TOBY'S FIRST SCHOOL VISIT...

GREETINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA!
MAXMOM here...

After getting permission from the principal at our local primary school, Toby and I set off to go on his first school visit and to walk around and interact with the childen on the premises. On arrival we discovered that their annual inter-house swimming gala was in progress.

Toby was about to experience a ‘baptism of fire’. Indeed this was the perfect opportunity to ‘test’ my young Golden pup and to assess his response to the noise and the very hyped–up environment. I personally felt a twinge of nervousness. I had no idea how Toby would react!

I parked the car in the busy street, grabbed my bag and opened up the back for Toby to jump out and join me. I’ve taught him already to wait for my instruction before he ventures out of the car. Whenever we travel to new venues like this, it is interesting to watch Toby’s momentary confusion at the moment I open the boot.
 “Where am I? What’s this, Mom?” he seems to say.

Soon, he is his tail-wagging self and on my command, hops out of the car.

Another habit of his is to give two distinctive barks of greeting/announcement as I close the door of the boot.
“Yep, I’m here! I’m ready! What are we doing today, Mom?”

Our arrival coincided with the exit of some of the first graders from the main gate at the school. They’d obviously been the first to swim their races in the gala and were allowed to be collected by their parents. The street was therefore full of these little ones and Toby and I weren’t given half a chance before some of them descended upon us. My old experiences of training Maxdog in similar environments proved very valuable. This was the moment of Toby’s test...

A little girl by the name of “Tegan” was one of the first on the scene with her mother. “Can I touch the doggie?”she asked excitedly.

If you have any problems seeing this video, you can view it by clicking

HERE

I’ve learned through these interactions with children that it is wise to put a dog in a ‘down stay’ position and only allow the child to interact with the dog when the dog itself is settled. Toby dropped to the floor obediently and I then allowed their interaction to happen naturally. One has always got to be cautious with children and animals (for the various obvious reasons). This was no different today as this was be one of Toby's first serious interactions with children.

“Tegan” was euphoric. Her mother told me that they didn’t have a dog at home. I must say, I was inwardly tearful as I watched the two of them interact. Toby is a natural! It is more than obvious that he is going to adore children! I hesitate to say this, but he is even better than Maxdog was at this stage of his young life. He’s gentle and aware of my commands whilst interacting with them. You will notice all this on the video of him and Tegan.

After meeting Tegan, we ventured down to the swimming pool itself. The gala was in full progress.

It was extremely noisy – Loud announcements were coming over the public address system, there were shots being fired by the starter gun, children screaming, singing and cheering. There were hundreds of people milling around. Toby was often surrounded by children who hugged him, patted him and asked me endless questions.

We stayed at the school for about an hour. Toby was extremely comfortable with all the goings on around him.  Quite frankly, he was having the time of his life! I’ve learned over the years that  one must be conscious of the length of time which you are requiring your dog to 'work' and should restrict it to under one hour - especially when it's their first experience. When the hour was over, I made a point of retreating fast. This we did and Toby left with a positive experience overall. We came home for a fun game of fetch in our own swimming pool

All in all, I am truly delighted with Toby's response to his first school visit.  I reel reassured that our task in training him up for "ANNIE" is well within our reach.

And I mustn't forget to say a special “THANK YOU” to “TEGAN” for helping Toby with his first steps on this journey.

We have 119 days to go.

Sending lotsaluv to you all,

MAXMOM AND TOBY
IN SOUTH AFRICA.