Yesterday was our final week of advanced obedience. I can’t believe it’s been six weeks since we started! The time flew by. Between the dog’s new classes, our continuing to train him at home, and his increased number of walks and outings (the latter is thanks to our having quit smoking), I feel like my dog’s quality of life has improved so much! It makes me happy in a way I don’t know how to explain. :)

Advanced obedience has definitely improved our dog’s responsiveness to the commands that he already knew but didn’t necessarily always obey. In addition, our dog seems more attentive to us (seriously, he looks up at us more on walks now!) and responds to us more quickly than he did before. All this should be a great help with his agility training.

Last week, we worked on teaching the dog that “sit” means “sit wherever you are and no matter where I am!” For example, we ran with the dog and then suddenly asked him to sit. We also practiced asking him to sit in a range of situations, such as while walking away and with our back to the dog. We also worked on having the dog sit and stay while we threw toys and treats around him and practiced staying even when someone came running at him. I know I sound like a mom bragging about my kid… but he totally nailed it! :)

In our final class, we worked on giving more commands from a distance, with our back turned to the dog, while looking away from the dog, etc. Our dog responded really well overall, but his attention span wavered a couple of times. I also am growing increasingly ambitious about the distance that I want him to respond from, so we will keep practicing these exercises at home.

We also did some more work on “leave it” and “come” by walking around with the dog on a thirty-foot leash, tossing treats and toys for him, and then calling the dog away from the distraction. Our dog is really obedient about ignoring such items at our command. Getting him to stop sniffing the ground itself, however, is a bit of a challenge (especially when walking over areas covered in leaves and/or grass).

The highlight of the class was definitely showing our trainer how, in the weeks since coming to class, we have taught our dog to “leave it” when we place a treat on his nose. Our dog not only responded to our commands, but also surprised us by tossing the treat in the air and catching it (after being told he could eat it). He’s such a little show-off. :)

Our dog has come to love his training sessions so much. He definitely knows when it’s time for class. Last week, we almost missed class, but the dog plunked in front of me and stared me down around the time we were supposed to leave! I wondered why he was staring at me, then realized the time, my boyfriend and I grabbed his gear, and we made it to class in the nick of time.

Thankfully, our awesome trainer said that we can repeat any of the lessons that we want to for free. I think we’re going to end up re-taking every lesson, ‘cause my dog is seriously attached to her class!

Now to sign up for agility lessons too!! :) 3 years ago

Went to our fourth class in advanced obedience yesterday. We focused on “go to your bed,” as well as giving commands like “lie down,” “come,” “stay,” and “leave it” from a distance. Since our dog showed that he recognizes these commands during our “warm-up” exercises, the trainer put him on a 30-foot leash again (we also trained with it a couple weeks back). He did beautifully!

He’s already aced going to his bed on command when he’s a reasonable distance from his bed as well as with distractions around. Now I want to practice getting him to go to his bed from an even greater distance away. Our trainer lent us the 30-foot leash to work with this week. I’m excited to go to the park to practice with it!

Just two obedience lessons left. Then we can start on agility! :) 3 years ago

Went to our third week of advanced obedience. This week my boyfriend took a turn handling the dog. The focus of the class today was “leave it.” Our dog already knows and follows this command well, but, again, being in a new environment full of distractions tested him even further. He nailed it! Also, the improvement in how well he heels and in his willingness to listen to us is amazing.

Just three classes left to complete this course. I can’t wait to see what a natural he will be when we move on to agility! :) 3 years ago

Took my dog to his second week of advanced obedience lessons. We practiced everything from our last lesson every day this past week, so we were excited to get to class and show off his stuff! Well, okay, we weren’t that confident he’d be obedient enough to show off… but we were definitely excited to see his improvement. :)

This week turned out to be a different lesson completely. I’m starting to see how this works… add in one new behavior each week, practice it for six days to start setting the habit, and so on. I hope she does some sort of recap lesson at the end that incorporates each of the good behaviors we’ve learned.

Anyway, this week’s lesson focused on “down” and “stay.” Our dog is already very obedient to these commands at home, but I was keen to see how he’d respond in a setting with so many distractions. He listened to me beautifully! When the teacher saw that he was handling the commands with ease, she swapped out his regular leash for a 30-foot one and had me practice telling him to stay while I made giant circles around him. He aced it! :)

This week we are reinforcing the “leave it” command and practicing it in as many environments as possible in preparation for next Saturday’s lesson. I feel confident he will do well at that lesson too!

Two lessons down, four more to go. Then we can move on to agility classes! :) 3 years ago

Tomorrow we go to our second class in advanced obedience. We’ve been practicing having our dog heel unless told otherwise in every possible instance. Now he even waits for our “okay” to wander onto the grass when we first take him out to pee in the morning!

Yesterday we got so frustrated that we quit our walk partway through because he was being so stubborn with us. Today’s walk went really smoothly though. Keeping our walk this much more disciplined makes it feel like a mental challenge, instead of just a physical challenge—for us and for the dog!

Can’t wait to show him off in class tomorrow and to see how he does in that context! 3 years ago

Today we took my dog to his first obedience class! He already knows most basic manners and commands from us, but now he is learning to be polite and responsive to us in every possible context and with distractions around him. It was lots of fun and he definitely loves it. We have already started practicing his manners at home (and it’s only been three hours since class!).

After six weeks of classes and practicing the techniques we are learning there, he will be ready for agility classes or any other advanced classes we want to take him to! :)

Also, finally getting off my butt and taking my dog to class forced me to take care of registering him with the county and registering his microchip to me—important to-do’s that I had been putting off for over two years! We also got him a nice new leash for class (with no knots or tears like the old one had developed), as well as getting his bordatella vaccine up-to-date yesterday. 3 years ago