Puppy training! This week we brought the puppy and there were only five other dogs in the room. It’s a nice sized class. I did not take photos, this being such a small, intimate group, but maybe I will this Sunday.
Chewy was, obviously, the top of his class. He’s the smartest, the best behaved, and definitely the cutest dog in puppy training class.
Okay, so he’s the cutest. This week we were working on sit and proving that we’d taught our dogs to recognize their names. Chewy has his name down pat. In fact, he gets into trouble just so I’ll call his name and reward him for coming when I call. Not the best behaved. And honestly? He has sit down pat. Flash and Patches are asked to sit frequently and Chewy learns quickly.
Now I need to work on sitting before letting him out the back door. The other two bark and charge the door, so sit is mandatory, calming them down, putting myself in charge instead of the children.
We had a little incident in puppy training, and I was actually proud of Chewy for it. There’s an ADORABLE yellow lab mix, who can’t be any more than about ten weeks old, sitting next to us. That cute puppy talked to Chewy the entire time, pulling at the leash to get to my dog. It’s owner let the leash out some and it ran up to Chewy’s face. Chewy barked and snapped at it.
Good dog! Chewy, smaller than this puppy, didn’t hurt the dog. He just told it to back off.
There was a sad story at puppy training this week. A woman has a gorgeous dog – looks like a Tibetan Terrier mix – that she adopted three weeks after her beloved Yorkie of 15 years passed to the Rainbow Bridge. This was in the fall. The dog is tearing her up, playing, chewing and scratching her non-stop. It’s left home for long hours. The sweet woman was at the end of her rope with the dog and thought maybe she adopted the wrong dog. The instructor tried nine ways to Sunday to redirect and give good advice (doggy daycare for the longest days, etc.), but the woman was near tears. I know that feeling. When everyone left, the instructor was having a heart to heart with her.
So what do you do when a puppy training class is your last option, you’re at the end of your rope? Probably acknowledge that you should have signed up months ago. But I can’t judge. She’d had a dog for years and knew what she was doing. With that dog. I’ve been there. If it weren’t for dog blogging and the great advice from all of y’all, I’d probably be trying to train Chewy at home. I’m hoping to find that things have dramatically improved when we go back this week. I suspect they won’t. I’ll keep you posted.
Oh! The treats! I tore a handful of Jones Chicken Taffy and Beef Liver Taffy into tiny pieces for class. They’re perfect! But everyone had their own treats. And I don’t know anyone yet. I’ll tell you that yesterday I took Chewy to the feed store to find aluminum sulfate (I’m tanning coyote hides in the back yard), and he didn’t want to pick out any of the treats. This feed store doesn’t carry Jones. And here I thought Chewy was treat motivated. I guess he’s pretty picky and is just Jones motivated.
Until I write again …
Flea
