Barkley The Good Citizen

Hello again friends and readers. It has been a very busy couple of weeks for me. The week before last I became a Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze Award Dog. Mum was so proud of me and also the other doggies who passed. Last week, mum was hoping I would become a Silver Award dog too, as we had been practicing very very hard - as you can see from the pictures. Auntie Glynis is shown here teaching me to do my road walk with distractions. So we went to Stony Stratford High Street this time.






Everything had been going so well, and I had been enjoying my training. I got myself a bit worked up though when a huge thing came tearing down the middle of the street banging and crashing as it went. It has made me a bit wary of traffic now, but as per usual, mum is working very hard to ensure that I regain my confidence. Lots of walking along by traffic, and no reaction from her, or the others if I do spook. I am already starting to feel a bit better about it, but I do worry that something might bang and crash again as it passes by. It was a very large and strange looking thing with long metal poles all stacked on top.




Oh my goodness, who are you? Are you here to socialize too? or are you learning to be a Good Citizen?


Then the Silver Award test day arrived, and we were all keyed up. Then mum received a call from the judge to say that there had been a terrible accident on the M1 and all the roads around and about were closed. Even later in the day, there were still delays, and as the judge had to travel along the M1 to reach us, so he decided it would not be a good idea, in case he became stuck in the traffic for hours. We now have to wait for him to give us a new date. In the meantime, mum is now practicing my Gold Award exercises, and she is very pleased with my progress. I'm Barkley you see, and I do aim to please.

One of the reasons mum had been taking me to very busy places from such an early age,
was that she knew I would have to be confident in crowded places, but oh my goodness, I never expected to come across anything quite like this:



Or this

Or even this:

What am I supposed to make of it? I didn't know which way to look or turn. There were so many people and so many dogs. Some of them I had already met, but most of them I had never seen before. In fact, I never knew there could be so many people and dogs in one place. Mum said there could easily have been over a thousand dogs there.

Well, I watched and I watched. I really enjoyed what I saw. Dogs running and barking, people calling and squeaking. It was completely mad and so much fun. I was completely overawed by it all.

Do you see that big red and white thing in the picture above? well we have got a couple of those things at our school, and last Thursday evening, mum was busy taking a class. All of a sudden I heard her scream " OH MY GOD - SOMEBODY GRAB BARKLEY". Well, I thought it looked GREAT fun. All the other dogs were doing it. Somebody had been holding my leash, but then they had become distracted. I seized the moment, slipped away and then climbed to the top of the frame. I don't understand what all the fuss was about, isn't that what I am supposed to do?

Oh by the way, I have lost two of my front teeth today. I will have to see if mum can take a picture of my gappy teeth.