I called our local vet's office yesterday to see if they knew of any puppy training classes in the area in the next few months. Ironically, they had a four week class starting that evening for puppies 9-20 weeks old and were not aware of any in the future. I asked if we could sign up even though we don' t get our puppy until Saturday and she said, "sure".
We showed up empty handed at 6pm and were quickly labeled the "expectant parents" by the other members of the class. There were puppies everywhere struggling at the ends of their leashes to get at the other dogs. A large German Shepherd and a cat were having a showdown in the corner, somehow the cat was winning. A couple of black labs were going crazy and two huge 5 month old bull mastiffs were quietly drooling near the doorway.
Jay instantly discovered a shy
goldendoodle and its elderly owners far away from the chaotic group.
Bayley, a nine-week-old puppy, was being held by her owners and looked like she was about to fall asleep. They explained that they had just taken her for a long walk...just goes to show that Cesar
Millan's tactics work, this dog was calm!
We went upstairs behind the parade of pups and frazzled owners to a big open room half-carpeted, half-vinyl. We made our introductions and after a 15 minute lesson on house-training, biting and leadership the puppies were let loose to play.
Bayley slept through the beginning of the class and was rudely awakened by the pack of insane dogs. She cowered under a chair and didn't really come out for the rest of the class. She was really afraid and did not seem to like the other dogs at all. It probably didn't help that her owners were comforting her and feeding her fears.
The trainer quickly picked up on the situation and coached the old couple on how to correctly react to their dogs fear. By the end of the class Bayley was responding a little better to the other dogs. I hope our dog will be friendlier, at least she will have a fellow doodle to hang out with.
We picked up our new puppy this weekend. Isn't she cute! Ha ha.
Because she was the biggest in the litter she was the most dominant and really ran the show. Unfortunately for her, we will now be running the show. We drove up to the Miller's house in Winnetka and had a great time learning about our little charger. She is extremely confident and went right up to their black lab and started nibbling on her (Lucy's) paw. Lucy is a rescued dog and was actually afraid of Mika, who then proceeded to chase her around the room barking. What a great game :) Dr. Kurt checked her out at his new clinic and she got another couple vaccinations. We had a long drive home and she was excellent the whole way.
We showed up empty handed at 6pm and were quickly labeled the "expectant parents" by the other members of the class. There were puppies everywhere struggling at the ends of their leashes to get at the other dogs. A large German Shepherd and a cat were having a showdown in the corner, somehow the cat was winning. A couple of black labs were going crazy and two huge 5 month old bull mastiffs were quietly drooling near the doorway.
The trainer quickly picked up on the situation and coached the old couple on how to correctly react to their dogs fear. By the end of the class Bayley was responding a little better to the other dogs. I hope our dog will be friendlier, at least she will have a fellow doodle to hang out with.
The Seiler family came for a visit this past weekend and boy did we keep them busy! We spent a lot of time outdoors taking walks, canoeing, going to the park and playing on the ropes-course. Jane and Don were also able to scramble up the indoor climbing wall...even Catherine climbed! I think Jay might have lifted her up a little of the way but she did really well for her first time up and had a lot of fun doing it.
