Jo's Old Site

Mum and I took Ilse to Coominya where Donna from Dog Sense holds her puppy classes, and I brought some of Ilse’s toys and the idea was so that Ilse could play with them while there.

But even though she plays with them with me at home she wasn’t interested in them.

As she was too busy having fun and sometimes when her attention is else where it is hard to get her attention as she is so focused on what she is interested in.

Though in the end mum did get her to play, and we eventually did get her to tug on a rope toy then I gave her food when she let go of it when I said “leave it.”

Also as Donna got us to work on things, she got everyone to get their dog’s attention and the cattle dog was the best as she held her attention for ten seconds as Donna was counting.

Ilse held her attention for three seconds before she had looked away, and the other two went for five; I was amazed that Ilse held her attention for that long and I didn’t mind having a dog with the shortest attention span as knowing that is something to work on.

We also took our dogs for a walk, and I let mum and Donna do this with Ilse and it was a good idea as Donna started walking just two steps and getting Ilse to come up.

I tried this myself already today, and found it was something I can do; mum also told me that this way would teach Ilse to go my pace which is what people with disabilities have to try to teach when they are training their dogs.

Then as we were driving home, I told mum that I didn’t mind other people getting Ilse to walk with them if I can do it too, as I think that is important. Also closer to home mum and I saw some camels in a paddock.