Not the cone if shame.

What I thought was lethargy in due to the heat looks like a poorly dog. Sick a bit earlier and he has refused walkies, raw chicken and even a scrap of cooked meat!!!!!

Hi Dave - was going to reply that Jess doesn't really seem to be much affected, I'd expect her to react more than a shorn terrier, so am not surprised Cookie is not a well lad. Perhaps it's just a stomach upset from something he's picked up outside. As they do. Get well soon Cookie lad!

Heat does bother Flossie a little, in that she lies in the hall on the cool tiles rather than in the kitchen, but otherwise she seems unconcerned, Dave. I hope Cookie gets better soon.

I've had a thought about this lump of Flossie's. Do you think it could be her chip - perhaps it was "grabbed" by Lily and has moved a bit - causing some irritation?? It still isn;t botehring her, but it hasn't gone done at all today. We have Lower Slaughter tomorrow - I'll ask Lisa what she thinks (she was a vet nurse before dog-training full time.)

Possibly something he's picked up. The only thing different fe has eaten today was a flower petal. I was mowing the lawn and he started mouthing at a plant. Just seen some bile he has bought up and it had a bit of petal in it. Other than that it's been his usual food, treats, grass, stream water and horse poo diet.

Sorry to read Cookie isn't well - it's awful when they are ill. Hopefully if its something he's eaten then once it's up he'll be better quickly.

Just looking at the pictures of Jess on the page before - love the last one, after all the good behaviour it looks like she has a big smile on her face as she gets to run out of school!

Another very good Dog School tonight. Wish it had been the test, but unfortunately we will have to wait til the very end of July for the next one. It's ok though - Velma was actually upping the ante on some of Jess' exercises.

We did a proper wait, recall and present for instance. Velma didn't hold Jess - I dropped the lead and asked her to wait. And I called her in to a perfect sit right in front of me.

Also when she saw how well the heelwork had progressed she wanted me to try it without food - OR WORDS. Eeeek. I had to get Jess attention on me then walk briskly forward with Jess by my knee looking up and only say 'good' every so often. She thinks we're ready for me to cut so much praise. I guess this is ok, although it's odd after being told to talk to your dog and 'don't be mean with the treats!' Jess was brilliant - we changed direction, stopped and started, did sits and downs with minimal commands and words. Sort of doing it by trust and feel.
It's a kind of magic at times.

We are both knackered. Raffo was so proud!

There *was* a little bit of hoovering, very quickly recovered from. We're not perfect.

I've had a look at what you have to do for silver (yeah yeah, we haven't got bronze done and dusted yet. I do know.)

Play with toy and give it up, walk on road with distractions - traffic, bikes, pushchairs etc, cross a road properly, rejoin handler (that's what we did tonight) and two minute stay - all these don't present much of a problem.

Vehicle control. This will be fine if I do a bit of weight training beforehand! She still won't jump into the boot. Happy to be lifted in but she's a few sausages too heavy for me!

Controlled greeting needs work but I was so pleased on Tuesday's walk - she met four different friendly keen people and DIDN'T jump up (or only a bit) She also didn't jump up at Velma tonight. She is so friendly and bouncy when she senses someone likes her this will always be one of her biggest tests. Age will help of course.

Food manners will be fine, so will examination of the dog.

because 'come away from distractions' is an off lead exercise I think we can do that too.

So all in all it doesn't seem 'that' much harder than bronze.
I bet Flossie could do most if not all of it already too LD.