#thistle bee

One breed, two coats

10 months

I can’t stop thinking about something the assistant trainer in our class said last week.

Thistle has been my most challenging Ibizan to train. She just don’t tend to get excited about training. She gets distracted easily. She plants her feet and doesn’t lure.

But I was tossing treats for her under chairs and around our little area to keep her from getting bored and the assistant came by and said “wow! She’s really engaged with you!”

And I went “…what?”

She said “Thistle’s really engaged with you! She gets the treat and she comes right back over for you to toss another. She doesn’t go exploring, she turns her attention back to you.”

And I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Because I have felt so challenged by training Thistle and so focused on comparing her progress to my other dogs at similar ages, I hadn’t taken the time to step back and see what we have accomplished.

people don’t know this, but kibble isn’t fully sufficient for a lot of sighthounds