Today’s This & That Thursday is all about random things that happened on a recent training session in a local park.
Often when we are out training at the park we turn into people magnets. Maybe it is the dogs. Maybe it is because the dogs are doing something more than sniffing. No idea.
We usually try to park in shade near where we are training and usually try to find a shady spot to train if we are working land. The designated parking area at this park is mostly sun this time of year.
So we picked a shady spot a bit away from the group. Besides the shade, we prefer to keep the dogs away from cars and people while training. Before long we became a magnet.
Maybe these people could not see we were training dogs right there. Again, no idea. The lady in the car to the right was from Ontario. For some reason she felt compelled to park on top of us and take her book and sit on a picnic table almost in the middle of where we were training. OK fine just a distraction which the dogs should ignore.
The car to the left was a man and a mentally challenged woman. She kept trying to get in our van since the doors were open to allow air for the dogs. She was in there at least two times. The guy had to come and get her out. Of our van. She is lucky Storm was not in there at the time because Storm would not welcome a stranger in our van.
Then as we were working the dogs a kid came running up with a million questions. Is that a real gun? (We have purchased a wooden silhouette gun for training and to work on Storm being steady even when her handler has a gun.) Are those real ducks? What are you doing? Can I watch? We finally had to ask him not to come closer and run up on the dogs because we were training.
But the best was when a lady riding by on her bike heard the whistles and came up to watch. We were just about done so she had a few questions. More questions. She parked her bike in between our car and the one to the right. While we were talking, the woman in the car got in and somehow managed to back right into and almost over her bike. I could not believe it. We shouted at her to stop. Finally she asked what she had hit. Luckily it wasn’t a bike with a kid on it. Could have been anything. We are at a park after all. You should kind of be paying attention. At that point we made our exit too.
So ended another training day at the park…
LOL You have more challenges with people than you do with training the dogs! 😀
True!
Oh wow – what a day. It’s like you had your own pup-a-razi.
I can’t believe the woman backed into the bike! Jeez….watch where the heck you’re going.
She kept saying that she could not see it in her rear window. But that was because it was not behind her, but to the side.
BOL! Training day can be exciting. Glad it wasn’t a kid or a dog she ran over.
Blessings,
Goose
So were we.
I think they were just completely unaware of proper protocol for dogs in training. I am drawn to training dogs like a moth to a flame because it is so fascinating, but I’ve been around long enough to know not to crowd the training. I wonder if signage might help – “Dogs at work please stand back” or something like that.
As long as people stand to the side, we don’t mind them watching or even asking questions when we are done. Having a sign would assume the people would stop and read it…lol.
It would also raise your cool factor. Because hey, you have a sign. You must be, like, awesome!
OMG I know exactly what you are talking about, clueless people! Did she damage the bike?
It is so much harder when you are in a public area, and I have to admit if I happened upon you I would probably stop to watch too. 🙂
I actually think the worse part was the kid running up when it appeared you had a gun! What kind of parent lets their child approach a stranger with a gun?
LOL Jodi. It is flat black wood with pvc pipe for the barrel. There is no way it could be confused. It is once step better than the broom handle. We bought it because it looked so un-real.
We don’t mind people watching as long as they stand clear. Luckily the bike seemed OK.
Oh boy! It’s hard not to let them get to you – chalk most of it up to ignorance…many peeps just haven’t been around field dogs and are curious and just plain uninformed. When we had our lab and ran her in trials, the same kind of thing happened. Peeps are sometimes very odd….that’s the Scrappy truth:) BOL
I’m amazed you got any training done – that’s quite a lot of distractions!! Glad no-one was hurt though 🙂
Wags to all,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
what a frustrating day! I can see why people are interested in talking with you about it – it would be very cool to see someone doing the kind of training you guys do with your dogs – but I could also see how irritating it would be, too, to get anything done.
Oh boy…….that sure was a frustrating day!
Wow – that makes training more interesting! People are so funny sometimes – interrupting training like that. Good grief! Glad you all seemed to have a good attitude about it though.
Sounds like a lot of excitement and distractions for the dogs but they must have worked through it pretty good 🙂
Aww rough day at the park! People should know better! I agree with dear Daisy too! 😀
That sounds like one of my training days! Chessies do seem to attract the people. I think it is because they are so beautiful they just have to be people magnets, not that not many people know what breed they are and want to find out. LOL
You should charge admission fees 🙂
Hey brown dawgs, Jet here. Hi Miss Linda,
Extra obstacles for the brown dawgs to master, I guess… and then some goofy human behavior… puzzling…
I hope you keep business cards for your blog on you. That way, when people come up with questions you can tell them the dogs are famous and here’s where they can learn all about them. 🙂