Man's best friend?

Good evening dear readers.

Tonight finds yours truly a tired but happy blogger. The main reason for this is the two hours spent walking around Roundhay Park with the long suffering lady wife, one of my amazing friends, her son and two very energetic dogs.

First of all was my friends dog Pepper, an eight year old Springer Spaniel, and following closely behind, sometimes in front, and occasionally who knows where was our very own Bonnie a Springador of just eleven months.

We've had Bonnie with us since she was just eleven weeks old and it would be fair to say it has been an eventful journey with her. I don't know if you've ever come across the breed (if breed it be) but a Springador is half Springer Spaniel, half Labrador and just about all daft energy. We got her as a family pet but as she grew and picked up some basic training scarily quickly, and specifically as we watched a programme about Dogs for the Disabled, a nebulous idea started to form in our hopeful heads.

What if, we thought, we could train her up to be a helper dog. The kind that can pick things up off the floor for you, fetch things for you when you need them and even (if the aforementioned programme is to be believed.) put the washing in the washing machine for you! Now I woudn't really require the last item on that list, that would just be laziness on my part, but the first two would be kind of nice. Our ambition has seemed to be destined to go unfulfilled of late however as the pooch in question has taken a bit of a naughty bent.

It may well be her age, or a phase she's going through, but some days she can be a willful little madam, contrary, unresponsive, and more than a little willing to put her mouth around her daddy's hand. Other days such as today for instance she can be as good as gold, walking brilliantly on, and especially off the lead, returning when called, staying away from strangers and their dogs when asked to, (well, apart from one incident of ball stealing), and only ending up in the lake twice. Pretty perfect really,

I think a lot of her good behaviour can be attributed to the older, wiser, and immaculately trained Pepper's influence. Bonnie certainly took to Pepper, following her around like a, erm, puppy, and taking her queues from the behaviour of her new friend. Hopefully some of this will rub off on Bonnie permanently but either way I think some training classes are in a certain young dog's near future.

Until next time.