Frankie's First Puppy Class

Well, this was class #2 for the humans but class #1 for the pooches. Frankie did fine but he was probably the spazziest dog there. The teacher said it was the border collie in him and suggested we walk him before class. Inside I'm slamming my head against an imaginary wall..."Yes! Tire him out before class. Why didn't I think of that! DOH!"

We practiced three commands; all of which were difficult with the new puppy friend distractions. (Frankie's a very social dog but he particularly like the chocolate lab that was sitting by us. But then, doesn't everyone love labs.)

First we played "Take It", where you tease the dog by holding a treat in their face but don't let them have it until the calm down and act like they aren't interested. It seemed to go well but it was hard to tell at times with all his squirmishness.

We then played "The Name Game" where you teach the dog to respond to his name. Yeah. We have to work on that one. Especially since we also learned that you can't say his name when you're mad at him...only when he does good stuff. (Yes, we're now training the owners. WOOF!) All we had to do, in our happy voice, was say "Frankie!" He would then turn and look at us and we could then say gusshingly "yeeeesssss" and give give him a treat. Let's just say when Frankie's distracted, food incentives don't work. We seemed to be the only owners repeating their dog's name in vain. All the while I can totally hear what Chris' thinking as he says our dog's name. "Frankie. (Make daddy proud!) Frankie! (Stop looking at the #@!*ing lab!) FRANKIE! (Don't embarass daddy in public!) FRANKIE!! (Why I just want to reach over there and grab you!)"

Luckily, the last command was "SIT", which Frankie knows pretty well. Of course he doesn't stay seated but "SIT AND STAY SEATED" isn't the name of the game so there! Look! He did it. Phew!

Finally, the class ends with puppy play, which is what Frankie wanted to do all along. Yeah, he excels at that. Very social. Maybe a bit too rough with the tiny dogs but being so fragile I think he eventually found them boring and moved back to the bigger dogs.

CLASS OVER. Six more to go.