DOG-101

The first session of DOG-101 has officially ended. The second session still has two more weeks to go. I managed to take pictures of some of the dogs and handlers a couple of weeks ago.

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This is Kim with Risa, who might be a coton mix?, and Liz with Diesel, the lhasa turnip. I've never seen a dog with less drive than Diesel. He spends most of class time stretched out with his belly on the cool floor. But Liz kept working and working until she found some treats that Diesel would get up for. She did all of the exercises and activities with him...eventually. Slowly.

Risa's owners certainly come off as nice people but she is the third dog they've had on camp in the past year or so. They keep getting dogs and dumping them when they turn out to have any sort of issue. Risa was extremely shy and wouldn't even let me approach her for the first three weeks. Then I pulled out a secret weapon: squeeze cheese (or the com variant). Risa became my BFF in seconds. Kim and Marcy worked pretty hard at all of the exercises and Risa became increasingly confident as the weeks passed. By week 5, she was entering the room with her tail up. By week 7, she was greeting other people and dogs. By the end, she was almost walking calmly on a loose lead. Being a squirrel on a string was in fact her biggest problem (after being so shy, of course).

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This is Jeanette with Aris. She's had him for years (he's 10 yrs old) and he's terribly dog aggressive and guardy. She already had some clicker training and Aris is actually pretty well trained but used class to help work with him on proximity and focus. Aris is actually quite a hairy little dude. On the day I took this, he had just returned from getting his summer 'do.

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Here is Cheri with Xena, a purported Min-Pin-Boston Terrier cross. I had three dogs from that litter in my two classes. None of them look like minpins OR bostons. But apparently the sire and dam live on camp. Go figure. Xena is the star of the class. Cheri worked really hard and Xena went from frantic to focused. The guy is Kevin with the giant labradoodle Crash. Crash is more doodle than labra--I think there is standard poodle in there somewhere. Crash is only 10 months old. He was utterly wild when Kevin started class. I can't say he's less wild but Kevin does have more control and focus than when they started.

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This is Dakota, another of the Min-Pin-Boston crosses. They all have that strange brindled coat. Dakota has no white on him. Dakota lives with several wild children (I think Mom is a barely reformed hippy) and is a bit of a nipper. He's extremely strong and willful and has absolutely no relationship with any of the people he lives with. I hope that I managed to help her build something with the dog.

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Here's a fun group shot. That's Bobbi with her two adopted daughters and Jake, some sort of poodle cross, peeking out from the girl on the ground. Bobbi is in my book club. Like Dakota, Jake has no relationship with any of the people in his family. Bobbi and her older daughter handled him in class and I spent a lot of time trying to get them all focusing on each other. Next in line is Crystal and Webster, the miniature dachschund. Webster went from shy to social butterfly in about 5 weeks. He's become quite the training monster and Crystal seems to have enjoyed working with him in class. In the back are Lisa and Rocky. You can't tell from the picture but Rocky is a Canaan dog, a desert herding breed. They are aloof and shy but don't seem to have the aggression of the saluki mixes. Lisa is in my step class.

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This is Anthony and Stitch. Stitch is another Canaan dog. He's a magnificent dog but monstrously anxious of new situations. They had to literally carry him in the classroom the first week. Of course he didn't accept food at all. Rocky was exactly the same. By week 5, Rocky and Stitch couldn't take their eyes off their owners in anticipation of a new "game", and by week 8, both of them were prancing in the front door of the class, greeting other people and dogs. Anthony and Grace came together with Stitch every week and they were so proud of his incredible progress. Sure, maybe he didn't do every exercise perfectly but it was most significant that he would even get out in the middle of the room and do anything at all.

I built a course outline but kept revising it every single week. At the end of week 3, I was sure that none of those folks would ever figure it out. By week 5, I was surprised and amazed at the dogs' progress. Some of the dogs were tightly bonded to their owners, others not at all. Still, I kept things moving slowly but steadily. The dogs with good bonds were walking on loose leads even with Mimi bouncing around them as a distraction. The dogs with no bonds were at least checking in with their owners every so often.

The second class was full of soft, shy dogs. I struggled to find dogs to use as demos for new skills because I couldn't even touch most of them. But I worked hard on making nice with them all, even the scary itty-bitty dogs. By week 6, I was able to greet each dog individually and ask them to do some simple behaviors.

I learned a lot about dogs from this class. I learned some new things about positive training methods. Because I wanted to try out everything I was going to talk about in class, Mimi and Harry got a huge boost in their training, to their great pleasure. I also learned that I am a pretty good instructor. I apparently have reservoirs of patience that I didn't know about. In the eyes of some of those folks, I am even a miracle worker, although the dog trainers that read this blog know it really isn't a miracle at all. Consistency, positive methods for BOTH dogs and handlers, and a good attitude take you a long way.