A very proud post (with photos)

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Annette4

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So Dobby has been performing at Dogfest for the last 3 weekends and we're both very tired but had an amazing time and I'm so incredibly proud of him.

My reactive boy coped with crowds and rude dogs (we had two reactions over the 6 days but he trusted me to get him out of the way, one to a puppy trying to take food out of his mouth and one to a pointer who stuck it's nose in his junk before I had chance to get in the way). Both times he stopped the second I got him out of the way and carried on without getting further wound up which is a massive improvement.

Most days had a big gap in the main arena fencing so he stayed on his longline but Sunday at Knebworth and this Sunday at Tatton he was off his line. At Knebworth we had a few minutes of getting a mexican wave going with his zoomies then back to business and this Sunday it was half that. Ideal, no, but a massive improvement and when he came back to me he was back to performing and listening so I can't ask for more from my giddy boy.

I'm really hoping there are some professional photos from Sunday but a friend from our flyball team came to see us on Saturday so got some photos for us.....excuse my massive bottom, lockdown had not been kind!

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Ratface

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IMHO Lurchers are fabulous ?. Especially when, like Dobby, they have the right owners. I love the "yer what?" expressions on the women in the background!
 
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Annette4

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CorvusCorax said:
Love the faces of the women in the background in the first pic!
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Ratface said:
IMHO Lurchers are fabulous ?. Especially when, like Dobby, they have the right owners. I love the "yer what?" expressions on the women in the background!
Click to expand...

I hadn't spotted them until I showed OH just before I posted on here ? my friends dog who did the full routine before us is fabulous but much older than Dobby and less bouncy so it is a lovely contrast to see two very different dogs do the same thing.

He needs a job or 3 (he does flyball, agility and the disc sports) and I'm not sure we'd cope with him without them if I'm honest. I do get frustrated at times with all of his sports as he has so much power and potential but he struggles to contain himself and often excitment gets the better of him but its all sheer joy but its really hard to remember that when he's charging about round a flyball venue or main arena during a demo ?
 
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Annette4

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Ratface said:
He's so lucky to be owned by you. Does he have a back story?
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Not really, we should have walked away when we went to see the litter. The ad said they were 4 weeks but we turned up and they were 2 weeks old and in the kitchen with mum in a crate with the curtains to the back garden closed but we couldn't say no at that point. (yes everything you should walk away from). We were shown photos of 'dad', another working whippet but I'm not at all convinced he was dad. They tried to get us to take him at 6 weeks but we refused until he was 8 weeks, when we collected him the curtains were open and the outdoor kennel was in view (no issue in principle, mum was a working dog). We were told he had been wormed regularly and I didn't even ask about his bowed legs just got out and reported them.

Got him into the vets the next day for vaccinations, chipping etc, told his legs were from poor nutrition but that they should come right (thankfully they have but I was extremely careful with him as a puppy) and given wormer as vet agreed with us that it didn't look like he'd ever been wormed. He passed worms, just worms, for 3 days straight. We were also told he was full whippet but he is most definitely not, my best guess is that there is saluki in the mix as well. He has the long ears, curly tail and tell tale hip bones....not to mention he looks like he has never had a decent meal in his life no matter what or how much I feed him.

I made some mistakes with his training., I took him to a group puppy class.....the first dog in 12 years of having dogs that I've taken to puppy classes) so he got overly interested in other dogs and became a bit of a bully with smaller dogs and I thought he had a strong recall until I started taking him out alone for more training around 8 months old and realised he was following my older girl so he's on a long line on walks and only off lead in secure areas with our friends collies/large dogs who he plays with.

He then got attacked on the lead 3 times in fairly close succession at just over 12 months so he started with reactivity when dogs he didn't know tried to sniff him/get in her personal space and we've made lots of progress he'll never not be on edge. He has his friends he feels safe with but he won't back down if a dog tells him to back off (thankfully he is very polite with out friends dogs).

He's a total class clown and LOVES balls and discs so we've had zoomies issues at flyball and while doing discs. He's a nightmare to train as he thinks our venues are for zooming not working but he's never let me down at a flyball competition (with the exception of jumping out of the ring when he is going so fast he can't stop on his first race of the day then zooming round trying to find me....we have a new management approach which has worked to fix that so far) and these last 3 weekends he's shown me there is hope for disc too....he just needs an audience ?

He's so clever and athletic so keeping him engaged as a puppy while trying to look after his legs was an issue (he chewed through to the plaster on my mums wall!) but his sports have given him an outlet and a focus and he's really started to grown up over the last 12 months. It's only taken 5 years ?
 
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