Lassing Park July 26th

We were in the Old Southeast neighborhood for our Tuesday meeting at Lassing Park, which featured several different experiences, including a walk along the mucky beach (here modeled by Gabby and guest handler Elizabeth, Georgie's tail and guest handler Stephanie, and Mitch with Heather and Danielle)

and back (with Trudy and John handling Legion, and David handling Bruce),

a trip to the torture cham– uh, I mean pedicurist Marcy (here doing her best to make Berniece look her best while handler Diane looks on),

and quirky distractions like musical chickens, balls, and bubbles (which Tammy and handler Darlene find hard to ignore).

Then it was time to "find the chair" (aka a park bench) and have Bruce practice his best down-under while David relaxes with Trudy and prospective raiser Bill.

I also discussed the importance of giving a good "pop" when doing a leash correction and offered my wrist to each raiser to practice on and to prove it didn't hurt. (Honest, it didn't. Just because it took me 12 days before I could type this meeting recap...)

A couple of other points made during the meeting and worth repeating:

- In the past, we have let our dogs loose at this very same park to romp in the bay, but SEGD policy is to NEVER allow our dogs off leash in an unfenced area, and that includes the beach. So if you take your dog to the beach, it should either be in coat and act like a working dog (as we did today) or out of coat but on leash to play in the water (though not with other dogs).

- The plastic Good Dog Collars that some of us have used are no longer permitted. SEGD experimented with these collars but found that they were prone to break and ineffective in the long run, so these collars are no longer approved for use on SEGD puppies.

- For our own safety, it is important for us to try to be on guard at all times with our puppies, as we never know when something might catch their eye and they will lunge. One way to do this is by keeping our eyes on our puppies when someone is speaking rather than looking at the speaker. Yes, this may seem counterintuitive to good manners, but it's better than getting hurt. Stepping on the leash near the collar can also help maintain control of a dog in a down-stay.

After the meeting, some of us headed over to Diane's house nearby for the pups (and people) to swim and have fun together. A wet time was had by all.