This post is kind of late, our last day of training was actually last Thursday. But the actual session isn’t so important. The classes are basically to teach the owner how to train their dog, not for the dog to make actual progress. And the cumulative effects of the class are paying off every day. Just now when we went outside, Kody did all of the walking by my side without pulling on the leash once. I didn’t even have to say anything. He’s just getting the idea slowly that being by my side is the best place to be when we walk. When he does pull he now responds very well to the “right here” command and even has included the facing forward part on his own.
I’ve learned that all this stuff just takes lots of repetition and time. We learned “stay” in the last session and haven’t even started on that yet. He already knows “wait” and stay is only mildly different from that. And we need to do some remedial indoor practice on “sit”, “down”, and “stand”. He usually gets those right, but sometimes when distracted he’ll mix them up and doesn’t do “stand” very well at all. But I know it will be easy enough to do.
I now feel horribly guilty about my Cesar Millan phase. As a start to learn about dogs and how to think about them, he’s great. But I would advise no one to use his methods. But then with all the warnings on the show he doesn’t either, apparently. Trying to take Kody on long walks at such a young age was a total mistake. That’s way too much input for a dog who hasn’t even been alive very long. And the leash tugging just made him angry. Now we don’t go very far at all, but he can be successful and happy, and I’m happy too. He barks less at people and dogs. He gets to sniff around a lot more and when I can see he really wants to, I just let him. In time he will be used to the world enough that simple bushes and grass and ducks won’t distract him from me, but for now, those things are sometimes still fascinating. He’s happy. I’m happy. And those were my training goals.
If you have not done training with your dog, I highly recommend Riverdog. If you already think your dog is well behaved, the you’re going to be astounded after Riverdog.