Beautiful grey and pink, they were busy looking for food at our local off leash park. Kiara was mesmerised. Then she flew into action. The flock of Galahs took off, gliding low, just out of reach. I have a habit of calling Kiara off any chasing shortly into it, and then let her get back to it sometimes, to keep her recall response strong, but this time I stood mesmerised. I had never been able to let Kiara race: the whippet fun races had moved from Healesville to Melton after she was old enough to race, and Melton is simply too far for us to go. Now she was in full flight, hard on the heels of the Galahs, shadowing their every turn. She was beautiful. I just couldn't get myself to stop her. When finally I tried, the response was as I expected: for once, she didn't even acknowledge she had heard me. Of course now I have to retrain the recall when she next lays eyes on a Galah, but it was worth being able to watch her do what a whippet is meant to do. When a little later she started chasing a magpie, she turned on a dime as usual on my recall signal, and I made sure to reward her with a feast of slowly fed roast chicken. Now for those Galahs!
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Daniela PelgrimI started my dog journey with Jessie, a small white fluffball bichon-schnauzer cross. She was trained in the traditional way by choke collar and praise via voice. After she died, Giro, my smooth collie, taught me how wrong this approach was. Kiara, my whippet, reaped all the benefits, and can't wait for her training every day, all day! Categories
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