Sunday, April 25, 2010

DOG-101

So I know you are all on pins and needles for news from the dog training class. The class started on April 15. We meet for an hour once a week.

The class is full with 10 dogs enrolled. Some dogs come with more than one handler so it makes for quite a crowd!

I'm not dealing with a completely random population, of course. A filter has already been applied--the filter that separates people who are willing to live and work in KSA from those that would never consider it. But the owners span the range of totally clueless ("But I already have a good relationship with my dog!" said as she drags her dog behind her on the leash as he's trying desperately to poop) to informed and proactive (Aris is very reactive to other dogs and Jeanette has spent FIVE YEARS working with him so that she can calmly walk him around the neighborhood; she lives across the street from me and when Aris met Harry and Mimi in one of the communal grassy areas, it was a non-event).

The dogs are quite a variable group too. There is a very large, blonde male labradoodle, more poodle than lab for sure. He's still a pup and quite a handful. There is a tiny mix about the size of a chihuahua--she is shy and doesn't like the clicker sound much so I'm having her owners use their voices as markers instead. There is a dog that I would swear is a kelpie-saluki mix--his ears stand straight up like gigantic radar dishes but he has the classic saluki body. He is extremely anxious and usually doesn't take food in class but his owners report making progress at home. Stitch is a very sweet dog and always greets me with a tail wag. There is a fat JRT with a rather nasty disposition and a couple of "Min Pin-Boston Terrier" mixes who were bred on camp (totally against the rules). They are both darkly brindled like staffordshire terriers but are about the size of tallish Bostons. They have the round Boston head and funky round feet but otherwise don't look like bostons at all. They certainly don't look like Min Pins. They are pups and totally full of life and joy. Then there is Diesel, the Lhasa Apso. He is a turnip on legs--the dog is a total lump. I am sort of wondering why his owner put him in the class because he has no behavior issues. He has no behaviors to speak of all, really. He doesn't react to food or toys. He just wants to stretch out on the cool floor by his owner.

The class is being held in a very large room, about 60 x 50 feet. Two walls are lined with tall windows so there is plenty of natural light. The floor is new grey linoleum--easy to clean and good traction for the dogs. There are even some sinks so I don't have to carry in water for the water bowls.

Most of the people taking the class have never tried to train a dog before but probably half of them picked up the concept of the clicker right away and are really giving it a good try.

There is quite a bit of interest on camp about the class. I've gotten calls and emails from people wanting in the class (it was full in only 3 days of registration) or wanting private training for their dogs. I was even contacted by a group of owners in Ras Tanura, an Aramco compound on the beach that is about an hour's drive from Dhahran. I told them I probably couldn't help them out since transportation is so difficult.

I did do a private lesson for three women who had smuggled three black lab puppies over from Bahrain. Yes, smuggled them at 9 weeks of age under their abayas over the causeway from Bahrain in a taxi. They paid the taxi driver big bucks to go along with this. I am amazed he would agree because he would have been in really big trouble if he had been caught by the Saudis, probably deported. The pups are too young to put in class with adult dogs and I thought if I could work with all three of them together it would be relatively efficient. The pups are not pure-bred labs even though the Americans the women bought them from said they were. The Americans even gave them "papers"--not AKC of course. It only takes one look at the pups to see they are cross bred with something else. But I didn't say anything to the proud owners--and wasn't going to until I heard that one of them was planning to breed her bitch puppy. Yikes! I may try to find a way to encourage the women to fix all three of those pups.

Because of the strong interest in the class, Community Education started a waiting list. When it reached half a dozen people, they contacted me at the beginning of this week and asked, would I consider running a second, concurrent session? I thought about it for a day and told them that I would. But I limited enrollment to 8 dogs--turns out 10 is too much--and I told them I wanted half an hour break between the two classes which will be held in the same room. Two of the women on the waiting list are in my book club and it seems they had been pressuring Community Education to ask me for the second session (I never told them about the class but they heard about it and asked me a lot of questions at the last book club meeting). They are amongst the Commonwealth Contingent on camp, Canadians to be exact, and are quite funny.

I plan to take Mimi with me today and work with her during that half hour between classes in that wonderfully large room. She may not be too happy to have to wait in her crate during class but she'll just have to get over it. Better than sitting at home with Harry. I probably try to take him next week although I expect she will eat the furniture in a fit of pique when we leave.

1 comment:

seniormoments said...

Hilarious! Looks like you're getting more material to write that book I'd like to see some day. Have fun!


VAMom