Sierra went to her first water training session as an official member of our regional Newfoundland club. Up to now the only thing she has really done is retrieve a training bumper and practice waiting for me to give the command for her to go in and get it.
First of all, she acts so out of control sometimes and seems to resist training I was worried she would be a complete spazz, and well, she was a bit spazzy when we first got there. She was so excited she didn't know what to go to first - the water, the other dogs or the people. Other than that I had nothing to worry about. Apparently my sweet dog can't resist training when she didn't even realize she was being trained. She pretty much did everything by instinct. She was more than willing to swim out to any stranger who called to her to be "saved". When I had to hold on to her back end and have her pull me to shore, she looked back only once when I touched her and then went with it. She was fine with pulling in strangers holding onto her. She brought a life ring out to someone and towed them to shore without letting go of the rope. And the part that really impressed me was when she pulled a rowboat to shore carrying three adults on her FIRST TRY! She even pulled it to the point it hit ground like she supposed to without dropping the rope. I was so proud of her!!!
The woman who was organizing everything, a wonderful woman named Andi, was helping me by showing me how to train her to do certain things. I mentioned to Andi that I was impressed she was doing so well. She said "You must have been working with her, it shows". When I told her this was her first time doing any of these things, Andi's jaw dropped. She said Sierra is a natural and she thinks that she might actually be ready for the junior level of the water test coming up in September. I have a lot of work ahead of me though. There are things that she needs to learn in order to not be disqualified. She needs to learn to take the rope in her mouth on command, and she needs to learn to deliver it to my hands instead of dropping it on the ground. She also needs to get over her fears of leaping off of the boat. It took some coaxing, but she finally jumped off the boat and went completely under. She was NOT happy about that! Not happy at all!
One of the things that she needs to overcome just happens to be one of the things that makes her completely Newf. I have to somehow get her to know when to control her instincts. While I was practicing the swim with handler exercise, she kept turning and swimming into me to get to the shore. I asked Andi why she panics like that and she said that Sierra isn't panicking, she trying to "save" me. She said her instincts are kicking in and she's trying to get me to shore because she knows I'm safe there. I never knew that's what she was doing! She was doing as well, and sometimes she was doing better, than most of the dogs that were there training. She was getting lots of attention and praise. And oddly enough, eveyone kept saying how well behaved she was. I guess she is pretty good, I'm just used to hearing how bad and annoying she is from people who don't want to get slobbered on when she tries to say hello to them.
Of course, Jeff and I forgot the camera, but I have a couple pics we took with our cell phones. Most of them are just of a very tired pupper on the way home. We have some more training sessions coming up with the Newf club, and I plan on going as often as possible on my own. I'd love to have her test in September!
Here she is pulling me to shore.
This is her and her new friend, Waldo. He lives close by us and they already have a puppy playdate. (I'm not sure why she looks so darn tiny in this pic!)
She got treated to some ice cream for being such a good girl.
Tired puppy pics...
She hasn't moved from this position since we got home.
