Sunday training and beach outing

Yesterday it was a lovely warm, spring day, and Sparkle and I had a great training session in the garden:


On the contact trainer


Going over a jump

Then I took the three Border Collies to the beach. They were so well behaved. There were many other people on the beach too, but the three of them were model dogs - stayed close to me, came to me when I called them, and posed for photo's:


Testing the water


On a rock, looking down at me



I laugh at people's reactions to my dogs posing for the photo's - I just point to where I want them and they all three go there, turn around and look at the camera. The photo above with me in it was taken by setting the camera up on self-timer - just look at how little Sparkle looks at the camera even though no one is calling her ...

We had a nasty experience though - just as we were about to leave, people came to the beach with five dogs: one Border Collie, two Labradors, a maltese, and a black long-haired cross. I know Labs can be boisterous, so I kept an eye on them. But before I knew what was happening, one of them charged towards us. Sparkle is very scared of other dogs, so she ran away screaming, and the more she ran, the more this dog chased her. Well, she ran onto the rocks and into the sea from the rocks. My heart nearly stopped. Somehow she was out again and ran to me and jumped into my arms, still with this dog behind her. The owners caught him and put him on lead.

What I did then was not baby her but to tell her in my most cheerful voice (although I was as shaken as she was) that everything's ok and to play tug with her (her favourite game) with the Lab walking nearby still on lead:


Playing tug shortly after her "swim"

I am so grateful that she did not even have a scratch from this ordeal. The other concern now is whether this affected her negatively psychologically. I hope I handled it correctly to show her "it's no big deal" ....?? We'll see that this weekend when she has to work with other dogs around.

The worst is the people afterwards: the man and woman did not come over to hear whether she's ok, or even to apologise. When the grandmother and grandson walked past, the little boy asked if she's ok, and the grandmother then asked "Why, what happened?" I looked at her in disbelief as the whole beach was witness to this episode, and calmly replied "That dog chased my dog into the sea" where upon she replied "Oh, rubbish". My mouth just hung open! People astound me more and more every day!