. In fact, if thre dog gets too used to that position, it throws the dog off when you try to work in any other position. Also, a dog that tries to heel too closely while in shafts is guaranteed to bash you in the back of the knee of thigh with the shafts. This hurts, and you end up with a huge bruise to remind you of your training session. It helps to start working the dog on the right side, trailing a bit behind, and forging a bit in front, so that the dog gets used to the commands you are giving, and not the position. |
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Oh, Buoy!...When Beth was done with Buoy's demo, she asked for someone to hold him. Mary Mainous graciously offered to help, but wasn't aware of the events to unfold! Buoy took a great liking to Mary, and kept trying to climb into her lap and lick her face. It proved to be quite the sideshow! Remember - Newfs drool.....a lot. Mary got quite an enthusiastic "sliming". Fortunately, Pyr people are sort of used to it. |
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Beth came over a couple of times to rescue Mary...Buoy was proving a distraction to the demo. It was a bit of a novelty to see a large black dog acting goofy for a change...We are so used to the white dogs acting weird! |
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Realizing that discretion is the better part of valour, Beth finally pried Buoy away from poor Mary and handed him to Judy Gustafson. Buoy was a good boy then. Judy didn't get anywhere near as wet! |
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