Alfie My "Wonder Dog"!
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When the UK Cesar Millan Tour began I had with me 2 of my dogs, Bob and Sadie, Bob my JRT mix Border Collie, Sadie my tiny JRT so they are both small in size. At the dress rehersal the day before the first show at O2, the crew asked if I had another dog who was more medium in size to help with some of the balanced dog demonstrations on stage...so enter Alfie one of my English Setters, a last minute dash down to London from Norfolk..driven by Simon Alfie arrived at O2 just in time for the show!
Here is Alfie on stage demonstrating the "meet and greet", accompanying him as his own personal dog handler I stand to his side while Cesar introduces a member of the audience on how to meet a dog for the first time. ""Way to go" Alfie you were the first dog on stage, great job sniffing the person then relaxing! As you can see from the photo...my smaller dogs would have been hidden from the audience by the techy equipment box on stage :-) we needed "Alfie size"!
Meantime Sadie and Bob waited calmly back stage for their turn. Bob, who became known as "Bob The Dog", showed the audience how to walk around following his Pack Leader...me, going through doors then relaxing by my feet as I sat on the sofa...perfect Bob! Sadie on the other hand...showed the audience how not to be walked...pulling Cesar ....out in front she came to me, great demo Sadie! The pack also played the role of balanced dogs pack walking in a park while a hyper dog and owner learned from Cesar how to lead their dog calmly walking past my pack and I.
Back to Alfie, at nearly 10 years old he is retired from working as a balanced stooge dog for me, yet he happily and readily came out of retirement for Cesar. Alfie very much enjoyed the lovely hotels we stayed in, the extra walks and of course the breakfast leftovers of which there was always plenty...I always ordered a room service full English breakfast!
Mind you looking at Alfie in this photo he could have been a show dog..if he wasn't a "working bred English Setter" as this means he is actually smaller than the average show bred Setter, when we meet other Setters out on walks Alfie is always dwarfed by them. Worth remembering is that Alfie only came to us at 4yrs old, with many problem behaviours himself, look at how well he recovered balance through pack leadership - so much so he was even able to run off-leash while still following my lead and direction around Regents Park in London...what a great boy!
The crew loved Alfie, they had not met such a chilled out dog before as in every environment he was "soooo relaxed"! The crew were superb, setting up for the shows ahead of us at every venue they were true stars. Alfie managed to do 6 shows - half the tour schedule before returning home to a very relaxing holiday - pack life here at the beach!
The "meet and greet" demo I renamed as "to sniff or not to sniff" - sometimes Alfie would sniff the person...sometimes he would not...he would just sit near them totaly relaxed, so relaxed that at his last show in Nottingham he lay down falling asleep! The rest of the tour would have been too much travelling for Alfie as heading from Nottingham we set-off for Newcastle, Scotland, Ireland and back via Liverpool to end at Sheffield. "Home Time Alfie" replaced the saying I had just before the shows began of "Show Time Doggies" - what happens if I say that now...find out in later posts coming soon!
The first show was electric, the huge audience very welcoming to Cesar and the show very well received. I was delighted with the way my dogs behaved, they have never been in a show before not even a dog show! Yet on stage they were not distracted by the audience, the sound or the lights etc, they simply followed my lead... they were "totally awesome stars", gotta love this "mini pack" of mine and I loved having them with me on tour.
Next...more behind the scenes photos, stories and how the pack got on during the tour, as well as some of my learnings and expereinces I will share with you gained from working for Cesar.
