I just can't stop

I was doing some work on the cutting board and after moving PW off to the side (it's hard to work with a puppy in the middle of the board) he fell asleep. So, clearly it was time to take some pictures. Warning the cuteness is well nigh overwhelming.



He also has the cheek puff so sought after on CO. Behold!



But I think the thing I find the absolute best are the eyebrows. It just makes him so expressive. Plus he did really well in difficult circumstances at dog obedience on Saturday. We had a make-up class on Saturday because we've been rained out the past two weeks in a row. When we got there at 1:00 in the afternoon it was wicked hot and they had just mowed the grass. The lawn mowage might not seem like a problem, but it stirs up all the latent delicious scents just waiting to distract poor defenseless pups like Bleys. But he came through like a champ and was only minorly distracted.

I have a feeling that we may be the only team that is ready to take the test at the end of this class. The other dogs obey very well, but only when they are on a gentle leader. Unfortunately you can't take the test on a Gentle Leader. It is flat collars only. I think a couple of people were a little surprised when she mentioned this. A few of them then tried to work a bit without the GL. You can totally see the difference in the people (yes the people, not the dogs). They lose their air of confidence and instantly revert back to asking their dog to do things, which the dog promptly refuses.

There is one dog in particular that I feel sorry for. First of all, both his owners come to class sometimes, and they sort of switch back and forth from week to week who is doing the training. Not the best situation, but hey at least they are both involved? However, they coddle this dog terribly and enable each other to do so. He moves like molasses and it's plain that the dog is just being lazy. They ask him to sit about five times before he actually does and half the time when they say 'let's go' (their version of heel) he just sits there and looks at them. Instead of just putting on their leader face and making the dog do it, they mumble things like 'oh, but it's too hot for him' or something. Yes, it is hot, but if you notice all the rest of the dogs are moving along just fine. Granted it is a lot easier to make a dog of Bleys' size do something that a dog that is more like 90 pounds (he could stand to lose at least 10 of them), but it's not impossible.

Plus once you have a behavior you aren't finished. You should keep shaping that behavior to make it better. Now you only give them a reward if it's a speedy sit, not just whenever they feel like it, etc. Training your dog never ends. Bleys and I work nearly every day, granted it's only like 5 minutes a day, but it is constant and consistent. At class on Saturday we worked a little with introducing the dogs to walkers and canes. After they got used to them the instructor would walk around the dogs and drop the cane near them or make otherwise loud unpredictable movements. She commented that it was very unusual for a dog Bleys' size not to jump away from the dropped item. Why didn't he? Because I drop things near him on a regular basis. Phone books, clip boards, text books, anything that will make some unusual noise. I guess I'm just surprised at the level of the people in the 'advanced' class. Then again from what it sounded like people can come back and take this class again and again until they are ready. Guess I'm just lucky we will only have to do it once.