Watercubs & Kivisilmän

working show-quality newfoundlands

A day filled with waterwork (2008)
 

We hadn't seen our friends in a long time, so we were invited to join them for a day of waterwork. We were very excited to see them and of course see how they train.

The day started with an early morning and a lot of packing. Vera got hyperexcited after she saw what was going into the bags: dummies and waterwork harnesses. Capri preferred to sleep under the table and pretend she hadn't seen the bags.. Every time we walked past the table we heard loud snoring, but when we walked away, somehow the snoring stopped... :-)

We got there on time and met with our friends. Unfortunately the others from the group spoke as much english as we did dutch, so we weren't able to communicate too well. Luckily we had the dogs to talk about, so the vocabulary was quite similar and we understood at least a bit of what the other was trying to say.

We started with obedience on land: heeling, sit-down-stand -commands. While the others continued with the obedience needed for the German degree, we started with the waterwork. We had planned to train the Finnish degree, but because the dogs had an off-day, we decided to have some fun instead.

The first exercise was to swim with the dog to the boat at 50m. It was easy for the dogs, but a bit more difficult for the people.. ;-) The other things we trained were: bringing a rope to the boat, getting a dummy from the boat and saving the drowner. The usual things.

The oldest dog that trained in the group was a 12-year-old newfoundland female (whose brother trains in our group). The second oldest was the gorgeous 11-year-old Vicus (our friends dog). Even though they were both a bit elderly, they did do suprisingly well and were in very good shape! The youngest member was a 9 week-old puppy. To our surprise the two pekingese that were there did all the same exercises the newfs did! (sometimes even better! :-) )

During the mid-day break, we enjoyed a good cake and some other treats that had been brought for the birthday-girl.

After the break, we continued with the surfboard retrieve. Slowly the dogs started getting tired, but we decided to go for a couple of more exercises. To finish off, we did a little bit of obedience on land. It was a nice finish for the day; the dogs got to do something they really knew well.  

It was very nice to try out in another group for a day! Thanks a lot and hopefully you'll invite us back again! :-)  

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(c) Salmelin