Dog training.

Tuesday was dog training again. I remembered to throw my camera in the ride. Jasper was pretty unruly at first- sniffing other dogs, wanting to go places other than where he was supposed to be. He gets pretty excited about the other dogs and there were more there last night than before. We need to socialize him more, I guess.

Sadie walks lots of laps around this pole shed during training. I didn't realize that dog training would be so much exercise. Agility training looks like even more exercise- running the course with the dog.

Doesn't Jasper look so happy? and look at the beautiful Irish Setter. There are two of them in training. An adult volunteer brings them for kids to use who don't have their dog with them (or don't have a dog? I am not sure.) I may be biased, but I think Jasper is one the handsomest dogs there.

In the bottom picture you can see Lucille, the instructor. She is a bit of a tough cookie- she's been doing this for years and she knows her stuff. She could tell who had been practicing and called out the ones who hadn't. (Sadie included.) She reminded them that this is a tough 4-H project that takes a lot of time and effort.

Something I've noticed, now that I am back into the 4-H scene, is the adult volunteers who are still helping even though they no longer have kids involved in the program. Their kids are grown up and they still volunteer. I think that says a lot about 4-H- and my kids get the benefit of all these experienced people. I was talking to such a woman last night, and she shared lots of information with me about what to expect at the dog show, how to groom Jasper, etc.

It is fun to be part of a group of such dedicated and enthusiastic people.