Under the category of: "Okay. I should have known."
As we drive into the PetSmart parking lot it begins again.
Henry and I went to his fourth puppy class. Emphasis was on review and the command "stay". Thank goodness there were only two of the five puppies in attendance. Henry was absolutely insane with a bad case of excitement. He even growled and barked at the big picture of a terrier hanging on the back wall. We could not train anywhere near the thing.
He regressed back to the first week. So my training teacher shared a little nugget of sirloin with me. Oh my gosh! What a difference! Henry still had focus problems--I had to swish the beef in front of his nose if there was another dog in the area. With a sniff of that yummy fat-laden beef he snapped to attention. Henry even did the "sit and stay" for his 15 seconds (we are working up to 30). During his sit and stay Henry offered a series of little barks and woofs but he stayed. Nice. I'm going to have to cook up some chicken to mix in with his training treats.
I am still working on it. He is a smart little guy. I am not giving up. This weekend I hope to have a play-date with Dana's dog. Maybe if he gets some one on one play time with another dog he will be able to get more serious when we are training.
Henry, Henry, Henry I mean Sue, Sue, Sue. We feel your pain. I would think there would be a lot of distractions @ PetSmart for the little guy. There was a dog training article in the Sunday paper talking about training. Their view is a dog always wants to please, so you reward good behavior and ignore the bad. As in, if he sits he's rewarded with attention, if he doesn't you turn your back to him. We're just so glad we're to the point of giving up on trying to train Hunter!
ReplyDeleteAhem. The challenge is on! Billy graduated at the top of his class in the PetSmart Puppy Class. Of course, it has been all downhill since then......
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