If you haven’t noticed I didn’t post much in December. So thanks for waiting! Our training started reaching longer distances so we’ve been busy!
Speaking of training, the dogs are always super excited to go but one problem that we’ve seen is that staying lined-out, (when the dogs stand nicely in their spot and keep the main gang line tight with their harnesses) a usually a simple task, unless we have a little trouble-maker hanging around… Since you read the title of this week’s post, I bet you can take a good guess on what that “helper” is: a cat.
You see most of our kennel has inherited a form of ‘prey drive’. What does that mean? Well, take Cocoa for example, if she sees a bunny or deer or (even a cow), she’ll try and chase it, taking the team with her. (Cocoa runs lead) So you can see why having a few friendly barn cats could be a problem.
We’ve been able to suppress the dogs’ ‘prey drive’ a little however. By taking the dogs out on runs, more and more we’ve seen this ‘drive’ go down. They are learning to focus on the trail and every single little “prey”.
No, we haven’t been able to stop them from wanting to chase the cats. However, if we give the cats a bit of food before we go, they don’t seem to want to bug us or the dogs.
THANKS FOR READING!!!
SEE YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!!
Diva Dogs Racing 