Training With Daisy

Our Couch to 5k running program is part walking and part running, so during the walking bits, we have used the time to do some Daisy training – specifically fetching a ball. We don’t do this during the running sections as having Daisy bounding around between our feet would just be too dangerous and we’d both like to avoid the hospital at the moment if possible!

So the sequence of commands I’ve been teaching is ‘sit’, ‘fetch’ and ‘good girl’ (when she brings the ball back).

Just three simple commands – but you just wouldn’t believe the problems these cause.

‘Sit’

‘Fetch’

‘Good girl’

Really – how much easier could it be…??

But every single time there’s one problem or another.

Of course, Daisy has got it all perfected and she is sitting, fetching and returning like a star. The problem is Ian!

For some reason, he is unable to get those three commands in order – or indeed, most of the time unable to get the three commands uttered at all. Daisy has got the ball and returned by the time he’s mumbled some random command.

The problem, I believe, is seeing a cricket sized ball has bought out Ian’s latent cricketer’s spirit, and instead of throwing a ball for Daisy, he is bowling for England!! The concentration that this takes appears to knock everything else out of his mind…

Still, we’re getting there. Daisy and I hope to have Ian trained with these simple commands by the end of the lockdown 🙂

Below is a picture of Ian throwing the ball, if you look closely you can see the ball under the cloud (Charlie is busy looking at the lavender, her sight isn’t good enough to see the ball so she has no idea really what is going on).