Rosie is growing!

[diamondlil]

Rosie has been busy running, looking after boys, chasing smaller dogs (not encouraged, hopefully she'll stop this), cleaning up urban rubbish and playing in the mud

 

[diamondlil]

The hot weather we've been having really wears her out, so I've been encouraging her retrieving from water to keep her cooler when we go to the river

 

[tsst]

green Rosie rides again! Looking good Janine!

 

[diamondlil]

ROSIE CAUGHT A RABBIT! :cheers:
I took her out early down to the river before it got too hot (we've had temps in the 30s this week) and after she'd goofed around in the mud because the tide was out we carried on into the scrubby wasteland. Rosie was playing with a bottle she'd found when suddenly she marked, flushed and chased an adult rabbit out into the open and caught it. As Rosie never let go of her bottle, the rabbit rolled, shook itself and darted into the brambles.
So no bunny for tea tonight, but a very proud and happy little dog!

 

[tsst]

Congrats Rosie!!!

 

[Tara80]

LOL bottles are more important IMO.

 

[diamondlil]

Sunday evening, a trip to the river when it cooled down, and another chance for Rosie to shine in her new pursuit, this time a chase of two rabbits sitting together in the same spot as last time, with them managing to split in different directions at the end to foil her. Clever girlie!
Yesterday, out for an adventure, a trip to Dungeness with my old University friend Amandla. The perfect combination, I knew Amandla would love the arty connections and sheer desolate beauty of the place, and Rosie could inspect the eco-friendly collections of found objects and run happily on the huge shingle beach!

 

[diamondlil]

Apart from our usual walks, this week I took Rosie over to visit my sister and play with her 'cousins' Prudence and Phoebe. Due to ill health my sister has rehomed Henry the pug to a breeder, Porridge and Brock the teriers have gone to working homes that will give them the active lives they need to be happy.
To ease the visit, first we took the girls out for a bit of a run about, then back to see how they settled in the garden. Phoebe (The shorter haired jack russel) is very dominant, but gets on well with Rosie as Rosie knows better than to challenge her. Prudence, however, is a little highly strung and unpredictable around other dogs. In the park she suddenly cannoned into Rosie while they were running around and got told off by Phoebe for doing so.
Back at the house, it all went well until my sister gave the girls a bone each. Rosie was laying down next to Phoebe with no tension at all, Prudence tried to take Rosie's bone and an explosive noisy fight errupted between Rosie and Prue.
I managed to seperate them quickly and told them off impressively enough that Phoebe (unusually for her) didn't feel the need to intervene. No injuries thank goodness, the bones were taken away and the girls settled down again for a lazy afternoon in the sun, and looking for froglets in the pond.

 

[diamondlil]

Thanks to a tip from a local lady who owns one of Rosie's friends, we've got a new area to explore. Areas of the napoleonic forts and ramparts have been restored, with a lovely park and woodland area, just perfect for the hot weather as I can keep to the shaded areas if necessary. Today wasn't too hot though, for Rosie to have a really good run.

 

[diamondlil]

We've found a new game to play at the park. A kiddies 'deathslide' has been set up, but there are never any children playing there....so a rabbit on a string whizzing along makes a great Rosie game!

 

[diamondlil]

As well as the new game, the squirrels in the park have been catching Rosie's nterest for chasing, so I shouldn't really be surprised that this evening she actually caught her first rabbit! She didn't kill it outright though, so I finished it off quickly, then realised it had myxomatosis, a viral disease that decimates rabbit populations here every year since it was introduced as a means of control. So no rabbit in the freezer, but one very happy little dog

 

[The_Thunderer]

Rosie looks like so much fun, J9! Right now, our dogs don't seem interested in chasing balls or catching frisbees... BUT when walking, Scout loves to "chase" rabbits!!!

 

[diamondlil]

Rosie looks like so much fun, J9! Right now, our dogs don't seem interested in chasing balls or catching frisbees... BUT when walking, Scout loves to "chase" rabbits!!!

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love her, Fred! Even when (like this morning) she's got into the kitchen and emptied the waste bin!
She's absolutely exhausted and curled up sound asleep on the sofa now

 

[The_Thunderer]

LOL, J9! She looks like such a good companion dog. Despite getting into your waste bin, how is she training wise? The two pups we have are so... "distracted" that it is difficult to get them doing something consistently to get enough repetitions for the training. LOL.

She sure has grown (I went back to the very first post)! I missed a few posts while I was "off" but have caught up now. LOVE this thread!

 

[diamondlil]

Training Rosie has been fairly hard, Fred. She's not interested in treats and is quite an excitable little dog, wanting to be busy off having fun rather than paying attention. So any training sessions have to be short and sweet. Then the praise has to be pitched just right so she knows she's done well but not too much so she's all dizzy!
She can only sustain 'sit' for a second, but at least it's consistent now and with a hand signal or with voice command. 'Down' is beyond her. 'Leave' is dimly starting to kick in. 'Wait' is useful to stop her charging off up a track and 'this way' brings her straight back if she's taken a different path to the one I want to go.
The best thing is that her recall is really good, again remembering that she's a sighthound it's best if I call her before her interest is piqued by something far off that looks like it needs chasing! But now she will actually stop and return to me most of the time, for which she really does get praised.
Lead walking is 100%, no pulling or rudeness at all and I've just started short 'heel' offlead walks, and she can manage about 10 steps so far before I let her go on.
I was warned before I got her that beddywhippets grow up very slowly, and she's retained puppyish ways far longer than I would have expected if I hadn't spoken to other lurcher owners.

 

[The_Thunderer]

Sounds like you're where we are, training wise. Our dogs do "sit" really well... before we go through a door, before we put food into their dishes for them... when we stop walking while they're on a leash. "SIT" is their best thus far.

Rosie seems to excel at "Recall" where our Scout is completely oblivious. LOL. We take him out to a completely enclosed baseball field early mornings and just before dark. He loves to run after the birds and rabbits there. Our "curse" is calling him in when it is time to go. He runs right past us, or just within arms reach. When we try get the leash on him, BAM he's off and running. OR... he just ignores us while he dives into the dirt pile or gnaws at the grass or chases the birds/rabbits around. It is the ONE command we're really gotta get going with him. LOL.

Dallas... he's pretty good. Of course, he's just a little guy and hasn't learned to chase things yet... and only likes to go as far as he can really see well... so he's pretty much under foot all the time. BUT, if he goes off, getting him to come back - well, it depends on what kind of mood he's in.

Ahhhhh... the blessings of doggie ownership!!!

 

[diamondlil]

Rosie has finally learnt some variations on 'sit'! If she sits on the leather footstool she can give her paw and 'speak'. It just doesn't work as well anywhere else but on the footstool at the moment, but somehow sitting on there concentrates her mind for long enough to go through the repertoire!
We've been taking advantage of the exceptionally mild Autumn for plenty of long walks, and she's in bouncing good health.

 

[minimonkey]

That is one of the cutest dogs I have ever seen
I love the shaggy look.