Dennis and I went to our first obedience class last
night. We are signed up for 5 weeks of
classes at Mr. Dog located in West Bath, Maine.
The lady who owns it has been voted the best dog trainer in Maine for a
couple years now. I figured, how could
we go wrong with that? I must admit,
with that kind of fire power I had high hopes.
Visions of a grand champion obedience hound. I cannot say why I had these delusions given
the fact that I had taken Bettina to a training class when she first joined me
and learned pretty quickly that high hopes are dangerous.
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| Watching all the other dogs sit and get tons of yummy treats. |
But my hopes for Dennis were reinforced when two of the
participants were so freaked out they had to take part behind blanket draped
x-pens so as not to see the other participants in the class. Most of the rest were yanking their owners all
around the room. We had two young labs,
one on each side of
us, and they were hauling their owners out of their
seats. Dennis was excited but he calmly
stood there in front of me, slightly leaning on my leg for reassurance. He looked like a rock star in this
group.
My head swelled all up.
Dennis was going to be the gold star student. We were going to show up everyone and I would
practice being humble. I was already
practicing in my head. The trainer went
around and introduced herself to each pet parent and dog. When she got to us the first thing out of her
mouth after “this must be Dennis” was “you know greyhounds don’t sit, right?”
I assured her I knew that but in this case, Dennis was a
natural sitter. Frequently he sits for
the heck of it. We so got this. Except of course, we hadn't got this. Of course we had to start with sit. My old nemeses sit. The trainer told us what she wanted us to do
and demonstrated with a little Chihuahua who sat perfectly. Then I watched as the labs on either side of
us also nailed perfect sits. I took a
deep breath and asked Dennis for a sit.
He looked at me. I moved on to
step two, taking a piece of hot dog, holding it first in front of his nose and
then up over his head. Dennis would only
back up. His butt, which the trainer
assured us would naturally sink to the floor when you held the treat over their
head, didn’t get anywhere near the floor.
 |
| Blurry yes, but PROOF that he sits...when he wants to. |
We tried a few times and then took a rest. Tried a few more times, took a rest. Dennis was getting discouraged because he
wasn’t earning any of those yummy pieces of hot dog. Soon he stopped paying any attention to me
and started watching the dogs all around us who were getting stuffed full treats. Finally I felt bad and just started giving
him treats. We’d celebrate the fact that
he looked at me when I said his name. Or
that he held my gaze for a second before turning back to watch the other dogs.
Eventually I just gave up all together and sat there while
everyone practiced a sit and stay until released. Dennis
started to drool a little watching everyone get treats. I was beginning to think maybe this was not
such a great idea and now we were locked into 4 more weeks of this. Luckily we switched to learning to
target. I think the trainer could read
the look on my face since she chose to use Dennis as her demonstration dog for
this.
He picked it up quickly and was touching her palm like a super
dog. Then it was my turn. I did manage to get him to touch my
palm. I will admit that it has been
awhile since I’ve done much training and I quickly realized how sloppy I was
with my commands and rewards. We
practiced target a bit and Dennis was happy to be getting fed finally. So our
first training class ended on a high note, but we are not setting the world on
fire. Mumma’s vanity and pride have
suffered a bit of a hit. That’s what I
get, I guess, for being a stage mom.
