Tuesday 6 November 2007

Halloween on the Long line - Abney Cemetary

We have been advised to keep Hamish on the lead for the next 8 weeks (yes it seems rather drastic) until he learns better recall and get himself under control generally. It is quite a test for us too. He has been jumping up at people and now that he's a big lad it gets very embarassing, he even knocked one lady over. Luckily she was a doggie lady. He gets very happy when he sees folks but obviously this behaviour is inappropriate and has to be modified.
Ho Hum, what to do. We took him for a cycle to Abney Cemetry where we hoped he wouldn't meet any of his mates. He did meet a lovely Alsation called Stella though and we did let him off leash for a while as it was an enclosed space and they played very well together.
He's even getting better at leaving the squirrels alone, but they still fascinate him. No Hamish he's not coming down to play with you - ever!
Even at my work he seeks out the most comfortable chair in the house, in the sunshine is even better. Oi mister - this one's reserved for customers.

2 comments:

Diesel said...

Hello Hamish,

I have never been to a cemetary,though I did go to a fireworks display the other day.
I hope you did not dig up any bones.
Eight weeks on the lead won't be much fun,you must have done something really naughty.
I like to curl up in an armchair too,unless there is someone I can curl up next to of course.

Diesel.

Hamish said...

Hello Diesel,
Hamish wasn't really naughty at all, but our trainer lady who we see thinks we need to nip some bad habits in the bud. Hamish jumps up on people he likes and sometimes even strangers if they're nice to him. Also his recall was becoming pretty bad and he was venturing off quite far with other dogs he liked and would only come back when he was ready. When you add to all this that his testosterone must be confusing him and he wants to hump quite a lot then we needed to be able to have better control over him.

He's getting better already and is actually able to have some fun even on the long lead.

We're very impressed that diesel went to a fireworks display. This was Hamish's first year of fireworks and he didn't like them much. He did get a bit more used to them by the end and stopped trembling in the corner but there's no way we could have taken him to a display.

We have ordered a whistle from the gundog club so I hope he will respond to this and come running back to us just like you do for Anthony.