Easter holidays

Not having children I completely forgot that today was the first day of the Easter holidays. What a brilliant and unintentional time to improve Oscar's skills at walking near children. I was so proud of my boy.

It's amazing how suddenly you can have insights into your own behaviour and how it affects your dogs. On seeing all the children about on our walk this lunchtime I have to confess that I did get a little nervous. Oscar is very enthusiastic to meet both people and dogs but I am more than aware that for a lot of people and dogs they don't want to meet every passing dog and due to Oscar's size this is more often the case with him than it probably is with a chihuahua!

I suddenly became aware that as soon as I spotted a child in the distance all of a sudden I held my breath, tightened the lead and called to Oscar in a more frantic tone than I would usually use. I have spent 15 months training to be a dog behaviourist and trainer and it always amazes me how difficult it is to see your own behaviour objectively. I know perfectly well that all those things are more than likely to get a dog to react to whatever you are wanting them to not react to, yet it appears to be human nature and certainly was my automatic reaction to the situation.

Mid way through the walk I suddenly realised what I was doing and immediately loosened the lead and rather than Oscar trying to bomb off to meet any child within a mile radius, he just pottered along, looking at them but not trying to get any nearer. We even did a bit of parallel walking with a kid on a bike (not that the kid realised!!) and he was brilliant. Not once did he try to dive in the kid's direction.

I am also always amazed at how well Oscar responds to just praise. It seems to be, for some unknown reason, drilled into my subconscious that I can only reward Oscar with food or rather that food is the only reward what will count. However, he just soaks up praise and I think it means as much to him if not more, especially when I am genuinely over the moon with his behaviour.

What a lovely day and I wish I could stay here all afternoon with my lovely boy instead of heading back to work! Ho hum!