Misty was very well behaved when she spent a couple of nights away from home and stayed with another PADS raiser. While mom and dad travelled to Vancouver for Easter. Who would think that the sitter also had a cat named Misty!
Spring has arrived with warmer weather, lots of yellow blooming Arrowleaf Balsamroot, and many loose leash walks on the trails in and around the Okanagan. We met up with other PADS dogs a couple of times: Levi, Silver & Odie and practiced engagement walks with our capes on along beautiful mountain trails. Other times we had adventurous mountain trail walks with PADS Olaf, sister Margot or with our Geocaching dog friend Blue.
A few firsts this month: Misty did not flinch when she walked past a few horses on a trail, nor did she try to retrieve a dead quail we found on the road. Now at seven months of age, she ignored shoppers and confidently walked through Orchard Park Shopping Centre, which she had not visited since before Christmas. She also walked up and down a huge 158 step open wooden staircase. Misty, the sun worshiper, is always seeking out the sunshine or a sunbeam to snooze in.
We had a three-on-three training session with Shona and PADS Margot and Findlay. Misty gets much too excited when she sees other dogs she knows and must work extremely hard on containing herself. Shona was extremely strict with her training methods and would not allow Misty to join the class until she settled down. After class, the 3 pups enjoyed a play date at the nearby dog park and the two sisters, Margot & Misty, enjoyed cooling off in the nearby lake.
In ZOOM class, Misty practiced standing on a small perch with her back legs and transferred her weight from the front legs to the back legs as she reached for kibble. This is in preparation for learning a kickback stand. Since Misty is very food motivated, so it is easy to shape her behaviour to learn a new command. Mistyβs other strengths are that she is trustworthy around the house, very attentive to me, has particularly good recall and has excellent control around her food bowl.
Submitted by: Chris Buitinga
