Really Fun Puppy Class

[missfancypants25]

Tonight was our 5th class and next week is graduation. This week we did a lot of fun things that we haven't done before. There was a couple of tunnels there this week and a lot of the puppies were a little afraid of them at first, but Waeryn absolutely loved running through them. We started with my boyfriend and Waeryn on one side of the tunnel and me on the other side. I called Waeryn and she came zooming through the tunnel, then I had my boyfriend call her and she went zooming through it again. After that she kept trying to go back through it. I was happy about this because after some more obedience classes I'm going to take some agility classes with her.
After the tunnel we went over to a hula hoop that was on the ground. First I stepped on it and moved it around with my foot to get Waeryn used to it, then we walked in a circle around the hoops a few times being sure that Waeryn didn't step inside the hoop or get in front of me. After that I had Waeryn step inside of the hula hoop and sit. Then I lifted up the hula hoop (the bottom was still resting on the ground) and had her walk through it.
There was also some gate type things set up for us and we pretended that it was a doorway and practiced the "wait" command. One of the neat things about all of this was that the three things that we were doing were like different stations and everyone was doing something at once and we all kept switching off. I liked this because it let us practice things when there were even more distractions than normal.
After everyone had visited all of the stations we had Puppy Races. We set up a start line and a finish line and two dogs went at a time. The instructors held the dogs at the start line and said "On your mark, get set, call your puppies!" Then the two owners would call their puppies, make sure they were completely over the finish line and then have them sit. Each puppy got two turns at racing and it was a lot of fun and some of the other dogs did some really funny things. Waeryn was racing against a Husky puppy and it was so cute to see my short-legged Waeryn running ahead of a big Husky pup. At the end of class we had class pictures and recess.

[MyPemCharlie]

That does sound like a fun class! Waeryn has learned a lot and could be an agility natural. Have you already found her a basic obedience class for her next level of education? Congrats to you both!

[missfancypants25]

Originally Posted by MyPemCharlie

That does sound like a fun class! Waeryn has learned a lot and could be an agility natural. Have you already found her a basic obedience class for her next level of education? Congrats to you both!

I think I should take Puppy Level 2 next, then Family Dog 1 after that, but I'd have to talk to my instructors to be sure. The one I'm not exactly sure of is Family Dog 1 because it's obedience for dogs over 6mos, so I'm wondering how much more I'd be learning from it. I think that some older dogs who have never had an obedience class before will be in there, so they're just starting out and Waeryn will have 2 classes done by then. Are you in a class with Charlie right now?

[MyPemCharlie]

No, Charlie and I will be joining a class this year to "proof" his basic obedience skills and hopefully get his CGC (Canine Good Citizen). I've been working with dogs since late 1997, first training my rottweiler, then training basic skills with hundreds of shelter dogs at the local SPCA to hopefully make them more adoptable.

I'm training at home and socializing with neighbors' dogs and at the dog park. The trainer who helped me immensely with my rottie will let me take the second half of her obedience class, which is working with distractions and final finishing for CGC. (The first half of her class teaches the basic methods for sit, down, wait, etc which we're doing at home.)

We are a little hung up right now with the loose leash walking, but once we get that worked out, we'll be signing up for "distraction" work, skill proofing and CGC. (Hopefully sooner than later.) We'll probably do an advanced obedience (maybe Rally) before intro to agility or flyball while we wait until Charlie's old enough to start athletics without damaging his bones.

I may pay for a private lesson or two soon with the leash walking (which I messed up), as I think we're ready-to-go with all the other basic commands.