The Second Puppy Class

I didn't post about our second puppy class, where we started learning puppy push ups (basically having the dog sit, down, sit, down, sit, down in quick succession). We also learned "down" in that class, but Jilly already knew it so we were kind of bored while everyone taught their dogs to lay down (most didn't seem to know it already, whereas most knew sit for the first class). We still practiced it the whole time the others did, I was just surprised that the other owners hadn't already taught their dogs down.

We also worked more on heeling, and we had an exercise to work on recall where everyone was in a big circle, the instructor called a dog away, and the owner called the dog to the instructors left away, until finally everyone had someone else's dog, then it started over with people calling their own dog back. *I* had to call over a big red dog, a French Mastiff I think (Hooch, in Turner and Hooch). The dog wanted nothing to do with me and wouldn't come. So the instructor had me walk up to it with my treat and make friends. It still wasn't thrilled and after it took my treat I reached to pet it while putting hand on the leash (which the owner still held) and it bolted backwards, so I let go of the leash right away. The instructor asked me if I could handle the dog or was it too big, I said "I can handle him, but I didn't think I should hang on to him with him running backwards like he's scared of me" so the instructor tried to lure him forward, which didn't work for him either, so he just grabbed the leash and pulled the dog across the circle and turned over the leash to me.

We were supposed to talk nice to the dogs and have them sit/lay down while we had a different dog and this dog wanted nothing to do with that, it started lungeing around, ultimately in circles around me. I just held on, then it started trying to take off back to it's owner and we were next to a post so I kind of ended up using that for leverage and then the instructor finally had the owner come get the dog. I personally thought that the dog was obviously not a good choice for the exercise from that initial reaction and needing to be dragged over by the instructor, but needless to say he ended up sitting that exercise out.

The puppies also had a chance to play on leash with another puppy. I think I must just get annoyed easily. There was a girl there that kept talking to me during class, first she wanted to know if Jilly was a long haired Chi, then she wanted to know the breeds of two other dogs in the class, she called on a Cocker Spaniel and I told her it was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and she told me that they were the same thing. Then a few minutes later she put her hand down for Jilly to lick and love on while I was asking Jilly to sit!!! Urgh. I am so used to people being more respectful when it comes to horses, I mean, you wouldn't try to give another person's horse a treat while they're leg yielding down the long side would you????

Our biggest problem with this class was Jilly's attention span. When she listens to me she's perfect, when she's distracted, well, she's distracted. She was particularly distracted by the regular obedience class in the ring next to ours. C took her for a super long walk before class, but it was a couple of hours before we left, and she had a nap in between. I just spend the whole class keeping her attention as good as I can and then getting it back when I lose it. I saw a huge improvement in her last night, but we've been doing more work at home, with asking her to sit and lay down for longer periods of time before getting the treat, so that she gets better at sitting and laying down when we're waiting during class...

Working on our puppy push ups...









Us, waiting for the instructor to finish talking, and then working on puppy push ups a bit. I try really hard to keep her attention even while the instructor is talking, as long as I can pay attention to him at the same time.

















These next few pictures are from the circle exercise. The instructor called Jilly away first, that big red dog is the one that I was stuck trying to handle the first time around. I don't have any pictures of that, because Craig put the camera down, ready to jump the fence to protect me from the giant dog, lol.


This is me with my charge, after the red dog was dismissed from the exercise. Her name is Lucy, she's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and just the sweetest dog. Her owners had a Papillon before they got her. She was sooooo silky and loving, I just wanted to take her home with me.


This is Jilly with the lady that took her over from the instructor after her dog was called away...


Me with Lucy again...


Jilly with her new handler...


And me with Jilly right after I called her back, we did sit and down while the rest of the dogs went back to their owners, because I didn't want her thinking she could run around like a nut all the time...


Heeling...


Jilly at her worst in puppy class (it was *really* hard to get her attention away from that class). Fortunately she was only this bad for the few minutes we were on that side of the ring, and she didn't even look at the other class last night.


Trying to get her attention away from that class...


And finally, Jilly getting to play with Lucy and another King Charles that I forget the name of...