We did it

[baronessekat]

Last night Dicea, Darcy, Grimm and I went to our first night of Puppy class.

We got there early to fill out all the registration paper work and had time to watch most of the beginner obedience class. The boys were definitely curious about it all but did get rather barky and excited once other puppies started arriving.

First exercise of the class was off the leash social interaction. There were mostly little dogs in the class, which I liked, with only a small handful of average to big dogs. Of course the boys were the smallest there (with the next smallest still having a good 3-5 pounds on them) but they did very well.

After social time we started working on heel. Grimm did very good with backwards heel and seems to have grasped regular heel. Which is good considering how little leash work we have ever done. I have to find what I did with his regular leash and not his extendo one.

We then did sit and down. This was harder as there was just so much chaos going on that the Little Butt did not really want to pay attention to me. But that's ok. The point of the class is actually more on training the puppy parents than the puppies. Once the excitement of it all wears off the puppies will be able to focus more. Besides, at home Grimm can do sit and we are working on down.

AFter sit and down the exercise was "excited come". The puppy is taken to the opposite side of the training area and has to return to his parent quickly and excitedly. With Grimm we only went half way across the area. HE didn't return so quickly and excitedly but that was mostly because in line we were between a norwich terrier and a pug who when released, rather than going to their parent, crossed in front of me and went to the other's. Grimm did not like this and would only go about half way and then look for the closets human to go hide behind. This is also going to be the hardest one to work on at home as I live alone so I have no one to help me by taking him across the room and release him to me. But we will find a way.

The last thing we did was "Pass the Puppy". All the people sit in a circle and literally pass their puppy to the right. This gives both humans and puppies the chance to interact with others and experience new.

I was very pleased with how the trainers worked with both dog and person. I think that the next six weeks are going to be a very good experience for both me and Grimm.

Comments

[hearne.livejournal.com]

Excited come is something you can work on at home alone when you have "sit" and "stay" down. With all my Rotts, and especially with Eos, it was a matter of doing sit or down, then taking 4 or 5 steps back.. then clapping once with "come." The more we did it, the more she got the idea and I could walk away from her further and further.

:) Glad you're doing the class..that's great!

[svan-1004.livejournal.com]

just remember do not train him to Sit THEN down. or you will have him going Down every time you ask him to sit.
Keep them separate.
This was a problem I had to fix with Gareth as well as Champ.

[baronsteffan.livejournal.com]

Yep, dog training is as much for the owners as for the dogs. It is also important that if you have multiple people in the family, that everybody does the work with the dog. That way the dog respects all of the family and will (hopefully) listen to everybody instead of only one person.

My dogs have sit and down mixed up. But I really don't care and at 7 and 10 yrs old it's a bit late to care about fixing it. We are working on sit/stay though.

Dealing with 16lbs of uncooperative dog is not a problem, 60 lbs would be a problem.

[baronessekat.livejournal.com]

and you know 4 lbs is not much of any problem.

[svan-1004.livejournal.com]

at age 11 Champ learned the sign for More.
At 12.5 yrs we are working on Get UP
I use ASL for his signs and they work great.
He knows the signs for all all his other commands as well as Get... A particular toy.

[theboomboom.livejournal.com]

Did you steal me the pug puppy?

[baronessekat.livejournal.com]

um... Sampson seemed a bit high strung even for a pug