"Oooh, he's a smart dog! .... that's not always good..." was the ominous statement made by the dog trainer at the beginning of our first obedience class last week. At the beginning of the comment I was beaming! By the end I was scared shitless.
I already could tell Indy was a pretty smart dog. I didn't expect training to be easy but I was hoping it would go relatively smoothly. After the first session last week I wasn't so sure. I have never trained a dog in my life, never mind that I've had 2 dogs. And I completely understand that 70% of training is training the human, not the dog. And boy do I need training!
Our trainer, Donna, is awesome!!! Even more awesome is that I found out later that she's dating KVeg's uncle who happens to be the manager of the store where we're taking the lessons. Jackpot!!! Donna has a resume 15 pages long, she's confident and I just generally like her. I learned a lot from her that first night. I'm not sure Indy agreed.
Donna "diagnosed" him with avoidance behavior - he knows exactly what I want him to do but refuses to do it. I say his name and he looks everywhere but at me. Shorthand for = he ignores me. (anyone with kids, does this sound familiar??) He also has "impulse control issues". He's an angel at home. Calm, collected. He does all the training drills perfectly! but add one minor distraction and he goes bonkers.
We learned the "watch me" and "sit" commands last week. Once we perfected them at home we were to continue by adding distractions. Indy did great at home and even did well in the backyard. We have more distractions that you think. The yards that butt up against ours all have dogs and Indy will run to the back of our yard, sit and whine if the other dogs are out. The other dogs bark. Our little angel only whines. : )
This weekend was fantastic weather so I asked KVeg to join me at a local State Park so I could add to Indy's distractions. I headed out with harness, leash and his favorite treats.
I gave him plenty of time to sniff around since it was new and exciting. We saw a few dogs already out and even saw a couple out walking their cat.
Yes. I said CAT. In a harness, on a leash.
It seemed as though the cat was accustomed to this. I wonder what the hubby would say if I suggested we add the three cats to our excursions....
When a group with a dog came from the trail out of the woods I tried to get Indy to sit and pay attention to me as the people passed about 3-4 meters away. No luck. Even the treat was not enticing enough for him to disregard the other dog. I was having such a hard time of it KVeg actually had to turn and walk away she was laughing so hard. (at me)
Ok, so that didn't go as planned. That's ok. We'll try again later. We headed down the trail. When no one was around I'd try again. Nope. Nuthin' The dog refused to stop sniffing and respond to anything I had to say. You would have thought I was trying to feed him a rock, not a chunk of yummy treats.
But I persevered. Every now and then I would continue to try and get his attention to practice the commands. We made it around the circular trail without any success.
As soon as we walked in the door at the house I had him sit. He did it perfectly.
We have a lot to work on.
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