When we got to Tomlinson's, we took the dogs and walked over to where the shelter's monthly adoption day was going on and said hi and then went into the store. The folks there directed us out back to the little grassy area in the parking section behind the store. Dana, our instructor, had set up some chairs for us to sit in with out dogs and spread us apart so that we could work with our dogs and ourselves without too much interference from dogs wanting to play. Ben and I took our seats and filled out the paperwork. Dana asked us to introduce ourselves and our dogs and as we did I wondered if having Ben come with a randomly chosen shelter dog was a good choice. On the one hand, the information covered is instructive and I want him ot have some dog handling training, but on the other hand, it will take a lot more effort to build a relationship with a dog that we don't have at home. As the class progressed and we got homework to work on, it became clear that there may be some issues with doing homework with Confetti. We need to make it out to the shelter to get Ben to work with Confetti. Another concern that popped into my head, which is purely selfish, is "what if Sandy or Confetti get's adopted during the time that we are training?" Of course, my second thought was that there is a much higher likelihood of Confetti getting adopted out from under Ben and screwing things up there because she is at the shelter all the time. I need to call Dana and see what she recommends we do if that happens.
Sandy is outside laying in the yard right now watching a squirrel eat from the ear of corn on the feeder. She is so patient lying in wait for an opportunity to chase the squirrel up the tree or over to the fence line. It is a stark contrast to how she has been when I first come home or first get up in the morning, but this morning was different on that front. Dana told us that if a dog jumps up, we need to "ignore the behavior" and not give attention for negative behavior. This is classic parenting, but she adds in the doggie twist in that we should look away and look to the stars. The reasoning is that this is dog behavior for this situation. She also told us that dogs maintain leadership by controlling another's individual space and to that end, we need to walk right through our dogs and not around them if they are in the way. I tried this out this morning with great success. Sandy has not jumped up at all this morning. She remained calm and excited to see me and when I initiated a bit of playing/petting, she was well behaved.
The tough part of dog training and the thing I have the hardest thing with in my life in general is following through and being consistent. I need to do the dog training every day. I have already done some sit and stay with Sandy this morning and it went really well. Dana said we need to do it in 4 different locations to set it as a general behavior and so I need to do more in the house today and then do some in the front yard. We did some at the shelter and I will do some more there after I drop her off for the day and I need to pick a fourth location. I also need to get Ben to pick a time to come with me to the shelter today and tomorrow to work with Confetti. I think Ben thought it would be immediately easy to do and that she would get it right away. She proved to a bit tougher and did Sit pretty well, but didn't make much forward progress in 1 session of trying to get Down. I hope that Ben will come back today and keep at it and see how well it can work with repeated training.
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