Bannana's

This morning Jack and I discovered the secret of Stay!! Bannana. Jack loves fruit and whilst my daughter was eating one, he did a "stay" being totally transfixed by the sight and longing for a piece. Of course initially he did not knowhe had done a stay but I had seen the potential. Guess what. twice in a row we dd a stay and with the aid of a trusty Bananna Jack became an obedient staying dog! Now...Am I allowed to use this on test night?....Right I am off to buy a lot of fruit, especially of the yello variety.

A Great day

Today started with a brief interview on Radio Suffolk. Mark Murphys Breakfast show. Thanks Mark. Unfortunately Jack was too busy into his training schedule to break off and chat so I had to represent his efforts to raise money....For those of you interested Jacks training schedule goes like this:
Good Nights sleep (at least 9 hours at a stretchhh...Wake up and Stretchhhh. A few gentle warm up exercises. followed by a quick nap before having a short run to limber up ready for the day. A small but nutritious breakfast followed by ten minutes of the hard stuff....Sit!. (if I must) Down (thats better) and Stay....(But why?) Then after this hard work out a dog must go for another sleep in preparation for the hard stuff later.

Tonight, We had a class with Penny and the rest of the class, although two friends were missing? A run through of test night and guess what We did OK... Staying for a whole minute was not brilliant so we really have to work on that, Only 50 seconds...Feels like an hour. However walking on the lead in a controlled manner went really well. Do I have a different dog from last week? On course I think for the Bronze.

The Pressure is on

Wow, the pressure is now on to succeed. No more hiding in the shadows, Jack and I need to succeed. People are really sponsoring us. Only 9% of our target and a long way to go but 9% is 9% and it shows people have shown some faith in us.....Thanks guys. Those Blisters on my hand will be worth it. Class tomorrow and we are going to be running through the Bronze award test. I spoke to Penny (Suffolk Dog School) earlier who is our trainer and she tells me that the test is set for 29th April! Help, I cant believe we will be ready but as I have said the pressure is on and it would be so embarrassing to fail our very first test.

Bullie runs...

Just to give you some idea what Jack can be like sometimes, have a look at a couple of youtube clips of Bull Terriers doing a Bullie Run.
Bullie Run One!!!

Bullie Run Two!!!

They're mad, I tell you. But life with a Bullie is fun and entertaining.

Well Jack and I are now about three weeks into our Big Train. Sit, down and wait are progressing satisfactorily and even Stays! are begining to happen more reliably. HOWEVER. Heel work is a disaster. To be more accurate the aim is to get your dog to walk nicely on a loose lead. My hands are blistered with the effort I require to hold him closely. A loose lead it is NOT. At our second class we attempted a Recall. To practice this, the trainer holds your dog, up one end of a large hall; when the owner is ready she releases the beast and the owner calls the dog to them. Well I was reasonably confident that Jack would come back to me. He did! but what happened then caused me great embarrassment and the rest of the class great amusement! Jack was caught but he partook in a spot of Bully running. If no one has witnessed this spectacle it is amusing, but can be alarming at the same time. Bull terriers sometime just take off at great speed and run in random patterns at full speed bouncing off anything that gets in their way. (This does appear to be a Bull terrier trait) Well Jacks ears went back (A sign of trouble to come) and his tail started gyrating at great speed (another sign of potential trouble) However I caught him and did my best to hold onto him (by sitting on him)whilst he spun on the floor in his efforts to run and my efforts to put his lead back on. A class mate described it as dog wrestling and very funny. Restraining a very strong dog who has decided he needs to run is no mean feat. Next week I am going to take Jack for a long walk before the class. Just maybe he will have spent some of that energy before he gets to class. Wish us luck.