Abigail Goes to School
Abigail is now 9 months old and she is a
good dog. She comes when she's called (most of the time), she walks on leash
(without pulling too much), when off leash she stays close to me (until she's
distracted).
This week I started her in obedience
classes. I want to learn how to get Abigail to always come when called, to
walk on leash by my side without pulling and to not dash off when something
takes her fancy. I'd like also to eventually have the two of us become
involved with the pet-therapy program and I know that I need her to be
consistently well-behaved for that.
For the first class, we were to come
without our dogs. This first session involved a lot of information - the
philosphy and methods behind dog training. The teachers brought their own dog
and demonstrated some of the techniques we would learn in order to teach our
dogs. We were given homework. I've heard that the whole success of this
program for your dog is whether or not you do your homework - as little as 15
minutes each day brings results.
So Abigail and I have been working. I'm
training her to pay attention to me - to sit and look up at my face for
instructions. I've also been working on getting her to lie down on the floor
and stay. In three days she can already hold that position for 5 minutes. This
will be such a useful thing to have her do - when I take her anywhere -
visiting or doing errands etc. - having her be still and not jumping up
at people or getting into mischief.
Because I'm focusing on Abigail (we
split the training sessions into short, 5 minute periods right now ) I'm
feeling an even stronger bond forming. This is something we're doing together.
When I'm working with her, I'm not doing anything else and I think she's
understanding this. I sense that she's already listening to me more carefully
this week.