The Day Sally went to Town

I wonder if you have ever experienced taking a dog into town for the very first time. I wonder if your dog was calm, cool and collected. I wonder, were you calm, cool and collected?

Here's what happened when we took Sally into Kendal for the very first time.

Out of the car, no trouble there. On with the lead, ok there too. Out of the car park, no problem then we hit the main street. Oh boy!! All the new noises, sights, movements, colours, smells, crowds of shoppers of all sizes and ages. A lot to take in for a dog so young and bouncy who has only ever experienced life on a farm and then in a rural village. Sally's eyes darted all around, she didn't know what to head towards first. Thankfully she was firmly attached to the lead but her pulling power instantly trebled there and then. We headed straight to the nearest pet shop to fit her with a 'Halti'; a kind of strap that fits over the nose and round the back of the head to help give more control to the poor person on the other end of the lead. Alpha female Sally didn't like this one little bit. We cut our shopping trip short and headed to the countryside for a walk.

Once we got on a quiet dirt track we took Sally off the Halti and lead. She decided to do a strop, show us what she thought, and dashed away from us, over a wall into an orchard as far away as she could get. No shouting, blowing of dog whistle or rattling of biscuits could encourage her back. After lots of searching and quite a lot of time we spotted her. The only way to get her back was to jump over the high dry stone wall and corner her.

It took a while. Eventually Tony, my long suffering other half, returned with the trophy, a very sheepish looking sheep dog, secured once again by her lead. We would wait for a night to pass before trying again to fit the Halti!