Chance started obedience school tonight....

[clraymond]

Well, tonight was Chance's first night of school! He did pretty well. There were about 8 other dogs there. At first he was so hyper b/c of all the dogs, but he ended up getting better. I won't say "calm", but he finally chilled out a bit. There was a beautiful rott. The marking were amazing! He was huge too and he was only a puppy still! Tonight we worked on "heel". Chance did well except for when it was time to sit. He did great when he was walking in a circle and doing the command to heel, then sit. When we all lined up to walk across and up to each other and make the dogs just sit and not jump and play with each other, he did well too. When we were waiting for others turn and he was told to sit, well, he wanted to lay. That was the hardest thing, keeping him in a "sit". The instructor seems really nice and I can see that she has a real knack (sp?) for this. All the dogs took to her really well. She remembered Chance too so that was great. (It was at the SPCA)

Oh, when we were outside before coming in we were talking to the owner of the rott. (she had taken the class before with her older rott and talked very highly of it so that made me happy!) Anyway, another dog came up with his owner and so all 3 of the dogs were sniffing at each other. The man says to his dog, "you don't know what to do b/c you are in the middle of a rott and a pitt bull". Why does everyone think Chance is a pitt?

It was a good start so hopefully he will start to learn more. I actually think it's more of a class for the owners though. Dogs are smart, we are the ones that need to be trained on how to "train" them. Well, at least I do anyway. I did learn a couple things that I was doing that might be letting Chance think certain things are okay. We also got the bitter apple to attempt to help with the biting and jumping. Which are still issues we are struggling with. Well, just thought I would share! thanks for reading....

[Carrie]

Hey! Great! It sounds like you had lots of fun and learned some new tips. I think classes are wonderful (if a good trainer) and the dogs get so much out of them. Keep up the good work at home and he'll be a super dog! Let us know how things progress.

[Novel]

Oh I'm so happy for you and Chance. He's going to love having all this one on one time with you!
People think he's a pitt because they have no idea what a pitt is, and they just want to be cool because of all the recent press. People who are not dog people, don't seem to know all that much about dogs, or really seem all that concerned about learning. I'm proud to be a dog person, and if they want to be "toaster" people, well, I suppose that's their perogative, but then leave me and my dogs alone.

Can you tell I've had a few rough dog days???

[clraymond]

Can you tell I've had a few rough dog days???
LOL! No, why would I think that.....

We did have fun. We practiced today for a little bit. She said to practice, but no more than 10 minutes at a time, so we didn't push it. He did well. And he really does not like the spray. At one point, he got ready to jump and then looked over at me grabbing the bottle and then just sat! YES! That's what I have been waiting for.....