Sunday, November 23, 2008

Puppy Class


Jax started puppy training a few weeks ago, and so far it's going pretty well. He's learned how to sit and lay down, and we've learned how to teach him not to pull while we are walking him (although that one seems to be a slow process for us!), as well as how to teach him not to take things without permission (that one will be an even slower process..LOL).

At his first class, he barked for the first 5 or 10 minutes at all the other dogs, but after a bigger dog showed up to class, he shut right up. :) Our trainer had us face him away from the other dogs so he couldn't see them, and that seemed to help as well. He barked a little less at the second class, and then this past week, he hardly barked at all.

He is starting to get the hang of loose leash walking. He used to pull all the time, but now when he catches himself pulling he will immediately stop and sit down until I tell him it's ok to go. He still pulls a lot, but he seems to realize as soon as the leash is tight that he's pulling and stops. Yay! Hopefully with some more practice he will stop pulling altogether.

A few weeks after we got Jax we realized he could jump the 24 inch tall baby gate we were using to pen him in our bathroom while we were gone. So we bought a 32 inch baby gate and that worked...for about another two weeks. Then he figured out how to jump that one too. So we stacked them on top of each other to make a gate that was almost 5 feet tall....and this weekend he figured out how to climb it. He's apparently very smart and persistent. But he doesn't get out all of the time. It seems he only climbs the fence when he needs to potty, and then he'll pee by the back door. I am glad he at least knows where he's supposed to go. I feel bad when we are not there to let him out. I would like to install a dog door, but we don't have a sliding glass door, so we'd have to get a wall door. Scott is not sure he wants to cut a hole in the wall, so for now we'll just keep working on the potty training and try to let him out often.

All in all, the class is going well. We have about 5 more weeks to go, and so far it's been a lot of fun!

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