Doggie School – Day Two

/ hsoi

Sasha had her second dog training class today.

Every day I realize more and more that this is not about training the dog, it’s about training the humans… and the dog kinda gets something along the way. 🙂

We started out reviewing what we did last week, which was basic walking and sitting. Issuing commands, issuing corrections. Being consistent. That’s really the key is consistency. Getting the set down to something simple and everyone sticking with it. For instance, you don’t really need sit, stay, quiet, etc. because implied in sit is to stay and be quiet. But it was evident to Abel that we’ve been working with Sasha — he saw a world of difference compared to last week.

We worked in a slightly different location on the grounds, taking Sasha into new places, new noises, new things, new distractions. She was certainly nervous, but we were able to manage it and she did OK. It’s interesting that she does not eat when she’s nervous enough. Both the trainer and a friend who came with his dog to watch us commented that was odd. But that’s how she is. Once she calms down, she’ll take the treats again.

Then we started to work on “place”. Moving her onto the place, getting her to understand the place. Wife struggled with it a bit because while Wife was working on it, Sasha didn’t get fully onto the stand, Wife moved her leg onto it, the stand creaked, Sasha jumped, and Wife didn’t react immediately to correct things. Plus, Wife isn’t as big or strong as me, so Sasha quickly realized that a physical strength fight against Wife is one she could win. So, there was some struggle there, but they were able to overcome it. I think it was good for Wife too, as it’s helping her gain more confidence in her ability to handle Sasha.

Our homework is to continue working on walking, sit, consistency and simplification of commands (gotta watch what comes out of our mouths, e.g. “sit” not “Sasha sit”, “No” not “Sasha No” or “NoSit”). But now we’re going to add working on the “place”. No command yet, just getting her used to the physical thing.

We needed to get home, but before I go to bed tonight I need to buy her a “place”. I have guidelines… just need to figure out what’s going to work for her. Plus… where in the world are we going to put the thing?? That’s really the big question. 🙂

All in all, she’s improving. There is a LOT of work still ahead. I admit, I’m tired. It’s very mentally and emotionally consuming and thus draining. But we’ll hang in there, for I believe the investment is worth it.

6 thoughts on “Doggie School – Day Two”

  1. Glad you are having a positive experience with Triple Crown. We left our dog there over a weekend when she was a pup, just for kenneling, and when we picked her up she acted like she had been beaten and abused. The first day after we picked her up, I took her for a walk, and she started to pull on the leash. I gave it a firm tug and she dropped to the ground and looked at me with mortal terror in her eyes – I had never seen her so afraid. We never took her back there again. I took some classes from Lee Mannix and found his style of dog training to be more to my liking.

    • I’ve read varying reviews about the kenneling at TC, so I’m not sure I’d be up for kenneling there. TH was the one that recommended TC to me for training, and a few others spoke well of their training. So I figured why not. So far, so good.

      We acknowledge that Sasha’s training is going to take a while. Right now I’m taking it in 6 week slices: go for 6 weeks and work, at the end of 6 weeks evaluate and see where to go next. It could be we just continue the same course of action for another 6 weeks… it could be that we move to group lessons. It could be that we move to a whole other trainer (maybe she needs more than this trainer can offer, maybe we just become unhappy with the trainer). I’ll keep Lee Mannix’s school in mind. But I figure this will be many months before we can say “she’s done”.

    • Ah! I’m glad you posted those.

      I’ve been struggling to find something to use for a “place” here in town. I mean, I was taught yesterday, need to have it “now” so I can work on the command and bring it to class next week… so I really can’t order something online. *sigh*

      Thus I’ve been looking for SOMETHING local, but there’s nothing. Only thing I can find are the big pillow things. However, from how they made it sound, so long as there’s explicit enter/exit, it’d be OK. So say, the big pillow-like things but with walls, e.g.:

      http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2892433

      could that work? I’m not sure… I’m trying to get confirmation from the trainer before I spend any money.

      Plus, I want a solution that’s easily transportable. I mean, if I have to bring this big thing to class, I want to ensure well.. I can get it in the car. 🙂

      Any input?

      • What trainer explained to me was a clear separation from the floor (with clearly defined boundaries) was best. i.e something clearly with clear black or white no gray area of 1 foot on ‘place’. To my mind that petsmart one would work in that it’s off the floor but at least for my chewer it’d last under a day 😐

        As for bringing to class, they supplied a bunch of Kurandas for the group class we took, I’d assume if you asked they’d be able to get one for the private lessons as well, saving you the PITA of bringing your own every time.

        • Ended up speaking further with the trainer over the phone and the one I linked to in the previous comment? He said that’d work.

          So I bought one. It’s good enough for now. It’ll be something we can transport, and well, if he said it’ll work then it’ll work. Good enough for now.

          Thing is, she’s a big dog and I’m not really finding much that fits her. So my thinking at this point is, we’ll go with this. Then I’m going to start thinking about how to build one for her and we’ll just retrain her to that later. I’d kinda prefer that anyways… can make it to fit her needs just right.

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