Visitors and treats

A & B took a break in their busy Commonwealth Games schedule (as spectators, not participants...) to come through from Glasgow for the day to visit us to meet Archie.

I texted them before they arrived and instructed them to ignore him for the first five minutes. This is something that we did for a while, especially in the mornings, but seems to have slipped, and he goes crazy with visitors.

So they came in and sat down on the sofa and, with difficulty, ignored him. He could not understand this strange human behaviour. He tried his best to get them to look at him and make a fuss, going from one to the other, up on his hind legs, paws on knees, with a puzzled look on his wee face. And it worked! They were able to then make a fuss of a fairly sensible dog. I think they fell in love with him.

We accompanied A & B across the Meadows on their way back to the station. We met a chap with a tiny wee toy poodle, much smaller than Archie but fully grown. His name was Beanz, because he was full of 'em. What a fast runner he was - Archie was like a lumbering old man trying to catch him. But try he did.

Another thing that was successful today - a high value treat (instead of ordinary ol' kibble) to make Archie come back when he was off the lead. I kept calling him and he came running each and every time, even when investigating something interesting in the grass. So this is him in full flight, in expectation of a proper treat. And it wasn't even cheese!

He's got another treat later, as A&B brought a wee bag of special biscuits from J. Lucky boy today!