It was a beautiful autumn day and a peaceful drive about an hour and half into the countryside to the little town of Taralga. Geoffrey lives on a few acres and says that it is fine for us to use his land for tracking practice. I couldn't track yesterday or let the dogs stray very far, unfortunately, because the grass is long and full of seed and the temperatures are still warm enough for brown snakes to be out in the middle of the day.....
Geoff doesn't have any animals and I was a little bit nervous about how the guys would behave in this new environment but i needn't have been nervous. He seemed quite happy with these two big hairy dogs sniffing and playing around him and the guys were incredibly well behaved.
What a relief! We will be asked back again!!
The dogs had a great time sniffing around Geoff''s house and when we went out to the studio they rumbled up and down in that nice big open space. They were pretty funny wrestling all over the floor while we talked about paint qualities and the problems Geoff was having with his latest set of paintings.
I was really proud of the way they behaved and i was very happy with Ieper's good natured curiosity and general acceptance of this new situation. I would have loved to see them racing around the paddocks at Geoff's - but maybe we can do that later in the year when winter has sent the snakes packing.
We did some "two on-two off" practice on some of the steps at Geoff's studio and we did some focus- and heelwork around the studio when a local couple dropped by to see his paintings. It was a good opportunity to ask Eepie to work in this new environment with new people around.
The training/exercises that came in handy yesterday were two simple, everyday 'household' commands - Settle (lie down now and relax) and Here (informal come to me and hang around nearby).
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