Friday, July 27, 2007

Borrowed Dog

I'm pet sitting my boss' dog Bosley this weekend. He's a fabulous four year old Golden Retriever. What a sweetheart! He greets me at the door with a huge stuffed animal in his mouth and a wag in his tail. I took him for a walk today with Moxie and he got the hang of walking nicely on leash rather quickly. I could tell he doesn't get walked much. He pooped out after a mile while Moxie was still rarin to go! In fact a three mile bike ride/run, and a mile walk only took the edge off Moxie's energy. The dog is insane. Maybe my next dog will be a golden!

My boss wants me to get Boz evaluated as a therapy dog, but we need to learn some basics first. Sit, down, walk on lead, stay, and come. He has to know this solid to pass the test. Bosley has a rock solid temperment and he will pass that portion of the test with flying colors. So I'm embarking on a new adventure to train a borrowed dog.

I'm excited. This will be fun. I'm used to working with herding breeds so a Golden is a whole new ball game. Walking him to drain his energy won't take near as long for starters! Having a new dog to work should hone my skills as a trainer and maybe fill a void that having a second dog would fill. Since I can't have another dog for a while, this is the next best thing.

So my plan is, walk him daily, and two 15 minute training sessions a day to start. Lots of praise and positive rewards. Do I dare clicker? I don't think I will. We don't want competition obedience, just pet level obedience and he's quick to learn.

So pics of the handsome Mr. Boz tomorrow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't let his lack of energy deceive you... He will probably pick up energy significantly as you work with him... This sounds like fun, good luck!

Oscar's mummy and daddy said...

Dear Rachael and Moxie,

I am sorry to tell you that our darlng Oscar died on Saturday morning.

Thank you for all the great comments you left on his blog and for loving our fuzzy little boy.

Katy and Martin x

Rossi2009 said...

Why not clicker? :-)