Obedience class: Week 2 (aka, Dahlia the mush dog)
Last night was our second obedience class. Class consensus?
"Why the hell are you here anyway?"
They moved some of the dogs to another class so we had a lot less dogs there last night. My friend and her St. Bernard, Piper, was still there...as was Gotty (one of the pit bulls), Apollo (one of the boxers -- the younger one went off to puppy class), and Miley (who turns out to be a Yorkipoo -- Yorkie/poodle mix). Oliver, the little Yorkie who was 4 1/2 months old probably ended up in puppy class with the younger Boxer...not sure what happened to the other pit bull.
So while things were still a bit out of control, it was more manageable this time.
We started off with finding out how our "look" command went for the week. Overall, I think Dahlia did pretty well with it. She definitely knows how to tune you out though when she wants to. But if you have food in your hand she's all ears! lol She does make a lot of eye contact usually...and she does seem to respond well to her name. Maybe because we don't talk about her too often by using her name...it's just "our sweetheart" or "Ferocious D" or whatever. Either way, she does seem to know her name well.
After that we did something she calls a "cuddle and massage" -- which is just a nice way to say "control exercise." No, it's not like some sort of alpha roll. It's getting your dog into your arms and holding him/her and making sure he/she stays calm. Eventually, you work up to handling paws, tail, ears, touching the belly, eyes, nose, etc. The reasoning behind it is you want your dog to be used to relaxing when you touch those places so if something happens (cut paw, infected ear, etc.) you have a much better chance to keep him/her still. She said as a vet tech she saw a LOT of dogs have to be restrained or sedated when they came in with just a simple issue (like needing to get a tick removed -- so rambunctious the owner brought the dog in to remove the tick and it took 3 people to hold the dog down for something so simple). While she was talking about a dog not wanting to have its paws touched, I picked up both of Dahlia's paws (she was laying on the ground) and moved them around...all she did was roll over.
She decided to use Dahlia as a demo instead of getting her dachshund out for it. She pulled her onto her lap and held her and all Dahlia did was melt into her. She petted her and then released her and she didn't even MOVE. Silly puppy. She then held her again and told us to get up and act excited and see if she'd try to get up to come to us. No luck. Still flopped. She did try to pull her paw away on the first time Colleen (our instructor) tried to touch it...but then relaxed to.
So yes...Dahlia? Is apparently a mush dog. LOL
We then worked on sit...which she knows well. Colleen taught us a new hand signal for it that a dog can see further away than our little snap, so we worked on that. She sat almost every time, even for Colleen. She's a good kid!
We're going to start loose leash walking next week and she gave us a handout sheet. We're working on some of it with her and she's already being even better. Not that she's been horrible, but we're working on keeping her calm and not letting her lay down and stubbornly sniff something when she wants to!
As for yesterday's incident...David's leaving her alone for a bit this afternoon to see what she does. I really do hope it's a one off thing. He should be home soon and he'll be able to let me know if she did ok or if she got anxious and did anything bad again. *crosses fingers*
Edited to add: And he's back, just as I posted this! He said she was very happy to see him, but nothing was out of place.
"Why the hell are you here anyway?"
They moved some of the dogs to another class so we had a lot less dogs there last night. My friend and her St. Bernard, Piper, was still there...as was Gotty (one of the pit bulls), Apollo (one of the boxers -- the younger one went off to puppy class), and Miley (who turns out to be a Yorkipoo -- Yorkie/poodle mix). Oliver, the little Yorkie who was 4 1/2 months old probably ended up in puppy class with the younger Boxer...not sure what happened to the other pit bull.
So while things were still a bit out of control, it was more manageable this time.
We started off with finding out how our "look" command went for the week. Overall, I think Dahlia did pretty well with it. She definitely knows how to tune you out though when she wants to. But if you have food in your hand she's all ears! lol She does make a lot of eye contact usually...and she does seem to respond well to her name. Maybe because we don't talk about her too often by using her name...it's just "our sweetheart" or "Ferocious D" or whatever. Either way, she does seem to know her name well.
After that we did something she calls a "cuddle and massage" -- which is just a nice way to say "control exercise." No, it's not like some sort of alpha roll. It's getting your dog into your arms and holding him/her and making sure he/she stays calm. Eventually, you work up to handling paws, tail, ears, touching the belly, eyes, nose, etc. The reasoning behind it is you want your dog to be used to relaxing when you touch those places so if something happens (cut paw, infected ear, etc.) you have a much better chance to keep him/her still. She said as a vet tech she saw a LOT of dogs have to be restrained or sedated when they came in with just a simple issue (like needing to get a tick removed -- so rambunctious the owner brought the dog in to remove the tick and it took 3 people to hold the dog down for something so simple). While she was talking about a dog not wanting to have its paws touched, I picked up both of Dahlia's paws (she was laying on the ground) and moved them around...all she did was roll over.
She decided to use Dahlia as a demo instead of getting her dachshund out for it. She pulled her onto her lap and held her and all Dahlia did was melt into her. She petted her and then released her and she didn't even MOVE. Silly puppy. She then held her again and told us to get up and act excited and see if she'd try to get up to come to us. No luck. Still flopped. She did try to pull her paw away on the first time Colleen (our instructor) tried to touch it...but then relaxed to.
So yes...Dahlia? Is apparently a mush dog. LOL
We then worked on sit...which she knows well. Colleen taught us a new hand signal for it that a dog can see further away than our little snap, so we worked on that. She sat almost every time, even for Colleen. She's a good kid!
We're going to start loose leash walking next week and she gave us a handout sheet. We're working on some of it with her and she's already being even better. Not that she's been horrible, but we're working on keeping her calm and not letting her lay down and stubbornly sniff something when she wants to!
As for yesterday's incident...David's leaving her alone for a bit this afternoon to see what she does. I really do hope it's a one off thing. He should be home soon and he'll be able to let me know if she did ok or if she got anxious and did anything bad again. *crosses fingers*
Edited to add: And he's back, just as I posted this! He said she was very happy to see him, but nothing was out of place.