Puppy School – Week One

There is no chance that Dogger is going to come out of the class with out a prize. There are only four dogs in her class so she’s at least a shoo in for least at least a yellow Participant ribbon and possibly, Miss Congeniality.

I thought there was going to be a lot more in the class. Today there were only three dogs total with a baby boxer to start next week. Daisy was the biggest dog there and also the oldest coming in at 14 months. The other dogs were both under a year, one is a wild and crazy puppy, the other is a pure breed German Shepard. It is more mature then I am.

The Obedience guru said such nice things about Dogger! My Dogger!? The very dog that thinks CDs are just oddly shaped chew toys and that I make a great maypole? My dog had nice things said about her? I about fell over. He said she was a one in three hounded dog! A dog that could go hardcore obedience trials! My Dog!!! Baby Daisy!! .

Today just being the first day he just showed us ways of getting our dogs to sit with out us having to tell them too and with out hand signs. It came down to repeatedly tugging, but not hard tugging, just tuggy tugging to make them sit when I the owner wants her to. He also suggested some dog treats that I will be buying tomorrow over lunch.

He said to make it work we always should reward our dogs right away. No making them wait. They do the thing we want them to, we release them, they get treat. They do what we want when we want for as long as we want, they get released, they get snack. always.

He said also we shouldn’t do obedience while we do our walks. Do the training first and then go for the walk. Later on after we are more progressed in the class we can do obedience training while they are on their walks.

Dogger will be obedient, she will do (and did) what a person who is not me tells her to do? Dogger barely does what I want her to do. We will both be paying attention in puppy school. Because otherwise? It’s a month of dog basic training for her and I don’t want that. I want my baby to learn from me and not from some crazy dog whisperer trying to turn her into some soulless canine automaton.

Another example of Dogger having the potential to be a good dog? I went to a Kentucky Fried for dinner after class. I thought this would be a fast trip. The Jews weren’t left wandering in the desert as long as I was standing in that line. I was behind some John Madden manqué and his buddy the equipment manager, buying dinner for the whole team and a woman and her son ( who would not stand still. I was thinking how a nice yank on a leash would stop that. Or if his mother would just tell him to stop, stop, stop before the nice lady standing behind them in line, killed him) buying dinner for everyone at church)

I was inside . Dogger was alone in my car. Alone. In my car . In my car full of edible things. I was standing there in line occasionally looking out the door to give her the evil eye, trying to see what she was eating now; and she wasn’t eating anything. I was going through my mind trying to think what I had in there that she might like. I have a book I’ve been reading at lunch, I’m not that into to it but its what I’m reading. I have my sunglass case for my late, lamented sunglasses, a bunch of receipts – her favorite thing is shredding paper, unguarded and very similar to the dog bed that shediddestroy, seat cushions, seat belts, steering wheel… doggy heaven. I was very worried and the line was not moving and there were all these people behind the counter, ostensibly working there and yet the line was not moving and my dog was with my car. Alone.

Finally after about thirty five minutes waiting to be waited on. I got placed my order. I got out of the store and went to survey the damage.

Nothing, she didn’t chew anything. The Dog Guru thinks she has potential. My dog has been replaced by a Pod.