2nd Puppy Class

Today I took Bayou to her 2nd puppy class. It wasn't much fun for me or for her because I had to keep her on leash the whole time and away from a couple of the dogs (one was aggressive, the other the tiny dog). She did get to play with a Labradoodle and had fun doing that. There really wasn't much for Bayou to do since there was more talking than training. I'm not worried though because we start training in private one-on-one lessons with Clay on Wednesday. After a few weeks, when she is ready, Bayou will start going to group classes. The puppy class just isn't a good fit for Bayou. I only took her because we've paid for the classes and I hate to waste the money but that hour or so takes everything out of me and Bayou (and not in a good way). So, anyway, I'll email Rebekah and let her know that we won't be coming back to puppy class. I know we will get a lot better results with Clay in private sessions.

I don't even know what I've blogged about or when I did it so I may be repeating some info. Thursday the carpets were cleaned and they pee stains actually look worse now than they did before for 2 reasons. The first reason is because the rest of the carpet is so much cleaner now, the pee stains show up more and second, when he cleaned the stains they all just got bigger. It didn't remove any of them, just made them bigger. Oh well. At least most of the carpet looks better. Bayou has peed in the house since the carpets were cleaned but not very much. We catch her in the act and make a big fuss to get her to go outside. It works for the most part. I think that even though the carpets have been cleaned I'll still need to use some Nature's Miracle to remove whatever it is that Bayou is still able to smell.

Through another dog training website I found out that a new daycare is in where Preppy Pet used to be. It's called Aspen Meadows Dog Resort. I'm going to call to see if I can go and check it out before Bayou goes there. She has to wait until the first week of April, at least, because she has to have her rabies shot. And I'm not even sure if Clay will want her going to doggy daycare. Lots of bad habits can be learned there. I don't want to undermine what Clay will be doing. We're investing a lot of time and money into Bayou's training and I want to make sure that we follow what Clay says we should do (or don't do). If she's able to go to daycare at some point, at least I know there is one closer than Lucky Dog.

I'm up but David and Bayou are in bed. She goes to bed without a problem and stays there until I take her out to pee in the morning (usually around 4:30am when David is up getting ready for work). I'm not sure if we'll train her to sleep on the floor or if it will be okay to have her sleep in bed with us. She's well over 22 pounds now and she's only 15 weeks old. I don't know how big she will get but I don't think she'll be a small dog. That reminds me, when Clay got Watson out of the truck the other day to show us how his training is going, I thought it was a different dog. Watson has really filled out and looks like an adult dog now. He is absolutely beautiful. He did great with the training demonstration. He missed a few things but I'm okay with that. I don't want a perfect dog, I want a happy, obedient dog.

Today when Bayou came in the back door she ran and leaped up onto the couch where I was laying. I couldn't believe the air she got. lol We'll definitely not have that happening once training starts. She will only be on the furniture or us if she is invited. No more jumping, crazy dog. Maria comes on Wednesday morning to clean the house and I'll be glad when she comes back 2 weeks later and Bayou has made some improvement. Maria will be a good judge of how Bayou is doing with her training.

I'm really looking forward to Wednesday afternoon getting here so we can start the training in earnest. The puppy class that we went to today seems to be more of an informational class than a training class so I think working with Clay is the better way to go. There are all kinds of things that Bayou is doing that I can't wait to get her to stop (biting, digging, chewing on power cords, running away from me). I know I have to be patient though because she only is a puppy and training takes time. I just want to get on with it. I'll finally have some guidance and can work with Bayou more often with the specific training behaviors we're working on. I think it will be great for Bayou because she'll get more energy out during the day and learn to be more focused. It will be good for me because I'll have something to do and a plan to follow. So far all I've done is try to stay a step ahead of Bayou and for the most part, that's really not happening. She's running things right now. She's in for a rude awakening when private lessons start. Not that it will be mean or anything, it's just that she's so used to being in charge that once I'm in charge she'll know things have changed. And they do have to change.

At the end of puppy class, Bayou was finally calm enough to do "sit" and "down" with treats. I think she was just worn out from choking herself at the end of the leash all class long. She'll sleep good tonight though. Then we'll be one day closer to training with Clay. I don't want anyone to think that the puppy class is bad, it's just not a good fit for Bayou and me. We don't need all the new puppy info. We need training techniques. I don't think this class will do a whole lot of that. We did use the clicker today but Clay told us we won't be using a clicker with his training. We'll still mark the behavior but it will be with a verbal clue ("YES!!"). I'll be glad to be done with the clicker. It's too hard to hold her leash, hold treats and click the clicker. One less thing will really help. I'm thinking too that we won't have her on leash much in the private lessons so I won't have that to hold onto either. Once she gets comfortable enough with training and we are doing the right techniques (after about a month or so) then she'll be able to go to group classes. That is going to be a lot of fun working with other dogs who are being trained the same way. It will give me something to do and it certainly will give Bayou something to do that will tire her out. I think there are a couple of classes a week. I'll probably try to attend whatever classes are available to me. It will be nice to have a focus again.

Tomorrow I have to go out and clean the yard early because I think the lawn guy is coming to fertilize. I didn't clean today but I did yesterday so it shouldn't be too bad. I let the Scott, the yard guy, know that we have Bayou so he doesn't use any dangerous chemicals. He'll have to pull weeds instead of spraying them to kill them. I may have to get a sprinkler at Lowe's for the fertilizer since the sprinkler system hasn't been turned on yet. I'll have to check with Scott on that too. I can't wait for there to be moist, green grass in the backyard. Right now it's all dry and gets tracked into the house so easily. And fresh grass is so much more fun to play in. It makes cleaning the yard a bit of a challenge but between Scott coming every week and we cleaning up at least every other day it shouldn't be a problem.

I need to get some more pictures of Bayou to post and a video too. I want to tape our classes with Clay. I need to get a before video of how crazy she can get and then a week later video again if she's made improvement. I wish I hadn't sold my camera tripod. I could really use it now. I'll have to look for one on craigslist or online. Speaking of online. I ordered the bed that fits in her whole kennel. The little round beds I got still work but there not as comfortable as they could be for her. Clay also suggested with put a divider in the kennel so she doesn't have as much room to keep her from peeing in there. Right now she has so much room that she can pee on one end and sleep on the other. Not good. I couldn't find any dividers at Petsmart so I'm going to see if I can come up with something from Lowe's. Her bed will be here this week so I need to find a divider soon.

I guess that's it for tonight. I'm getting sleepy and swagbucks is calling my name to Midnight Bucks! lol