1st Day at the New School

Class went, well....ok, on Monday night.  There were about a dozen dogs in the class and four trainers.  We did so much in one hour!  Zuzu never would have kept up six weeks ago when we began her first puppy class.  We learned heel, sit, stay, and down.  Sort of.

Only one person was allowed in the ring with each dog at a time, so Jim and I took turns with her.  Jim began with walking her and learning where she should be in a ‘heel’, and then they worked on sit.  She was pretty distracted, but did okay.  She was even starting to sit for him each time he stopped walking.

Then it was my turn.  The walking was going great, and she even sat for me.  Then it was time to learn down.  They gave us two ways to do down after a sit, with our dog next to us.  One was to pull her down with her collar, and the other way was to have her in a sit, hold her collar with your left hand, and scoop her front legs out from under her gently while saying, “Down.”  Zuzu has been laying down on command for two or three weeks now, but I figured I’d try the second method.  

Now, if any of you have a pre-teenage girl, you’ll understand exactly what I mean when I say that as soon as I scooped Zu’s legs and said, "down", she looked at me with that, “Oh NO, you DI...INT!!!!” expression on her face.  Yeah.  I pissed her off something fierce!

She sat right back up and locked both of her knees.  Locked them so tightly that they bent backwards and looked at me with “I dare you,” written all over her face.  Then looked away with her nose sticking up in the air.  I still have not gotten her to lay down again, unless I have a treat.  She just locks those little stubborn little knees and sits.

The rest of the class went okay.  Jim took over in a little bit, and though she wouldn’t lay down for him either, she did all of the sit-stay drills really well.

We’ve been practicing pretty consistently since that class, and Jim has managed to get her to lay down without a treat once.  I still have not.  I apparently crossed the Zuzu-line and I have a lot of making up to do before she forgives me!