We Continue to Work

Zoey and I have been in obedience classes for the last three weeks. I thought we needed to work on our skills with other dogs and distractions. What I am getting is a lesson on what not to do. The other dog is about the same age as Zoey, a year and a half, and been living with her owner about the same amount of time, a month and a half, but that is where our similarities end. The other owner is soft spoken and petite and her dog is reactive and with a tendency to lunge at other dogs and drag her owner. The owner needs to be firm and with quick corrections and praise which have been demonstrated for her multiple times. At each demonstration the dog quickly does what is being asked of her. But no, the owner says that she feels the corrections are mean and when reminded about the praise she says, “I forgot.” As a result, she is getting welts on her hand from holding the leash so tight and she walks this poor dog walking on his hind legs because the owner is pulling up so hard and continually. I saw her crying to her friends in the parking lot after class and saying that it was just too hard. This is a definite case of a dog being ruined because of a lousy owner. Where is the Dog Whisperer when you need him?


Zoey and I on the other hand are doing well on the other side of the room. We stay over a good leash distance from the other dog and owner. Zoey is a quick learner and wants to please. She picks things up faster than any other dog I’ve trained. After this class concludes we’ll be training on our own or in private lessons. I’ll put her in agility in the spring where she will really shine. Trekker is fast, but Zoey is faster.

As for Trekker’s training, agility training is starting up again on Thursday. I want to say for the hundredth time that when Trekker and I ran our beginner NADAC agility trial, he was the only one who had two perfect runs. Yeah! Yeah! This was definitely a case of a great dog rather than a great owner. He just loves running the course and struts. Now we’ll have to see how we both hold up as the stakes get harder.