Dog Class, or An Excuse to Keep Me From Watching the Last Gilmore Girls Until AFTER It Is Finished Recording So I Can Fast Forward Through the Commercials

I forgot to mention here that we signed up with our dog for dog training class. Missy is 2-1/2 now and we never took her to formal dog training. When we got her, I read everything I could find on the Internet. I read about housebreaking and leash walking, prong collars, choke-chains, clickers, treats… I read all kinds of conflicting advice and came to my own conclusions: Rubbing the dog’s nose in her pee really isn’t productive. Crate training works. I’m not sure if the idea that puppy pads are bad if you are planning on eventually getting the dog to go pee and poop outside is actual proven fact, but we skipped the puppy pads. Being that I was stuck in immigrations purgatory when we got her, I had plenty of time to *carry* her down the stairs of the deck instead of watch her pee on a rectangular diaper.

And so I figured I also had plenty of time to do clicker training with her. And just so you doubters know, it worked totally well. Except for one thing that bothered Jim. And my mother, who thought it was kind of lame – I used “positive” training. So she displays a behavior that I’m trying to get her to do, I click to mark my pleasure with the behavior, and then I treat her. She bites me and I just don’t click or treat. Not that she ever bit me. I’m exaggerating so you understand that there was *only* praise in this particular school of training. No correction. Eventually I became inconsistent, and really how do you expect to get your husband to use only positive feedback when he’s making a valid point that she needs to be corrected when she does something we don’t want her to do?

So it’s not that she’s a bad dog – for the most part she’s good. But she could be better. I don’t really feel comfortable taking her to the off leash park when it’s just her and Jonah and I. If I have to chase after her, or restrain her, it’s too hard with the baby. She likes to put on her vicious face and the mohawk on her back sticks up, and I’m so scared she’s going to eat one of those poor rat dogs that she lives to go after. She also doesn’t walk nicely on a leash. She walks *okay* – where she won’t pull your entire arm off… And by the time you’ve walked a mile or so, she’s walking really nicely. But those first few steps out the door are such a nightmare for me that again, when it’s just Jonah and I, I refuse to do it. Or I will do it, but only around the block. I’ll walk her around the block, come back to drop her at the house, and finish a real walk with Jonah. So much easier!

So anyhow, when we were in Hawaii over Christmas, Missy was a guest at a friend’s house. A friend who had a polite and well-behaved dog. So I asked this friend about dog training and she told me about this great class they took. So I signed us up.

Tonight was our first class and already we’re doing better. We’ve been able to clearly communicate to her that we are the leader on a leash walk. We’re working to get her to pay attention to our cues – instead of letting her decide everything. She’s been walking on a loose leash all night. She even jogged through the slalom of posts that went around the parking lot at the park, only getting hung up a couple of times. We all had so much fun – even Missy. Even Connor and Jonah. In fact, Jonah was asleep by the time we got home. He was so worn out, he was asleep through the diaper change. Jim didn’t even get to read him a bedtime story.

We can’t wait for our next session on Thursday. Homework this week: No sounds aimed at the dog. In other words – no talking to the dog. We’re already having trouble. I have to ask myself if it’s okay to talk to Jonah before I say anything to him. It’s so normal for us to talk to her all day. I’m sure this is good for us, but what a challenge!

It’s now after 9. I am going to watch the last ever Gilmore Girls. Boy do I hope it’s one of those flash forward finales, where we get to see where Lorelai and Rory are in five years. I am so not going to talk about the disappointment that was the last Seventh Heaven.

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