I have spent considerable amount of time and money training my poodle. We have completed 4 courses now, Basic I, Basic II, Canine Good Citizen, and Rally-O novice level. We continue to train because I would like to do some competitive obedience with him, but also because we want to keep him safe no matter what conditions we encounter in the real world.
Our instructors try to prepare us for the real world but there’s always that nervous moment when you first encounter that strange child climbing on your dog, or the out of control horse barreling down the trail.
So sometimes we try to stage the real life experiences.
When Cooper was a puppy a lady riding her bike on the trail was braking so she could pet him. She was exclaiming “Puppy”. Cooper ran right in front of her bike and was bumped enough that he yelped. I was a little worried that he didn’t learn his lesson and would hurt an actual mountain biker flying down the trail some day.
So my parents came to visit and wanted to go for a bike ride. I thought: excellent, we will see how he does with people who wont sue me.
And I was pleasantly surprised. My parents on bikes, me running on foot. Cooper sprinted to the lead bicyclist and sprinted back to me a few times. When he was next to a bike he ran along side a couple meters away. He kept an eye out for where the bikes were in relation to himself.
Our only thing of concern, while my parents were traveling the opposite direction of the loop from me we encountered a little girl on the trail. She fell off her bike when she hit some gravel. Cooper started barking at the bike. Angry scared barking. We got him to settle down and the little girl and accompanying guardian didn’t seem alarmed. It was suggested that Cooper was just upset at the bike for trying to hurt the little girl.
So overall, pretty pleased with my poodle. I think I’ll keep him.
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