Rocky, Ronnie, Roxy and Roz enjoy their day out at Saundercroft Farm

On Thursday our 6 month old German imports Rocky, Ronnie, Roxy and Roz all set off to Saundercroft farm for their socialisation with all of the different farm animals. It is one of my favourite session’s and as always all the dogs and puppy walkers loved the day. Our first port of call was the barn which housed the Calves.

Ronnie and Rocky quickly got up close and personal.

Considering we didn’t get these 4 pups until they were 4 months old because of the rabies regulations and the fact they had not had very much socialisation prior to us getting them I was really impressed with how confident and calm they all were.
We then went outside to see the adult cows and again the pups were very confident and calm.

On the way to the cows Ronnie and Roxy bumped into Jack the rescue pony.

Next we met all the horses and none of the pups were fazed or nervous even though some of the horses were very large particularly Captain the shire horse.

Next on to the chickens who are probably the dog’s favourite because of their small size and movement. Again none of the dogs became over excited and were very sensible.

Finally we moved to the sheep which included a sheep called Al who was hand reared and is completely at ease amongst the dogs and people.

This visit is tremendous fun but it has a serious side because it is very important that out Police dogs are very confident in and amongst the farm animals and should know not to chase or worry them.
Our dogs often have to work in amongst livestock when searching agricultural land for missing persons and criminals and it is vitally important that they are not distracted by the animals.
At the end of the visit there was just time for one final photo with all the pups with farmyard dog Holly and pony Jack.

My thanks as always to Andi Darbey, Simon and Andi’s mum for letting us use their farm and helping us to meet their animals.
TRAINING THE OLDER DOGS THIS WEEKEND
This weekend we trained the older groups and prepared them for a competition I will be running on their next training session in 2 week’s time. They will be assessed on their abilities in the stays, article searching, tracking, agility, speak on command, recall’s, playing tug and then releasing the toy. From what I saw today it will be a close run thing as the standard is high thanks to all the hard work carried out by our puppy walkers.
I will be doing a full report on how they all get on in the competition which will be conducted more as a fun day out.  Here is Rika today showing her lovely sit stay today.

Finally here is a picture of Lindsay and her dad Trevor who joined the Initial course last week to see their dog Cosmic working with his handler James.

So there you have it I will be doing a blog on how all the dogs get on in our competition and after that a report on how all the Initial course dogs get on with their end of course assessments.
Goodbye from me and Lenny and Sasha.