Day 30 - Week 2 of Puppy Class

Likely due to all of his activity later in the day yesterday, today was a day filled with much napping for Jedi. I got up several times wondering where he'd gone off to, only to find him sprawled flat out on the linoleum. He does not appear to be a dog who appreciates the comforts of cushy beds or pillows, choosing instead to lay on the hard floor or a bare crate pan. Oh well, to each their own.

The picture of the day is the moment where I caught Luke "playing" with the puppy. Okay, he was only tolerating Jedi. But Jedi thought they were playing, and I suppose that's good for something. It's interesting to note how many dogs are drawn to Luke, but poor Luke rarely shows any interest in other dogs. He has been incredibly tolerant of Jedi, but I do watch to make sure that Jedi isn't allowed to get too annoying.

Our breakfast training session was more work with the bowl/spoon. The spoon ended up in the bowl a few times, although I'm still it was completely by accident. He definitely understands picking up the spoon, though, so we're making progress. At lunch we went outside and worked on teeter touches (still propped up) and bottoms on the dog walk. For playtime we continued to work at sending around the cone. I feel like we're making progress going counter-clockwise, and clockwise continues to get more distance bit-by-bit.

Unfortunately (which I say only because we had class tonight), Jedi got his second wind about mid-afternoon. Kizzy's frantic wooing alerted me to the fact that Jedi and Secret were playing outside, so I got up to check out what was going on only to find them wrestling and running -- In the rain. Much of the afternoon was spent running inside, then running outside, then running back inside, etc. They finally crashed around 4:00, which meant that Jedi didn't get much of a nap before we had to leave for class.

I planned to get there early enough to be able to work Jedi through some of his dinner and then have time to take him out before class, but my plans were altered by a new student who arrived early. She had a 10 week old puppy, so he and Jedi got to play while I had her fill out paperwork and got her caught up on things she missed the first week. Before I knew it everyone was there, it was time to start, and poor Jedi never got his trip outside.

As I figured, the subdued puppy from last week (from his vaccination) was nowhere to be found this week. He played very appropriately, especially with our new guest, but he was definitely more outgoing than he was last week. We have two especially exuberant puppies (the older ones) and they were a bit much for him, but Jedi enjoyed his time with the others. He also very much enjoyed visiting with the people and climbing in laps. One of my students brought her kids along this week (she wasn't sure if they were allowed the first week and I said YES, please bring them) -- they aren't super young, but it's good to have experience with all ages.

Jedi was a great demo dog and did well for the first part of class. During our "lets talk about stuff" phase of class I had him doing all sort of hand touch target stuff (shake, pretty, cross paws, etc.) to keep him busy. I used Jedi to demonstrate the "It's your choice" game and I'll be honest, I didn't think there would be anything to demo because we've done food ignoring since day one and I can work with open dishes of food on the floor. I have not, however, done this with hot dogs and apparently that makes a bit of a difference! So in that regard, he was a very good demo dog.

Towards the end of class Jedi started to get really squirrely. He was having a hard time paying attention and just was not acting normal. Shouldn't take a genius to figure out what comes next -- Yup, he dropped a giant pile on the floor. If I'm going to take my dog to class I'm going to have to pay better attention to his needs. Class was almost done so I didn't take him out and he continued to be pretty wound up. Twice tonight he got so frustrated that he chased his tail. I need to be more proactive about having a toy out for him to redirect his energy.

We ended the class with roll over, where Jedi got to be another legit demo dog, since this isn't something I've done with him yet. He got to make me look like a brilliant dog trainer, as he immediately rolled over in both directions (luring, obviously). I don't think I've ever had a dog that would roll over in both directions!

We finally got outside after class and Jedi immediately peed and he pooped again. Poor guy, he was just full of it. This is the one downside to him using the dog door and me being lazy -- I don't stay as in tune to his schedule and didn't realize just how badly he would need to go. Poor little dude.

I stuck Jedi in the crate with a pig ear to keep him busy during my second class. We have a couple of dogs who are fairly reactive to each other in that group, though, and when they had their first vocalization towards each other it set Jedi off. Even after we had settled everyone down again, Jedi continued to make some noise in the crate -- and that noise is the type of thing that sets off one of the dogs, so I decided the best thing for everyone would be to remove Jedi and put him in the van for the rest of the night. He was over tired and needed some quiet time, too, and I'm not sure having him around even remotely reactive dogs is something I want to encourage at this point.

I hadn't been able to get through all of Jedi's dinner during class, so we had to finish that up quick when we got home. We just worked through some beep-beep and got some additional backwards steps, so that was good. Since then he's been going absolutely bonkers running around with Secret or Kizzy, alternatively. It's after 10:00, so that will come to an end soon when we go to bed. I imagine he will enjoy his nap time in the crate when I go to work tomorrow morning.