Day 8 of GDT

What a lovely weekend I ended up having! Day 7, Sunday, was so nice and relaxing! The only drawbacks came with the clocks changing meaning we lost an hour so my planned lie in turned out to be just at a normal wakeup time with there being a different clock time. Then for lunch for the first time since I've been here I fancied nothing on the menu so Paul and I had sandwiches. Things were made up to us though by giving us the option of a roast for dinner which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

The visit for coffee went very well with Maz and Gab. All parties behaved which includes both Odene and people! Paul was great company throughout the day and we shared lots of stories of things that the dogs had been up to already. Paul and Zeus look really good together, I'm hoping it's the same for me and Odene! Nikki came back after spending the weekend at home and met up with Rita again. It's her birthday today so we headed down the pup for a drink once training was finished.

For the training today I went out first for a harness walk around North Watford's main street. We got to stop off at a cafe where Kelly went through my PDP, Personal Development Plan. It was good to hear lots of positive things where objectives have been met along with some new ones to complete by the end of this week. Odene was well behaved as usual both in harness and at the cafe. We started again to get Odene to show me an incorrect right shoulder work but it was as if Odene knew we were testing her and she always led me away from all the things that she should. Even Kelly used herself as a human shield for us to bump into but Odene got wise to that and steered me round!

Straight after lunch we did some obedience with everyone taking part, I'm going to try not to gloat here but Odene was a real star! All the dogs did really well though and for us only after 1 week with the dogs to have to exercise the level of control that we did was actually very impressive.

This afternoon went brilliantly with Kelly taking me on my first bus trip with Odene. It was very exciting and we went on my usual bus that takes me to my St Albans office so we're already getting Odene started on my familiar routes. The weather held out although it's due to change soon! I experienced for the first time a stranger asking the normal questions of 'How old is she?' lucky that Kelly was with me as I could hardly hear the guy on the bus! So for all of you who feel the need to know - she is currently 19 months old! ;-)

I then this evening had my rents over for dinner for their first official visit and like with Maz and Gab's visit it too went very well! We chose to eat away from the hotel for the first time and went to the pub nearby leaving Odene back in the hotel room with us returning for a 2nd coffee after.

It's been a truly lovely day, Kelly and trainer Mike are making training so much fun and I feel like I'm progressing really well now - I've obviously still have got tons to learn of course and I can't wait! Tomorrow evening I get to do a night walk and I honestly never thought I'd say this but, roll on the darkness!