Lesson 2

~This picture makes me think of a nice Sunday afternoon~

Lesson 2 went well, until the end when we started to work on heeling. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post heeling isn’t my favorite command. We started by showing C the improvement she’d made on being calm while I put her collar and leash on her. She stayed calm, but sat down and stood right back up (still being calm and not jumping). I need to do a better job of not accepting a behavior until it is exactly as I want it to be, so she knows consistently what is expected of her. Next we showed C how she would wait at the door until I invited her to go out the door. Again, I messed up. I said, “Georgia, let’s go” while opening the door at the same time. I should have opened the door and left it open for a few sections while telling her to wait before I invited her out. See what I mean by C being a human trainer? I have to be trained in order to train Georgia. I do feel a lot of pressure to get it right, maybe that’s my problem. I need to relax, have faith in myself and in my dog.

Next we worked on sitting without shaking. We have made it so that Georgia thinks that sitting and then shaking is connected. We’re trying to re-teach her that sit means just to sit and nothing else and shake means shake. If I ask her to sit I don’t reward her with positive feed back or a treat until both of her front feet are planted on the ground and one isn’t coming up trying to shake. Next we worked on sitting and staying. This is done by telling her to stay and then rewarding her if she holds that position, this is repeated many times. Then I start to wait say 5 seconds in-between saying stay and rewarding her for holding that position. Next I start to move away from her and reward her for staying after a second. I decrease the time I ask her to stay the further I move away and then start increasing it slowly. I’m learning this is all about repetition.

Next we worked on getting her to lay down with a verbal command instead of a physical command. I had taught her to lay down when I touch the floor, so now I’m pairing the words “lay down” with touching the floor and rewarding her. I need to continue working on this until she learns what I’m asking from her when I say, “lay down”. While we were working on that we then transitioned into working on staying while lying down. She did well at this. This command follows the same rules as sitting and staying.

Then we head outside for a bit to work on leash manners. Georgia pulls a lot especially at the beginning of walk because she’s so excited. The goal is to not have tension on the leash. Every time there was tension I would stop, say “no” and then walk backwards. If she walked towards me I would say “good” or “yes” and give her a small training treat (you can get these at any pet store, there are multiple brands). This teaches her when she’s pulling and causing tension on the leash we won’t move forward, she has to wait for me and stay near me. She did really well on this. I’ve taken training treats with me on our walks after this lesson and she’s really making progress. Other dogs and people cause pulling, so we need to work on distractions. In hospitals, nursing homes, libraries and schools there will be plenty of distractions!

We came inside and started to work on heeling, which means that the dog is sitting, standing or walking very close to my left side. The left side is hard for me as I’m right handed and I always walk her with my right hand. The left side business comes from the British. When they were hunting back in the day with their dogs they wanted them on the left side so they wouldn’t get hurt or in the way when shooting their shotgun (most people are right handed, so shoot with right hand), then they would release their dog to go locate the bird. Thanks British people! I may talk to the trainer about heeling on the right, but I doubt that will fly. We haven’t assigned the word “heel” yet, we’re working up to that. We tried to get to her to sit or stand on my left up against something, like the wall or back of the couch. We lured her to my left with a treat, but didn’t say a specific word. Then we tried to get her to sit by holding up the treat and pushing it back so she’d sit. We don’t want her to get sit and heel confused, because to her sit means to sit in front of me, facing me, which is not what heeling is. She did this pretty well for C, but not for me. She just wasn’t responding to it. Also, about this time Nathan came home from work and as we know he is a big distraction. It’s just too exciting to focus when he gets home from work. We’ve been working on heel and she is doing ok (not great), but I need to spend more time on this. Nathan has spent more time on heeling than I have.

That wraps up our second lesson, I thought over all it went well and she is learning, I do see improvements. I can see a little bit more confidence in myself, but I have a ways to go. I also need to work more on cutting her nails (more on that next time). Hope you all had a nice weekend and are enjoying a pretty Sunday afternoon. Georgia and I may head out for a walk shortly and work more on leash manners. Until next time….