Last night was the second puppy class! We had a lot of fun.
It was chilly, so Alice had on her pink and white striped PJs plus her pink plaid harness. She ended up still being chilly, so next time she’ll be wearing her coat.
She walked all the way across the parking lot to the pavilion really well! Minimal stopping.
I set up the blanket that Elaine gave me on the floor and we sat there for most of the class. Brad set up a little light behind me to provide better lighting for this class, and it gave us some really neat pictures—this time all in color!
We started out practicing our sits and downs from last week. Alice did very well at these!
Next we worked on the name game. Alice is pretty good at this, and was happy to demonstrate. We worked on paying attention to her name when there were distractions that were expected (the instructor coming over to say hi) and from unexpected distractions like the 4-year-old girl next to us running around, and her 3.5-month-old puppy brother wanting to say hi. Alice did really well!
We also started on the foundations of a come command. We’d call our dog’s name and then back up to encourage our dogs to run towards us. Well Alice didn’t see the point. She is very much the type of dog who doesn’t do something if she doesn’t think it makes sense. So I would get to the end of the leash backing up away from her and she’d still be standing there where we started from! I had to take a few steps forwards and then backwards a few times, and eventually she’d follow me and come get her treat. It was pretty funny!
Unfortunately all this moving around wasn’t so great for my foot. It started to hurt (technically I probably should have been using my wheelchair, but it’s hard to train using a wheelchair), so I sat back down.
Then we worked on touch. Alice already knows this command, so it wasn’t too hard for her. In fact, she did really well! I was able to get her to touch my hand from almost a full leash length away!
Brad got pictures in color this time, thanks to the assistance of the light. In them, I am wearing blue and green leggings, a long sleeved green top, and my hair is in a ponytail with a blue scarf. Alice is wearing the PJs and harness described earlier—she is a tiny sable and white Japanese Chin puppy. We are sitting on a blanket that is blue and purple swirly clouds with broomsticks and stars.
