Friday 11 January 2013

training classes

When Piper was little (as in, three months old), we did a puppy class at Elite Dog Training, located in Kitchener. It was good to get Piper out around all the other puppies at such an early age.

We worked on sit, down, name recognition, etc., and the last 15 minutes of every class was playtime! However, there were 16 puppies in the class, so for many of the puppies it was just too overwhelming. Personally I think the attendees should have been capped at ten, 16 was just way too many.

I also didn't like the way she handled puppies that were fearful or snappy. Her method was to hold the screaming puppy until it stopped screaming. Even for puppies who didn't want their mouths touched, she would hold the puppy's mouth open until it stopped struggling and screaming. I'm so glad Piper was pretty good at everything, because I would not have allowed that to happen to my puppy.

I learned from trying to force Willow to sit still so I could trim her nails, that force does not work in dealing with an issue where fear or resistance is involved. A much better way is to use treats to make the experience positive, and gradually work up to being able to complete the task.

Piper growing up! This week she weighed just 38lbs, at around 6 1/2 months. She only put on three lbs in the last month, so she will definitely be a small little girl! Just what I wanted :)
In November we started the Competition Puppy 1 class at Companion Dog Training. I've done probably three classes there with Ace and always enjoyed them, although I sometimes found that I just didn't understand what they were trying to accomplish. Starting with Piper from the beginning has made all the difference! I understand the basics much better, and am actually looking forward to taking more obedience-style classes.

In the Competition Puppy class, we started by learning competition-style sits and downs. Piper and I are still working on the down! Lots of other things as well, like set-up, get-in, front, around, over, wait, recall, and trot. Thinks I'd never done before as well, like how to properly play tug and use it as a reward, fetch work with a dumbbell, and beginning scent discrimination. I very much enjoyed it!

We were signed up for Competition Puppy 2, but there were not enough people so the instructor had to cancel the class. I've already paid, so I'm hoping there will be another class running in March. We may have to switch into the Attention 1, but that would be ok. It's all practice anyways! And now we have two months to fix all the things we didn't have time to perfect in the class.

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