The Bomb can't Stop Us
29 October 05 is finally here... Our long awaited holiday to Bali.. Not too sure if we were as eager to be there as our inital excitment! The past month was quite an emotion rollercoaster for us!
Reservations and tickets were firmed up before 1 Oct 05, however it seems a stream of never ending obstacles for us. A group of people, supposed terroists, kinda of missed the bombing Oct 2002 and decided to re enact the incident once again on the 1st Oct .
Words were passed among our clique ... Are we going or do we not... ? Concerned parents started asking...
are you all still going? Can dont go, then dont go. YOU ARE NOT TO GO!!! Ah Girl, you can still go if you want to, just stay in the hotel room as much as possible, dont anyhow go walking outside ...
No one dared to put down a firm commitment, a fate which he or she might eventually be responsible for . ... Till the 2 guys in our group, Ah Kee and Ah Chew said "lets just go..."
Things will be dirt cheap... we will have a lot of bargaining power! Bring 2 get 3 free" Ah Chew fantasized!
Ah Kee even said that " of cos we got to go, we will then have opportunities to be at the story front.. should anything happen. Then we can come back and tell our friends first hand stories!!!.."
Hahaha, such are the responses to the stupid things the terrorists did. I bet they wouldnt have even thought that they will get such responses and mindset after their "heroic sacrifice"...
Anyway, we did had a better deal because of the bombing... not sure if you think its a good deal, but we were given a better hotel , better room at the same price. So Bali, fear not, we will not forsake you....
Well, will update more when... i come back safely...
Wish ~ Responding well to Training
Been really busy training Wish these 2 weeks, thus no time to update my blog.. there are many things which i wanted to record.
anyway, let's start with Wish since i am basically busy with him... it has been 4 weeks of training already, and i am getting prouder of Wish's ability to respond positively by the day. While some of his class - cannies are still trying to be at terms of being in training class.... it is evident that once Wish is on "command", he instantly became a student.. A good one in fact.. He will obediently walk by my left and sit automatically
(note: this is VERY Important!! really....hahahahanot many doggie students can do this well yet!) once i halted. This response is on tracked with the training syllabus .
Oncoming weeks, Wish will be trained on sit stay.. which means that he has to stay in the exact spot that i left him while i do something else as well as lying down on command.
This is going to be exciting, and i cant wait to see the end results at the end of the 10th week.
will definitely update Wish's progress once he conquered the next stage!!!
Training ~ Wish
Ok Jennice. got your comment and hint.. and thanks a lot for your support on my blogging efforts.... : P
Wish's training class is really quite boring to really describe in details.. but anyway for your sake... I die die will also try.. soooooo..... Here goes nothing...
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The Reason for enrolling in a Training classWish is very different from the past doggies that we had.. He barked at anyone .. (i.e. any dog that doesn't belong to our home).. I mean .. He also barks at the small Shino (The white Maltese who lived next door..She is a frequent visitor of our home ever since she joined the neighborhood is especially since she is small enough to slip through my front gates, which is quite cute. Will probably elaborate more on this if I have time.)
So.. anyway .. Wish's social issue is pretty obvious once I started to bring him out for outings... This proves to be quite different from what I initially thought. By right he should like it a lot.. Like all dogs are supposed to like to go on their walks right...?? But I was so wrong and off target on this ...
The First Encounter..So off we went to my friend Joleen's petshop... When Wish was introduced to all the doggies present..he was half barking half shrieking away in fear.. I mean I can actually see him tremble as he barked. Ok, so your new friends are large golden retrievers.... but.. hey they turned wary of Wish instead of their not so pleasant introduction. Those friendly retrievers were not even close enough to carry out the usual "stiffing initiation ceremony"
Evidently enough, he barked loudly and fanatically at all dogs that we met along the way on subsequent East Coast park outings... This included a very very handsome Husky.. who on the other hand wasnt even bothered or i would say aware of Wish's fanatic barky presence...
Lost face totally ... Wah la, paiseh until no hole to hide man... this is when we decided that we have to send him to a training class. I have been asked this question, hey thought that u have trained your dogs in these kind of classes before.. cant u just train Wish on your own... then can save up the training class course fee..."
Therotically , that's very possible. the training content and methods are all there. but i would like to share a thought and observation.. to bring your puppy to a training class has 2 achievable objectives...
firstly : to of cos get him to be more obedient, secondly, which is more important, it is to have your puppy / dog interact with other doggies.. this socialising reason is very important and cant usually be achieved if you should train your dog on your own. Plus you are training your dog in a distractive environment where there are many humans and dogs training together.. thus it gives a better training on the concentration and attentiveness ability .
Wish'sTraining Classmates
There are altogether 7 students for this session..Namely, a golden retriever, a husky and a labrador retriever. They are from this family with 4 kids and heir mummy... there is also this min schnauzer... the breed that our dearest Casey doesnt like most.. She is a very obedient little doggy. basically quite good already... should have good potential for future training levels.The last two would be a silky mix owned by a young couple, and another cross breed owned by another family.
Wish's Well Behaved First Lesson
The trainer started off the class by demostrating the proper way of holding the leashes and the basic principles behind succesful training. then all of us were encouraged to walk and train our charge, sending vibes that we are the real leader of the pack .. and they can only but to listen and follow us. Afterwhich, we were briefed on the new stuff to be practised for the next 45 mins in class and also for the whole of next week which is also wish's and my homework.
Then all of us were lined up in 2 lines facing each other, where we practised our heelwork among our classmates upon our Trainer's command. As we all walked and halted with our charges, it was pleasantly surprisingly to note that , Wish not only didnt bark at other doggies as we walked past them, but he also didnt put up signs of rebelling or resisting of my leading him.. Of cos he did show subtle signs of sudden panic when we walked past each other... I was quite proud of Wish then.. As we always say, this marks the little milestones for Wish..
After our practical, we are given a summary briefing and a last demostration for the homework to be done for the whole of next week...So that come next Sunday, we can practise something else..
So come every week we will practise new add-on components till we have a mock test at the 10th week......
hmmm,so its really paying off, a little by little....Hang on there Wendy!!!... we must perserve on and will definitely see the results.... (Ah kee, in order to show your support for both Wishie and me, hope that you can also perserve and send us to our class every Sunday morning, k? ; ) )
Wish us luck... everyone!!
Wish's First Official Training Class
9 Oct 05, (Looks like it is going to rain)
"Quick, we are going to be late."
It's sunday, 9.15 am... Can we make it in time at Simei for the 9.30 class??
'Oh no, cannot be late.. It's Wish's first official class.. Hurry leh. "
going to be late.. i bring wish downstairs first and start the engine , k? You dont always dilly dally leh...gonna be late liao"
Our latest puppy has been enrolled for the obedience training class... u noe,... hopefully he would become more sociable with other dogs and of course to be more responsive..
the past week of homework and heelwork done... will Wish forget everything when he is stressed up? for the moment , i felt like an anxious parent wanting the most perfect first day for my kid..
"haha, luckily, trainer not here yet... "
There are many cute dogs there, of which my fav is this very "GL" golden retriever, handsome face .. and good structure...
His handler is a little girl leh... think he trained the girl more than vice versa.. this time siao liao lah.. dont know if the girl will be able to handle him a not.. That golden can be quite a fighter, got into fight with a male shetland sheep dog. Good thing the trainer is there to correct his behaviour... a inspiring moment indeed.
Ah kee, our Wish has hope once again!
Whew, lesson finally over... think Wish didnt exactly make me lose face ... and everything went quite ok..
ah Wish ,sorry har, u are going to have more lessons of sit and heel coming in the next 10 weeks... good luck man ....hee hee hee
The "Forbidden Word"
didnt know when we started to be so on about mj.. used to dislike it when augustine played years ago... but now... we are talking about a different story,... hahaha
lots of initiatives in arranging for mj sessions now... like once or twice a week.. in fact.. our home became a fav hangout.. and we even had a name for it.. "the ERC" -Eunos Rec CLub - cool huh?hahahah...
We are nt exactly encouraged to play mj.. and are " watched by " our mgt... thus.. we replaced it with " the forbidden word" .
the jokes we had in the office on how we can relate mj strategies with office processes anytime... and how we can communicate the mj events with min exposure.. like our mid autummn festival,.. we suggested that we can put a note in the mini mooncakes at the pantry , stating the time , place and date to meet. all we got to do is go the the pantry to get ourselves an innocent looking mini mooncake..
oh man.. we are really obsessed liao.. ???
We really got to look for alternatives to ease ourselves off this universal sport .... but
will Suzzz Xie and A mei be willing to take this suggestion? they have turned pro mj honurable members of ERC already.... oh man...
The Motivation in My Life
those who know me will know how i "rave" and love my two doggies - Valent and Cookie (for the records, cookie still has a place in my heart ... although Valent is my all time fav)... My pride and soul to my life.. that is besides augustine lah...
Valent is a very handsome cocker whereas Cookie has very sweet and girlish personality ( see.. Valent cannot beat her in this are... : P).
My "thought by others as the most nelgected, most ignored..baby "COOKIE"
..She is actually also very much my pride and soul.. but hey.. everyone has to have a fav right... its just that she is the next fav after hmm Valent ... and hmmm Wish... (*sheepish grin).. she has despite all these a huge following of fans and supporters in my office...rooting for her... in case she has been .. you know nelgected by me...
But, hey, dont worry, jennice and elayne.. Cookie is still a needed member of this family to balance things out.. we wont be seeing a roaming cookie on the streets.. hahahah
WISH
to this wonderful pair of cocker spaniels, me and augustine had recently bought another puppy- a black tri american cocker spaniel ... (a colour that we had wanted for quite sometime..) after much deliberation and name changing, we called him "Wish" ... not sure how that came about.. but augustine named him.. u know lah, got to give him some sense of ownership over Wish,oh and also bcos i insisted on naming cookie "cookie".. (He wanted then to name her TINO- omg.. absolutely out of qn, right?.. it will be so "soong") .. so he gets to name Wish this time round...
Wish is also another handsome boy... however sad to say... not much of the good personality that Valent has.. hmmm... very paiseh to bring him out to meet people and other doggies....certainly not like Valent who is the social butterfly who is also friendly and responsive to anyone.. (ermmm ok, and very much to food..) valent is an excellent choice if you are planning a party and needs an appreciative crowd .. he never fails to make you feel like you are the best cook in the world ) :D
No matter what it is, i am confident that Wish would still have his fair share of fans... haahah
I love all of you BABIES... dont know what will happen to me if i were to lose anyone of you one day!!! : '( the thought of it is enough to make me teary... Waahhhh...Elixir ... i need exlixir..!!!!!
