Second Last Puppy Class

Every Monday for the past 5 weeks I've taken Amaretto to a basic obedience puppy class. Since Kingston's public transit facilities aren't pet-friendly, we walk about 30 minutes to get to the school each day, and cab back. Pupper gets really worked up on this walk, and I think it could be too long for her. Many times she gets to class and she's too worked up to listen or focus. Today, I went extra early and sat down with her for 15 minutes just to give her some time to calm down. That seems to have worked really well, and I'll be doing it with all future classes.

Here are some pictures from the walk! 

Pupper resting. She was already pulling and dashing like crazy at this point so I figured she either needed to potty desperately or was too tired. 

nomnomnom. Acorn...it smells like squirrels!!!

Today was our second last puppy class. I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that I need to adjust my learning speed and attention span to accommodate Pupper's. For example, I felt REALLY unsatisfied after the first class and all we had learned was the "watch" command. But now that I'm 4 classes in, I really can see the value of spending the week reinforcing the one command and being able to build on it for further exercises. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, adjusting to Pupper's abilities is a work in progress. Sometimes I still get overzealous with my training sessions and lose Pupper's focus and interest because I've dragged them out too long. My goal this week is to keep training sessions to 2 handfuls of treats and under, and always end with her wanting more. But the question is, when she is pushing at me for more treats...what else do I use to engage her and keep her away from destruction?!?

Things I learned in the past 4 classes:

-Watch. 

This gets practiced every day for at least 10 repetitions. In quiet environments, I just use the verbal command "watch", and wait for full eye contact. If she fails to offer it to me, or if we're in a distracting environment, I'll use my hand to direct her vision to me.

-Off (Leave it) - the cease and desist command

This works with some things...more practice needed. She completely ignores me if she picks up something like a wet wab of tissue or an old food container on walks. But it works for dogs (sometimes) and rabbits (when we're not too close)

-Using a gentle leader

This only sees use in class. I was introduced to the gentle leader to help redirect her eyes back to me when she is being reactive. It makes her more frustrated, so I'm thinking of trying the Easy walk harness instead.

-Heel

This gets worked about 3 times for 2 meters each time daily. Usually she works better with a toy or something high value like CHEESE! I think I need to work on getting more eye contact from her during heeling

-Touch - touch a target like the palm of my hand or a beer coaster with her nose or paws

I taught high-5 with the same hand signal...failure on my behalf. So now when I ask for touch and stick my hands out, she thinks its a high-5 and paws at them. I also used the palms of my hands to target her to cross her front legs...another training fail. Will work hard to correct this in the upcoming weeks.

-Wait - hold still and let me do something unpleasant to you.

This gets used daily as we come in from our walks and I need to wipe her paws. She bites my hands as I wipe, so I use treat and wait. It works when she can see the treat. It does not work when treats aren't in sight.

-Table - get on a platform

Pupper LOVES this and will randomly do it to platforms on walks in hopes of getting treats

-Tunnel

I take Pupper to the park daily and plays on slides and tunnels with her, so this was a sinch.

-Jump

She SUCKS at the jump command. I think this is a lack of rear-end awareness...what to do to work on it?

Things I learned today:

-STAY! 

Just started learning this. Can do very very short amounts of staying with me VERY close by. This will definitely be practiced every day.

-Practiced heeling around other pups and their owners. THIS IS HUGE for puppy since she is reactive to dogs outside of class

-OFF to distractions like the instructor bouncing a ball near us

Next class, I'll be going a bit early to have the trainer show me how to use a choke chain on pupper. She is testing the boundaries alot with me, and I can't effectively communicate that biting my hands are NOT allowed. I've tried several methods, and I think she understands the concept, but does it because I've let her get away with it before. Hopefully, 1 good correction will really make the idea stick in her head.

After reading week, I'll be starting Agility 1 at the same facility. I AM SO EXCITED. We'll be working on the same good principles of focus, self control, and obedience, but with FUN FUN EQUIPMENT.