Puppy Class

I’ve found dog-training books to be a tad disappointing. I’ll read the directions and study any pictures or illustrations that may be included, and think “Oh yeah, no problem. Man, it’s all pretty simple when you think about it. I probably won’t even need this book.” Then Reality, dressed as a puppy, shows up and says “Oh hell no, it ain’t going to be that easy” and proceeds to pee on my kitchen floor. In other words, Forest doesn’t act or respond like the book says he should.

We found a few helpful dog-training videos online, but the editing, or lack of, can make them difficult to follow. Sometimes it’s hard to see hand commands or body language because the video is shot too close or too far away. Some videos make the whole process look way too easy - here we see a disobedient dog, the trainer gives a few commands, video star-wipe effect, and now we see an obedient dog. Not helpful.

We decided that Forest wasn’t dumb (although I’ll admit he sometimes has his “duh” moments) he just wasn’t learning new tricks because we weren’t training him correctly. For example, one book said you could teach a dog to sit by gently pushing his butt down to the ground while saying the command “sit,” but we later learned that this puts unnecessary pressure on the hips and knees and could cause joint problems. We decided to enroll Forest in an obedience class and not attempt to teach him anything (except potty training) until the class showed us the correct training method.

So, Forest had his first puppy class a week ago today. We spent most of the time covering a few simple commands and letting the dogs get to know each other. Forest stood out in three aspects: he barked the most, he was the only dog in the class who didn’t already know the command “sit,” and the other “students” preferred to hump him more than any other dog in the class (the dog’s owners would get all embarrassed and apologize but I assured them that it was fine and it didn’t seem like Forest minded much anyways).

At the end of the class, the instructor gave us a list of commands to practice with our dog every day. I had every intention to follow her directions, but last week was hella busy. We had to pack everything up for the holiday weekend, and then we spent way too much time in the car driving to Iowa. It was impossible to get Forest to focus on training at the Iowa cabin, not when there were other dogs to play with, leaves to eat, grass to roll in and sand to dig. Then we spent more time in the car driving back from Iowa, and of course, unpacking. So last night I was thinking about how we could cram a bunch of training into the next 48 hours so perhaps Forest would be somewhat prepared for class. And suddenly it occurred to me that damn it, 3 day weekend means it’s Monday, not Sunday, so actually I had less than 24 hours. Not good. Flashback to my college years when I forgot to do my homework or study for test, but this time I couldn’t pull an all-nighter and catch-up.

Forest, I promise to be more diligent about consistently practicing your commands. We’ll study every day buddy, I swear. Until then, any chance you can learn “sit” in the next 2 hours?

Puppy Class