One step closer

to being a Good Citizen Dog!!! Rock on, Winston! Today we had our last training (I am actually very sad about this) for the advance class. HE GRADUATED from ADVANCE CLASS!!!We have now taken all 3 levels offered at Petsmart. Winston's latest class was designed to help him pass the Service dog test. Not too many people sign up for the advance class. I guess it is because the puppy and intermediate cover the main training needs. Therefore, we were the only people in our class. It was amazing...I mean what a great private lesson we had. Angela our trainer really is the best ever.

Today was the day!!! GRADUATION! You know I was really nervous about that since it had to be done WITHOUT treats. When we go to take the actual good citizen dog test you can not use treats. He did pretty stinking good. He had to be able to:

• sitting politely for petting
• appearance and grooming
• out for a walk
• walking through a crowd
• sit and come on command
• sit and stay in place
• reaction to another dog
• reaction to distractions
• supervised separation
• say hello

Okay so you think they seem pretty easy, but they are not. (you can read all the details for each one if wish here) He does really well with most of it, but the reaction to another dog. Sadly he loves to play with other dogs and wants too. Chris is going to call and set up our BIG TEST time! In the meantime I am going to walking him around the dog park on leash trying to work this "excitement" out of him. I sure hope he can do it...we would have such fun visiting people! GREAT JOB WINSTON!!!

I love this one...he was so cute!

Here he is with all 3 diplomas! What a super dog he is!!

WAY TO GO BUDDY!!! WE ARE SO PROUD!

Congrats...

Soon his picture will be on this wall too...

Winston! Yes, tonight was another big night for our little guy. Tonight he had to take his intermediate test at puppy school. Normally I would not be too worried, but since he just spent 4 days at the puppy hotel I was.

Chris and I went and picked Winston up around 10 today from the puppy hotel. I wanted Chris to go with me to pick him up...so we had to wail till between his appointments. Winston was so excited to see us, I thought his little tail was going to wag right off! After we calmed him down, it was home to train, train, train!

I spent most of the day reviewing all our tricks. I did all the ones I could do with out help. Many of the tricks in this class call for 2 people (one to do the trick, the other to distract!) There were 2 that I really was concerned about.

1. Put him in a sit stay, then leave the room!
2. Have him sit and stay at distance, then call him....he has to lay before getting to me.

The reason the first one is a problem is because he doesn't like me to leave the training room. He will do the trick fine at home...over and over again. But something about being in class and leaving the room, he dislikes it. The second one is basically a problem based upon space. You see at home we practice, but don't have a large space so he lays right in front of me. There in class the room is larger so he doesn't want to sit til right before me. I tell you...its a mess!

However, long story short he did it! He did all the tricks, which were around 12, well enough to graduate. This is just amazing, because now we can move on to the next class. My sadness is that Angela our wonderful trainer is only going to work weekends from here on out. We worked something out with her and will start in July. I am very excited about this class because it will help Winston prepare for the the "Good Citizen" test. Why? I would really like to spend my summers doing something productive....I mean pool time and sleep in is great! Therefore I would like Winston and I to be a part of the dog therapy system. If and when he passes this test then we will be a step closer to this. The advance class will prepare us for it better than anything else can. There are many things Winston will have to accomplish the list is at the AKC's website: http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/training_testing.cfm

Yes....we are one step closer to a happy therapy dog! GO WINSTON!

On our way to class.

Winston getting his diploma!

time to smile with your cap!

Winston with his diploma, report card, and new bed!

Puppy School Part 2-Intermediate class

Since Winston did such an amazing job in the puppy class....he and I thought we should just keep it going. Therefore, we now are in the Intermediate class. Winston is so cute...he really loves going to class. Last week he got sick you know, so we went to our make up class on Saturday. He was making me laugh....

We arrived a little early, but he couldn't wait for it to start. He kept going to the door and sitting. He could hear our trainer Angela's voice on the other side. It was one of the cutest things ever. Well this class is a bit more challenging than puppy school was.

what a sweet boy

Chris and Winston waiting

turning when he would hear her voice...

In the puppy class we walked away knowing how to:

• sit
• lay
• stay
• come when called
• lose leash walk
• puppy push ups (go from sit to lay a couple of times)
• leave it (walk past something and not go for it)
• shake

In our Intermediate class we have learned so far:

• stay, walk away, and come when called
• stay...not move when a ball is bounced by him
• stay....have toys dropped around him and LEAVE IT, not move
• stay....have treats dropped around him and LEAVE it, not move
• stay, we walk away ask him to lay...he does it. Then drop some toys...he has to leave it and not move
• Heel up....where he sits to the right and then begins to walk as you do, not passing your body
• Turns and speed (we just started this one!)

For the most part he seems to be doing pretty well. However, on Saturday he was having a problem staying! I am not sure if it was the joy of being back at class or what, but we have to fix that. It is kind of fun to be able to have him sit and drop stuff....him not move! Now we have just begun the walking with speed, where he knows when to go slow or fast by command. Also making turns on command. This week we will work more on these 2 things, plus much more! If you didn't notice...LEAVE IT is in almost every trick. On top of that we are going to begin our distance commands...where we can be across the room shout a command and he will listen. I hope we can walk away with our little boy heeling and leaving things as told from any distance.

Our little grad!

CONGRATULATIONS WINSTON!!!

He is so proud!

Today was another big day for our little guy, but this time a POSITIVE one. We had puppy class number 8----Graduation Day! This class was not like the others. Normally as you have found from my puppy school blogs, we learn a new trick and practice it. Not today! Instead we all sat and waited for our turn to prove we (the dog) could do it.

Here we go, heading to our BIG class!

Winston and I just before!

Sus went first each time then Winston, Spike and Archie. We began with the basics...sit, down, look at me. Everyone did a great job with these! Then the hard one!!! STAY for 30 seconds. All the pups did a great job. I of course made Chris do this one because Winston really listens to him a bit more. I think it is the male bonding thing! Spike had a few problems, and it doesn't help that Chris dropped our treats in the middle of his turn...but he got it at the end.

Next was leave it----Winston really didn't do it like she wanted him to. You see we take a large yummy treat and put it under our shoe. We have to show it to the dog, cover it up and if the dog goes for it say leave it. You are suppose to do this until the dog looks at you and shows they are not going for it. Well Winston would leave it, but not look at me. Instead he would just sit there and look around. Finally after many tires he gave me a side look and she counted it. However, as Chris will state,"He was leaving the treat and not going for it, what does it matter if he looks up at us!"

Winston waiting his turn....such a good boy.

Look how happy he is to get his diploma from Ms. Angie!



Look at our sweet boy, posing for his graduation picture for the wall. Ms. Angie places each puppy up on the wall!

From leave it we did come and sit; then a walking leave it. Winston rocks at the walking leave it, since we do it on our walks. He walks by the treat pile you say leave it and they have to keep going....Well our little friend likes to pick up sticks and rocks when walking so we have leave it down! Finally we had the lose leash walk with no pulling and 2 sits; and then the greet! He did amazing at it all. Actually EVERYONE did amazing. Winston got a 100 on his report card! Honestly I think we must have been in the GT class, because everyone aced the test and could have probably learned more.

Look at our little grad...holding his ball and posing for a pic!

Here he is with his report card and diploma.

I took a few pics of Winston with his classmates. They loved to play in class and after sitting so long today they needed some play time. We are so proud of our little guy, he has grown up so much!

Winston and Spike...the men of the group!

Winston and Sus

Winston and Archie

Elephants and Puppys!!!

Tonight we were off to Puppy class #6. Winston, Chris and I make the trip to Petsmart just like normal only to find a different scene. As we are pulling into the Montgomery plaza we begin to see many moving trucks. Per our normal routine, when we get out Winston likes to take care of business. Well as he is taking care of business there are many people wrapping things up at the store next to us. Come to find out Pier 1 had been taping a commercial all day. They had a cute little elephant holding a Pier 1 bag acting like he was going into shop. Once Winston had check out all the people and more....he was back on the trail to Petsmart.



Off to class #6!! Yikes, this is where I had a puppy school freak out.....we only have 1 more class to know EVERYTHING. Only 1 more class to STAY FOR 30 seconds! Oh no, he may not graduate. Okay so I am freaking out just a bit...well the truth is we have 1 more class til graduation.

This weeks tricks:

• Stay for 20 seconds
• Greeting new people- this is where he will just sit and greet people, and not jump up
• Leash walking
• Shake- where we teach him to shake...he does okay so far

These are the big new tricks. Of course she told us that this is the puppy "teenage" phase. Meaning they will not do tricks even though they know how just to be a pain. So more than anything we are not to get frustrated and keep working. I just hope that in the next week or so we can be ready for graduation!

4 Classes down....

Wow, I can not believe that we have made it through 4 puppy school classes. Winston is doing super in class. Okay as of our last puppy school post, he was a social butterfly. However, that has really changed. I am not sure if he as started settling down because he is now 4 months old, because of class, or because we had Riley and Teri here for a week. Nonetheless, it is wonderful that he has really become a little less busy and social!

WEEK 4 NEW TRICKS:

• Stay


• Loose Leash Walking with leave it added (this is where we walk and if he begins to sniff we reinforce it with the Leave it we learned last week)


• Come when called

Alright our biggest challenge this week coming will be STAY!! He has to stay for 15 seconds by next weeks class. Then.....he has to stay for 30 seconds to graduate! You better believe that we have been working on this one. There is no way he will not graduate or make us look bad. Therefore, Chris and I both have really been working hard with STAY! I think as of tonight we can get the little stinker to stay for and average of 8-10 seconds. That is okay but 15 is our goal!!! I also really want to work on the Come when Called. He is okay at coming over when you call his name. However, this afternoon we took him down to the park for some larger area fetching. He loves to fetch his ball and here we can let him off the leash (well Chris does and I worry the whole time he may not come when called). Today out of the 6-8 times we called his name to come he came about 6...it was those 2 times he ignored us that make me worry. We must continue to work not so much for Chris but for my PEACE OF MIND!

THINGS WINSTON ROCKS AT:

Here are the past tricks that he really has down amazingly!

• Sit


• Lay


• Look at me


• Socialization

As you can see from the picture above SIT has been mastered! Occasionally he will lay instead of sitting, but about 90% of the time when asked he sits. Now lay I think is his favorite....he loves to lay. You simply from the sit command point down and poof he is laying! Look at me he, again from the picture above, he does pretty well. This is how we normally get him to stop doing what every crazy thing he should not be doing. REALLY REALLY, do you have to wonder if our dog would be social. Come on, of course he is and has improved. This week at class he actually was able to block out the other friends and focus on his tricks. When he sees other dogs he simply sniffs, looks, and walks away. He has come such a long way from the 1st class. We are very proud of our little guy....and lets just hope 30 seconds is not to hard to achieve for a stay!

Wednesday night equals....

Puppy School and free movie Wednesday (that will be in a second post). Per any normal Wednesday night we were off to puppy school again...if you will remember back we had a week off, therefore, it has been 2 weeks since class. What does that mean? Well it means Winston should totally rock at all his tricks. Did he? Hum....a few yes, but he is still so social.

This week was great though because Chris was here for class. He missed the last one due to a work trip. He really got a first hand sight of what I meant by Mr. Social Butterfly. We warmed up great, but he wants to lay when we do the sit signal. I just don't get it, I mean really sit seems much easier. Heck who knows, but when you signal to sit, plop down to a lay he goes. That is our current issue.

WEEK #3 Tricks:

• Lay down- but with the signal higher up, rather than touching the ground


• Leave it- teaching them to leave something they should not get


• Drop it- have them drop what ever wonderful "surprise" they have in their mouth


• Give it- more for when you are playing fetch, or if they have something they shouldn't that you don't mind touching


• Loose Leash Walk- walking along, dropping "cookies" to teach them to stay close and not want to smell EVERYTHING when on a walk

Of course you still have to practice the other tricks from past weeks....but we are going to fix this sit lay mess. My goal is to have him siting at the correct signal by next week. Then working on the lay. However, the classes are really helping. He does much better at class as far as being social. He does not bark as much, and really loves his friends. When we get to Petsmart he gets all excited. Then when he sees his classmates he doesn't growl, he just runs up and licks them. Tonight we did a fun little activity of pass the pet. I think Winston loved it, well loved the attention any way. You simply pass your dog to your neighbor. Once you get the new dog you love all over it, petting it, talking to it, and just giving it tons of attention. Then we switch again...by the end everyone has had each others pets. Winston really did enjoy it, and it was fun to see which dogs didn't mind. All of our dogs but one, SPIKE, loved it. Spike is a little less social. He tends to only want his mommy. Well off to train for next week. By the end of this Winston will be able to do all the tricks and not be so darn social, or so I hope.

Puppy school....

Just before class....here we go!

I have been slacking as a puppy mother lately. However, I am FINALLY posting about puppy school. Winston has now been to 2 classes. Chris and I both went to the first class together, to say the least it was interesting. We have 3 other puppy friends in class. Sox (suss), is a golden retriever that is very laid back. When I say laid back I mean sleeps through the class. Both of her parents are Swedish. Next is our friend Spike. Spike is a 2 year old that needs some extra help...he is a miniature doberman pinscher. He is fun, we sit by him most nights, his mom brings him to class. Then there is a very hyper black lab, for the life of me I can't remember her name. She comes to class with her mom, dad, and 2 brother (boys that are like 5 and 4 years old). That's the roster for our puppy school.

Honestly the first class was kind of a drag for the puppies. It was more of the trainer teaching us how to set up for a successful class. The dogs really showed their true colors on this night. They were all barking and telling us how they were tired of sitting around. It was so bad that the trainer couldn't get them to stop...even when she gave them all bones. This is when we realized Winston is a little bit of a hoarder. He quickly had taken Sox's bone and toys. Only moments later he had swiped another bone. Finally enough with the talking and on with the tricks.

Class 1 tricks were:

• Load the clicker- where you simply click the clicker and then give a treat...so they will understand when clicked you get goodies!!


• Sit


• Look at me- This is where they have to sit and you bring the treat to your face so they look at you. I think this is so they will learn to listen and look at us...but could be wrong

Home after our first class!

After class we successfully drove home....and he was not sick either way! Rock on to that. He was also so pooped from class that it made our night pretty easy. For the next couple of days we practiced our tricks. Chris practiced and then I would. Honestly he did pretty good here at home with just us!

Here he is making it home with out any problems!!!

2nd Class: This class was way more interactive. Oh and did I mention Winston and I went WITHOUT Chris. So the first 10 minutes we warmed up our "last week" tricks. Winston did pretty good then. After that she began teaching us new tricks. This is WHERE HE FELL APART!!! It was like once he started hearing all the other clickers he couldn't focus. He was everywhere but listening to me. It was so bad that even the trainer said something about his lack of focus. I of course mortified that Winston was acting in such a way.

However, I guess it is like most things...You know like when your car is making that noise. You take it to the shop and nothing not a sound. Then you get home and what does it do...makes that noise again!

This my friends is pretty much how our night went. I mean every once and a while he would do the trick correctly but really he wanted "social" hour.

Class 2 tricks:

• Lay down

• Look at me with the treat to the side- the first class we did it with the treat in our face now we are moving it out to see if they will focus

• Be a tree- this is where he keeps slack in the leash (you know so they don't pull you down the street)

• Walk and sit- The beginning phase of walking and when you stop they must sit. Another trick for leash control when walking.

This week would have been class 3 but our trainer had a meeting. Therefore, next week will be off to learn more. I have been practicing his tricks outside where there are distractions. Also I have kept him on the leash for the tricks this time. I think that may help some, but gosh I wouldn't be surprised if he wants "social" hour again next week. I am just thankful Chris will be there too; it is easier than me trying to explain the crazy dog he becomes at class.