Foundation Course - 4th Class with Skooter (Week 5)

I fell asleep between classes and woke up later than I should have to get to Skooter's class. We got there late, but they had waited for us. We didn't miss anything. It was nice to see Ruth and Kristy. I would have liked to have had a chance to talk to them, but it's difficult with getting the dogs in and out.

Skooter was a lot more settled in class today. He wasn't pulling the whole time. He was distracted by the other dogs, but got back on task when I called his name.

We worked on sit first. He did okay with that. Then we worked on flat. He had to have a tease/lure to do that, but he did it. Then we combined sit and flat and didn't treat right away. He did okay with that too. He had a tough time with wait, but finally did it two or three times. He was the demo dog for with me again. He did really well and did automatic sits when stopped and stayed with Ruth during the walk. I am very proud of him. When he did it with me he didn't do quite as well, but still okay. Then we did with me to go outside and do quick on the side walk. He took a long time to sit outside the training room door. He was pretty well behaved outside. I was real apprehensive about doing quick with him off the leash. Kristy held him. I walked about thirty feet away then turned and called, Skooter, quick, come on boy. He hesitated but then with some coaxing trotted on down to where I was standing. He never went off the sidewalk. Again, he had trouble sitting so we just did gotcha instead. Then we did with me to the car. He got in the car and I went in to get the homework for the week.

I asked Ruth about Monday's session, if it would be 15 minutes total or 15 minutes per dog. She said we really have no time limit. She'll work with us as long as we need to. Mostly it'll be working with David and me on our training technique. The dogs will do a lot better once we can be consistent and train them well.

I could really see in both classes today how deficient my technique is. I wasn't treating often enough or at the right time. I wasn't using enough verbal praise. I wasn't being consistent with my behavior commands. I was using the wrong commands at times. I was using the wrong hand to treat with during the with me exercise. I'm not teaching Skooter well enough when it comes to sitting or going flat without a treat. I wasn't using the lure correctly (giving it to him instead of dropping other treats).

I want to make it clear that I'm not getting down on myself, just doing some constructive criticism. I know that I will be able to do what I need to do more proficiently in time. Again, I need more training than the dogs at this point. It's fruitless to try to train them with bad techniques.

Overall it was an excellent training day. I was so pleased with Skooter and Moped today. Their behavior was improved and they improved on their behaviors also. Woohoo!

At least Skooter didn't pee on the floor! :-)