Week two obedience class.

Week two update.

Sadie really impressed me this week. During the winter Sadie is pretty much a slug; staying inside and napping.  Over the last year most of the focus was on raising Simon and exposing him to as much as we could to help him grow into a well rounded adult. Because of this, Sadie spent a lot of time hanging out with Nik while Simon and I went out and experienced as much as we could. 

With us slacking on her training I expected it to take a little work to get her back into step with training. She has gotten back into so fast and is doing a great job staying focused on Nik while other dogs misbehave around her. The chicken we are using for treats really help her. She is also doing really well socializing with other dogs at daycare and at the dog park her reactions have been spot on and I am so happy with her. The downside for the week and why I don't have any pictures of her is that Nik has been really sick and he wasn't able to make it to class on Wednesday. But they have been working together at home and she is doing great and she seems to be having a lot of fun.

On to the Simon monster. On Wednesday my day really went to the dogs. I took them to the dog park and then took Simon on a super long walk. After the walk we took a quick nap and then headed out to dog class. At class we worked on 'fronts' and heeling. Simon is doing really well with heeling but his fronts are a little crocked so that is something we need to work on.  He is also getting better at not jumping on people at class.  I intentionally stayed near the dogs that were barking and misbehaving to make it harder for him and he did really well. We hung out for the next basic class and worked on relaxing while other dogs were excited close by. 

Over all it has been a good week for training and the dogs I am so happy I have two wonderful amazing dogs in my life and I wouldn't trade them for the world. 

First week of obedience training update.

Sadie doing a stay.

We had our first training class with Sadie and Simon last Wednesday!  They both did very good considering that they haven't been in a training class for a bit.  The class is in a very large building with a lot of people and dogs which provides great distractions for Simon, especially since Sadie is in the same class and he likes checking in on her.

When Sadie passed her first class.

 Sadie has already taken and passed this class two years ago, but since we haven't remained as consistent with her as we want it will be good to give her a refresher. It will also be good for her and Nik to get more accustomed to each other in a situation where they can both be successful since I was the one who did most of the training previously.  The highlight of the night for me was when a fearful dog snapped at Sadie and she responded by backing away and looked to Nik for guidance. Simon was a little wild at first and would voice his thoughts when he was bored or frustrated. However he did do most of the things I asked of him and paid very good attention considering the distracting environment we were in.

Simon at last Wednesdays class practicing good focus. 

Training

We are about to start doing some more structured training with Simon and Sadie. We used to do a lot of training with Sadie but once she got to the point that we could walk her and she was easy to live with we started doing less. Then we got Simon and all the focus was on the new puppy and making sure he liked people and was not a monster. Now Simon is over a year old and has started to have a longer attention span I think he will do better too. We took a training class with him over the summer when we had Maya but between trying to juggle three dogs and dealing with Simon wanting to climb the trees and eat the birds it did not go so well.  I am very hopeful that now Simon will have better luck also the class is inside so less chance of him getting as distracted by everything around him.

My main goals for the current training is for Sadie and Nik to learn how to be able to work better as a team. For Sadie to learn to focus better with distractions and be less reactive to dogs around her. For Simon to improve his stays and recalls and to help increase his motivation for working with me.

I intend to post on what we are working on as well as any issues or progress we make.