Well, Ozy and I had our first "Basic 2 - Moving Toward the CGC" class last night, and he was very good. I'm relieved, because I've been a bit of a training slacker in the gap between our last class and now.
We have a small class - besides us, there's a Springer Spaniel, a Rottie (just 5 months-sooo cute!), a Flat-Coated Retriever and an Aussie Cattle Dog. (Poor Ozy, the only mutt again!)
Last night we just covered the basics to see what everyone knew and didn't know. I really like this trainer (Scott) - he mixes "real" OB with "tricks" to keep everything fresh and fun for the dogs. Eg. Down & rollover, sit & shake or high-five, stand & spin. His take on it is that the DOG doesn't know what's "real" and what's a "trick", but if you just do the heavy stuff people tend to get too serious and overbearing - and the dog learns very quickly what's fun & not fun. So mixing it up makes sure that WE see everything as fun so they will, too.
He also went around and asked our long-term goals - what do we want to DO with our dogs. I was happy to see that everyone had multiple things planned. The Rottie will be doing conformation and OB (and maybe agility), the Flattie will be doing conformation and field trials (and maybe OB)... I'm hoping Ozy will be my Rally/Agility dog, and maybe therapy work when he's older. As Scott said, NOBODY could be nervous looking at that goofy face!
I'm so glad to be in classes again!
We have a small class - besides us, there's a Springer Spaniel, a Rottie (just 5 months-sooo cute!), a Flat-Coated Retriever and an Aussie Cattle Dog. (Poor Ozy, the only mutt again!)
Last night we just covered the basics to see what everyone knew and didn't know. I really like this trainer (Scott) - he mixes "real" OB with "tricks" to keep everything fresh and fun for the dogs. Eg. Down & rollover, sit & shake or high-five, stand & spin. His take on it is that the DOG doesn't know what's "real" and what's a "trick", but if you just do the heavy stuff people tend to get too serious and overbearing - and the dog learns very quickly what's fun & not fun. So mixing it up makes sure that WE see everything as fun so they will, too.
He also went around and asked our long-term goals - what do we want to DO with our dogs. I was happy to see that everyone had multiple things planned. The Rottie will be doing conformation and OB (and maybe agility), the Flattie will be doing conformation and field trials (and maybe OB)... I'm hoping Ozy will be my Rally/Agility dog, and maybe therapy work when he's older. As Scott said, NOBODY could be nervous looking at that goofy face!
I'm so glad to be in classes again!