Obedience Classes - Week Four

Well, we survived Week 4! That means we're halfway through the class. Seems to be going by really fast, and I know I'm not putting enough effort into Curly Joe's training. After today's class, I've gotten a bit of my confidence back. Sis came with, as we needed to do some shopping. The deal was, she would go to Costco to pick up our cat's meds and injections. She sat in the class for a little bit and then went out to run errands.

Today we learned Stay. Curly Joe caught in pretty quick (as he's wont to do when food is involved). Next, Quinn had us go out into the store to practice the "come" command. Curly Joe and I went first. I took off his leash and she clipped a really long lead to his collar. The lesson was to show Curly Joe a treat, then walk five or six isles down and turn around. When I was ready, I was to say, "Curly Joe, come." As soon as he started to move toward me, I was to mark the behavior with an enthusiastic "Yes!" and then grab his collar when he got to me, give him a treat and then wait for Quinn to come over so I could walk back and do it again. Mina (the shep) went next, then Ava (the boston terrier). I love Mina to pieces because she reminds me of Luke; just this giant ball of happy with ever so subtle undertones of batshitcrazy. She moves like she has no idea who's controlling her body.

But I digress. Quinn had us do this twice and then head back to the "rink."

I forgot -- earlier in the class, Quinn had had us walk our dogs down a couple of isles where she had planted "booby traps." Bags of treats or toys all along the isles, and we were to walk the dogs along and tell them to "leave it" when they went for something. Curly Joe did really well at this, too. He wasn't really interested in grabbing anything; he was just sniffing at them.

So after the "come" lesson, we went back to the "rink" and learned some more doggy stuff. I have to work with Curly on the "come" command, especially outdoors. When we're outside, he very rarely comes when I call him. Neither does Tank, but that's mostly because he's going deaf. But I'm trying to train Curly Joe to watch me when we're out there, and I think it's working. I loose-leash walked him around the yard before class (and also played fetch with him for about 20 minutes), and I could see out of the corner of my eye that Curly Joe was looking up at me from time to time. He knows to sit when I give the hand signal, too. I need to work with him more on the "down" signal, though. But anyway, I have to think up an "emergency" word for Curly Joe. It's the word I use when it's serious and I need him to come Right Now. There's more to it, but for the life of me, I can't remember. Even with the meds, I have trouble keeping things straight.

After class, Me, Curly and the boston terrier stayed behind to make up Week Two, which was "sit" and basic behavioral problems. Curly Joe knows sit, so we skipped that part, but every problem Quinn asked about, Curly Joe had. Embarrassing! Nipping? Check. Jumping? Check. Digging? Check. She gave me tips on how to deal with all of these things, and I brought up Curly Joe's penchant for cat-chasing, and also how I don't like how he plays with Tank (bites his "ankles"). The cat thing, I basically have to teach Curly Joe that, when a cat comes into the room (or runs by), he gets yummies if he doesn't try and chase them. With the nipping, I just stand up and ignore him for 3-5 minutes when he nibbles. It'll be a lot of work, trying to cure him of these habits, but I'll do it.

While Quinn was talking, I suddenly heard a bang behind me. I turned around and there was a giant Akita staring at me. After the lesson was completed, I walked Curly out into the store and we ran into the Akita and her "sister," a giant Newfoundland mix (who I wanted to hug and squeeze squish her ooshy face). Quinn was behind us, and she walked up to the Akita and gave her a big hug and said, "I love you I love you I love you!" Every Akita I ever saw when I worked as a tech was a big old 8-ball (bite/attack without provocation), so ... I guess there are nice Akitas out there in the world. I started to pull Curly Joe away, but Quinn asked me to leave him for a minute so she could see how the two big dogs did with him. They were mostly like, "Son, I shit bigger than you." Curly Joe, for his part, seemed really, really intimidated by them but completely unable to resist interacting with them. This mostly involved him walking under them to sniff around. When the Newfie turned to have her turn at sniffing, Curly Joe fell over onto his back and exposed his belly to her.

When they have off-leash play at the end of class, Curly Joe always rumbles with Ava. I'm positive this is because he either likes being the Big Dog, or he's afraid of big dogs. Poor Mina the Shepherd wants to play but Curly's too busy rolling Ava like a bowling ball. To Ava's credit, she never backs down from Curly Joe.

So all in all, the lesson went well. After class, Sis and I did some shopping. She insisted I get some smaller tennis balls for Curly Joe; she says the regular sized ones are too big for him, but I disagree. Plus, I'm worried hell shock one the smaller ones. We'll see.

I, again, forgot to talk to Quinn about eventually training Curly Joe to be therapy dog. D'oh.

To wrap things up, here are a few more recent pictures:

See you next week!

P.S. Playing fetch before class paid off: Curly Joe was more well behaved this time around, and towards the end he was just flopped out on his side. Exercise GOOD!