Laura and Photon (with new tug toy prize)

Photon has now just graduated from “Step Ahead”, her third Who’s Walking Who doggie training class and what a finish it was! On the last night of classes, they do some review, and then they always play games for Bonus Bones, which are little slips of paper that are later entered into a draw (the better you do in the games, the better your chances in the draw).

Previously, Photon has been sharp in class, but in the games…well, she has been known to completely forget everything she ever learned, ever. There’s nothing like being in a timed competition with your teammates staring at you and having your dog looking at you absolutely blankly, as if it just met you. Add to that the fact that one of our classmates was an off-duty instructor training her super-well-behaved Italian Greyhound Phoebe, and we sensed defeat again!

It wasn’t so bad. After a rocky start (a game of “Sparky Says” which was—let’s face it—a test of the attention span of the owners), Photon did really well in games like:

Musical Chairs is about to begin. Laura is hidden in the interlaced chairs

Musical Chairs: Everyone sits in a chair, then walk with your dog around the circular course around when the music plays. One chair is taken away. When the music stops, have your dog sit and stay some distance from the chairs and then go to take a seat. If your dog gets up or lies down while you are sitting you must leave your seat and go towards your dog to get it to sit again. Referee calls time each session, and the person without a seat is out. This goes until one dog is left.

Mid-Musical Chairs.

There was some subterfuge, as one of the owners of her playoff rival Milo surreptitiously snapped his fingers to try and break Photon’s concentration. Nice try. But it didn’t work and she took the prize. 😀

Owners, prepare to Bang. In the field: Piper, Duke, Milo, Photon, Phoebe.

Bang: Sit and stay your dog, then walk to the middle of the room with your back to your dog. The referee calls out “Bang” and the owners turn and tell their dogs to go “Down” from their position (called “down at a distance”). Photon won twice! We realize today that this was a bit rigged. We were sitting nearest to the well-trained Phoebe, and farthest from the less doctrinaire Piper, a big hairy fellow who decided that if his owner had her back to him, he wasn’t on duty, so he charged over to take earnest beagle Duke and the two snowballed over to take Milo out of the play. If the two keener dogs had been away from each other, who knows what chaos would have ensued. Cheque’s in the mail, Piper.

Food on the Floor: Down and stay your dog then walk to the middle of the room, leaving a piece of food about 12 feet away. If a dog gets up to get it, he/she is out. Then return and treat the dog. Repeat with food only 8 feet away from the dog. Then about 3.5 feet away, with a wager of already won Bonus Bones to make things interesting. Photon co-won!

At the end of the night came the draw. Photon had good odds, but better yet Jon was the official drawer—he’s been to each class, actually, and we had yet to win—but this time Mr. Integrity drew Photon’s name from the basket. She won a brand new tug toy, which she’s now happily tearing apart!

Doggie crowd and their people at Kew Beach off-leash park

Sisters Photon, Cobalt and Raven [photographer’s comment: please note that the gravel and waves are focused, it’s the dogs who are blurry!]

On Tuesday at Kew Beach we had a little get-together of several Toronto-area Stoverly mini aussies (and their people). We ended up with six minis (and one non-Stoverly, standard aussie Charli) representing two main breeding lines: Photon, Cobalt and Raven W are all Hershey-Max siblings (Raven from a previous litter); and Splash, Bean and Jazz are respectively, mother and daughters from two different litters.

Photon greets long-lost-sister Raven

Photon shows Raven how to rob Cobalt at sea

To Jazz’s owner’s disappointment, the dogs couldn’t care less about their family relationships; Splash and her daughters never really acknowledged each other much, showing the typical aussie reserve towards new dogs or people. Hershey’s girls, by contrast, had a great time playing with each other, both in and out of the lake—but did the same with any other dog who happened by. Dogs just don’t put the same emphasis on blood ties as humans do—and they’re probably a lot less neurotic for it!

Kew Beach at sunset with a log of tired dogs!

Just last week, Laura and I were wondering if Photon was ever going to be a swimmer. She had ventured into the water at the cottage a few time, but never beyond chest high (maybe six inches). Even when offered a 30-goose dinner not far away.

One week later, we just look silly.

We started throwing sticks into the water, farther and farther, and in the waves she happily went from walking to swimming. It didn’t hurt that her pal Jasmine was there to compete for sticks, and so Photon just opened her engines up and plunged in. Within a day, she was addicted.

Now all we have to worry about is Photon going in the water when we don’t want her to. 🙂