We have been taking Lola to Level 1 dog training after she was too old for Puppy Kindergarten. This class has a bit more structure and we learn commands like sit, down, stay, heel, walk pretty and wait. There were 3 other dogs in our class – Haley (Austrailian Sheepdog – you may have seen Lola romping with her in a previous blog), Izzy (a Cockapoo!!) and Ralfie (a standard poodle that just constantly barks). The best part about dog school is learning tips for keeping your dog out of trouble and occupied. For you dog owners here are a few:
- Buy the Kong Konches, fill them with wet dog food and then FREEZE them. This buys you at least 20 minutes as they try to get every drop of food out – without freezing you might have 2 minutes.
- Buy a dry food toy – you can put the dogs dry food in a toy that they have to roll around to get little nibbles. When lola is hungry she finds the toy and then rolls and rolls it around to eat – also time consuming for her.
- Buy cheap fleece and braid it into tug-o-war toys – these will last about a day, but what fun (make sure to take it away once it starts to fall apart – we sadly found out what fleece looks like after being digested.
- Finally – buy lots and lots of chewy’s, always have something for your dog to chew on… Lola’s graduation gift was two tennis balls connected by a blue roap. The roap lasted about 5 minutes – and then it was on to chewing up the tennis balls. Its amazing what little teeth can do.
