Krisd

I signed my 2 year old toy poodle about 6 weeks ago for the training class. Every Thursday for an hour she worked on the various goals for the test. I was amazed at how eager Dolly was to learn new things. It was only $100 and then today she took the therapy test and the canine good citizen test which cost $40. I am looking forward to bringing her with me to work and also volunteer at various places. I work with adults with developmental disabilities so they will be very happy to get visits from Dolly! I highly recommend this to everyone that has a dog..even if you feel they might not pass…they can take the test over and over.

So I tend to be a dreamer and I’ll talk about doing things for a long time before even trying to do them..sometimes I don’t which is one of the reasons I’m on 43things.
Wednesday night(late like around midnight) I was checking out a website for a dog trainer that 2 of my friends recommended. The site was awesome and the trainer seems like a wonderful person so I sent an email asking what steps to take to train my dog. The trainer wrote back right away and asked if my dog could follow certain commands like sit, stay, down and if she could walk nicely on a leash..and if she gets along with other dogs. I fibbed a tiny bit and said she knows all the commands (down is not mastered yet) but I did not have to lie about the fact that she loves all dogs. When I checked my email the next morning, the trainer said there was a class starting that night and would we like to join them. Due to my anxiety, my first reaction was, oh, that’s kinda soon…when is the next class? Then I thought about it and it worked with my schedule so why the hell not?!
That night, Dolly and I made our way to the center and I was nervous we’d get kicked out or something. She’s a 2 year old toy poodle and she’s not around many people or dogs so when she sees them she gets majorly excited. The class was fun and there were 8 other dogs and the first night was about getting to know the dogs and for the trainer to see how they handle everything. It involved a lot of interaction with other peoples’ dogs which was interesting for me…especially handling big strong dogs when I’m used to my 7 lb poodle! Nobody like her high pitched barking but I’m hoping that will go away once she gets used to the excitement. We have 5 more classes to go and it was only $100 which was way less than I anticipated.
I realize that if Dolly doesn’t pass the canine good citizen test it’s not the end of the world. Now I found a trainer I like (who’s a retired vet to boot!) so I can keep working with her until she’s able to come with me to work!

Besides the fact that I would prefer to frequent smaller businesses, I need to not go there for my well being. I saw a nasty fight that involved a lot of screaming and then a man spit all over the woman and it was freakin’ scary. People were running around and all I could think is get me the bleep outta here. The crazy thing is as I worried for my safety, I was more worried about the store going into lockdown and I’d have to be stuck with the Walmartians all night. It was 10:00 on a Wednesday night and I ran out of printer ink, that’s the only reason why I went there. Here’s the kicker: the store didn’t have the ink I needed! Well this experience will hopefully make me more organized so I don’t have to run out to Walmart again!