Puppy Evaluation

Lacrosse practice was moved for one night to the middle of the Stanford campus, so I knew there was no way I was going to get the kids home and get to Rengsdorf Park by 7pm, so Jim took her earlier on his own.

He said she was a maniac! There were tons of dogs, people, kids, music, ice cream cart bells, and even the CalTrain going by.  She wouldn't even take a treat!  When she met the head trainer it was no better.  He called and asked me to stop by the park and meet with the head trainer too and watch part of a class with him.

Tressa and I stopped on the way home from lacrosse. The park is big and pretty and was full of people. There were three dog training classes going on - one beginning and two ‘open’ classes (advanced classes for show dogs, I think). The dogs were amazing!

The beginning class had about a dozen dogs, with one head instructor and three helpers, and the dogs were all walking right next to their owners, stopping when they stopped, slowing down, speeding up, turning left and right, and sitting, all when they were supposed to, without treats!  It was pretty impressive and exactly where I’d like Zuzu to be while walking.

Then I met Rosalie, the head trainer. What a fascinating woman! She grew up on a farm and was training farm animals to do tricks when she was a little girl.  She began training dogs when she was a young mother in the 50's, and didn’t agree with the way a trainer was telling her to train her Doberman pup.  He pinched its ear and hit it to get it to pick up a dumbbell. She hollered at him to never hit her dog and he replied, “Fine.  You try to train her.”  She took the Doberman home, trained it to fetch the dumbbell, and brought her back to the dog trainer a week later to show him.  Since then, she has trained police and narcotics dogs in addition to family pets and show dogs.  She and her husband, a retired fireman, run the program.  The program’s website is at http://dpdtc.org/index.htm, if anyone wants to check it out.

Jim and I have mixed emotions about their training methods, only because it’s different from how we have been training Zuzu.  Rosalie told Jim that Zuzu has basically learned nothing and needs to start over.  She said we have been bribing her to behave, which doesn’t work if she’s distracted.  That irritated Jim quite a bit, since we have worked with Zuzu so much on our own and have seen so much growth from her.  Plus, we think she’s super-awesome-amazing, even if she wouldn’t behave in a new park with all new distractions.  But, Rosalie did have a point.  Our biggest problem is that while Zuzu was always the star of her last class, the park can be a challenge.

So, we are going with the beginning class.  Jim will take her, and I will join them with Tressa after lax practice as soon as we can get there.  Our first class is next Monday night at 6:30.

We won’t get home until about 8pm....anyone have any good crock pot recipes?!  :)