They've got it.... no reminders needed! They came in and got right to work....
In an attempt to beat the heat, we started our first training routing with a repeat of the walk down to Colonial. The kids and dogs did so much better today. We talked about the importance of teaching a dog not to pull on leash, and the number one reason for dogs to be surrendered being behavioral problems. If we don't teach these pups how to walk properly, without lunging at other passing by, bikes, dogs etc... our companion dogs will be limited on their exercise.... and what is the result of this??? We did not need a discussion :)
On our way back, we had a race, kids with their dogs against me, who was the fastest to get back to Doglando. I won!!!!!!!!!! Yay! Now we were all beat!
We came in for a short but very important lesson on Pet First Aid. The kids went through a pet first aid kit discussing the different items in their and their uses. We also discussed what happens in case of a fire, and no one is home??? Three years ago, Doglando and Doglando Clients and Fans donated one set of 3 pet oxygen masks to every fire station in Orange County. We also kept one set in case of our own emergencies.
Typically in cases of a fire, it is rare that a person is the one in danger. More often it is the pets that need to be pulled out to safety.... as people are not at home and pets are in crates or unable to escape.
When fire fighters get to the scene they often find to have to give CPR to pets. However, there are many that don't do it, because it would require the same procedure as resuscitating a human mouth to mouth. Now, with the use of the masks, rescuers can resuscitate pets of all sizes (there are three sizes to each set). We also discussed the importance of placing "In case of Fire" stickers on your front door or window stating the number of pets in your home.
2nd Training Session:
Today we introduced the "down" cue. Every dog and child team accomplished this with great success. Some getting much further than they did when first teaching the "sit."
We had all the teams gather in the middle of field, with their dogs in a sit and the handlers facing the dog. The dogs walked in into the middle of the circle, and then released their dogs. Then we took the dogs off leash letting them play and interact with one another. The kids walked around to field, creeping up on the dogs and grabbing the skin on the back of their necks saying "gotch ya!" and then gave the dogs a handful of food. They did this to each others dogs.
Then, all the kids grabbed their dogs put their dogs in a sit and then on "Ready, set, go" they ran around the field, getting their dogs to follow them. When I yelled "stop" they had to ask their dogs to go into a sit.
This was "mad fun" as the kids would say!
To cool off, we came in discussed the importance of the exercises above. One of the campers, took me by surprise... she is so aware of even the discussions and comments between staff and other campers, she nailed the reasons why. It was great that they all understood the purpose of the exercises.
The kids made ice cream snacks for their dogs before breaking for lunch, and then after lunch we went swimming. Two dogs joined us for their first time, as they were at the vets yesterday afternoon while the rest were at the pool.
We had the kids compete in a race, they had to carry their dogs to the end of the pool, and then on "Go" let them go and swim by them. The girl who came in last with her dog, said "its okay, you are still a winner to me!"
Time flew by, cleaned, went out for ice cream and then ended our day with our last training exercise in the shop.
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