The Farm!

What a great experience our CCI 4-H team received last night. Instead of meeting at the kennel for class, we met at a public Farm Park; complete with animals, smells, and a wooded area for extra adventure. It was the best outing so far as a team.

The two Farm Cats were not scared of the dozen dogs with vests. The kitties stood their ground, hunched back and all, but would not move. Thankfully our dogs have been trained not to lunge, otherwise there very well could have been some scratching going on. We don't own cats, and our neighborhood roaming cat is not to be trusted, so Haddie has never truly experienced cats outside of a kennel at a pet store.

The pig did not come near, and Haddie was not too impressed. It was a mighty big pig too! It eventually went into it's barn, and when my son and Haddie went to look inside, she was a tad more interested. I think maybe she could smell him better.

Haddie's favorite high reward treat is Chicken. So of course that is what we brought along for this particular adventure. My son fed Haddie chicken by the chickens. She was interested in these little critters, her tail was going in circles, however, she did pay close attention to my son who had the chicken in his hand.

The bunnies were adorable. Haddie looks equally as sweet peering into their sleeping quarters.

The cow started out in the middle of the pasture. It looks as if Haddie is calling him over. And eventually he did wander to the fence to stay for a good long while. Every dog was fantastic by the cow. At every class our trainers bring their 3 Dogs that are used to train our dogs. Last night's assignment was to get one of the Trainer Dogs to stand by your dog if your dog was having problems with the cow. The puppy would learn from the Trainer Dog on how to settle down and accept the cow. However, all the dogs did great and the Trainer Dogs did not have to be used.

But this little wee pup was different. She started off a little nervous, but then our Human Trainer held her, spoke to her, and just waited for the pup to settle and experience the cow. It was so cute!

And then this little yellow ray of sunshine had no fear! She just nuzzled right onto the cow's face. A-dor-able!!

We concluded the outing in the woods where the dogs had to perform a variety of tasks. The biggest challenge for Haddie was walking ON the log, sitting ON the log, and laying down ON the log. My son was more patient than I would have been, and Haddie did all three tasks in a relatively accurate amount of time (even though my camera ran out of memory space for all the photos. Boo!). I was so proud of both of them! They are such a great team.

I think my favorite part of the evening was seeing how my son would always wrap his arm around Haddie when she did an Up command. She was doing it all by herself, he wasn't holding her, but he was just wrapping his arm around here showing her how proud he was of her. I loved it!!

Ohhh, it is going to be so tough saying goodbye to Haddie in February!!! I am so happy we have so many photos documenting all of our memories. And memories last a lifetime.