First Class of Dog Training

I’m pretty excited today. Last night was our first night for Stella’s training class. I was a little nervous, but excited. The three of us left, and Stella was completely excited. I did feel bad for leaving Heineken behind though, and it didn't help that she was obviously bummed out.  We get to the class early because the trainer needed to size the pinch collar. There were already 2 dogs there, and Stella was barking and jumping like a crazy animal. We had to wait while the dog in front of us got fitted. It felt like a long time even though it was only a few minutes, because Stella was pulling, barking and jumping. Then it’s our turn. The trainer gets Stella fit and teaches us about the collar (it basically applies pressure evenly around the neck when the leash gets pulled), and then we go find a spot in the yard. Before we got started, all the dogs had to get fit so we were probably standing there for about 15 minutes. Stella barked about 13 minutes of those 15. All the other dogs were sitting there being normal and quiet, but not our Stella. She was definitely proving to be the clown of the class.

Now we were ready to get started. The trainer tells us that we will start with heeling. Basically we will walk back and forth and if the dog gets ahead of us then we do a 180°. He decided to use Stella for his demonstration to both Stella's and my happiness. He’s walking with Stella and as soon as she gets ahead of him (the dog’s nose should be in line with the human’s knees), he turns around. Stella lets out a squeal, but he kept going. He said that it didn’t hurt her (I believe it, Stella is made of steel), but that she was just complaining about turning around. Then as they were walking, Stella started to drag or as the trainer said, “Now she’s trying to plant roots on me.” But he just kept walking and of course she had no choice but to follow. Then it was our turn. At the beginning of our exercise we had to turn around every couple of steps, but after a few minutes Stella was getting the hang of it.

The trainer continued to use Stella as his demonstration dog. She did well too. She seems to be a quick learner so she probably was a good demonstration dog. I was grateful because it was that much more training for Stella and by an expert too! We continued with our exercises. Next was to have the dog sit when we stop walking. Overall I think Stella was receptive to the exercises. She still barked a lot, but she wasn’t barking when we were moving so at least it wasn't 100% of the time.

We end the class with doggie socialization, so the dogs get to run around and be dogs.  Stella is of course done barking at this point - she's off the leash and moving.  The dog that was next to us started barking as soon as socialization started.  At one point he got in Stella's face and was barking at her.  Brian and I felt that was good pay back for Stella!

We will be continuing the training at home this week. The goal being once per day for just 15 minutes or so. I’m anxious to see how Stella takes to the training when she’s on familiar turf as opposed to the class yard, but I’m also excited to keep working with her. Our classes are weekly so hopefully every week we’ll have more progress to share!