First Obedience Class

It's a small class, there are three other dogs in the class, but there were only two others today.

Barbie was a little hesitant when I lead her into Billy's Daycare for Dogs. It smelled like so many different dogs, and she was sniffing and her rear end was quivering a little. On the way in she saw the treats display and mouthed one of the plastic covered goodie bags. I got her attention and we made our way in. The trainer, Desma, greeted us.

The other two dogs there today were much younger than Barbie. When Desma spoke to us about various things, the two younger dogs whined and barked. They were like 'WHYYYYYYY AREN'T WE DOING ANYTHING!>!??'

Barbie just stood and sniffed around quietly.

The first thing we did was the 'sit' game to see how many times we could get the dogs to sit in 60 seconds. Barbie sat 11 times, then we had to do it without saying 'sit' - she did it 14 times. She was pretty attentive. Then we did doggie 'pushups' - the others took their dogs into a down from a sit - but I took Barbie from a stand to a down and back again, just to help safeguard against her melting from a 'sit' into a 'down'. She was a bit hesitant to lie down at first but she did it willingly after the first one.

She learned 'wait' at the gate (simulating a front door) a lot quicker than the puppies, though she wasn't so good at looking at me without prompting.

The last activity we did was 'leave it' but Barbie wasn't particularly interested in any of the 'objects' I had to get her to 'leave it'. I think I am going to have to train 'leave it' with food. I don't think there will be any intermediate items.

Her recall was good with people distractions, but I didn't try it with dog distractions, though she wasn't overly interested in the dogs present.

Apparently next week we will work on 'give' (though with Bender, I use 'ta'). I think with Barbie, instead, I will ask for advice on how to get her to hold objects in her mouth. I don't think she is going to hold on to anything long enough for me to use 'ta' unless it is a food item!

An hour in a training class was also evidently too much for Barbie despite fairly lengthy breaks between activities. The other two dogs were still working, but Barbie spaced out. Then she started walking backwards with that spaced out look on her face. I regained her attention a few times but I didn't try to do anything with her after that. When we got home she was just exhausted. I have never really trained her more than 5 minutes at a time so I think it was a bit much for her!