Toby and I started "Dog School" at Dogs Bay in Saugatuck last month. We're both doing well - he's learning some new commands and I'm working hard at being consistent and practicing with him every day. We passed the first level ("green" class) and are now in the "orange" class. We have 2-3 sessions left. So far Toby has learned the commands for sit, stay, watch me, down, and place. He does really well at home and enjoys our practice sessions. He does fairly well at Dogs Bay, although with 3-5 other dogs in the room, it's a little more distracting. We're still working on heeling, especially with the cold, snowy weather; I'm thinking that might have to wait until spring.
I realized how important my body language affects him after we started training. He was really scared the first couple times we went; I finally realized it was (at least partly) because I was nervous and stressed about him not doing everything correctly. Once I started relaxing and treating the training times more like a game, Toby relaxed too. He loves going there now. We're both tired when we get home from training sessions though.
With all this snow, the dog run in my back yard doesn't work, so I've just been letting Toby outside. I'll stand on the deck and wait for him; thankfully he's always come right back inside when he's finished. Until last week. I think he finally realized that there's a lot more to explore, so he started wandering around the whole back yard and then over into the neighbor's yard. Not very fun to run after him with workout clothes and tennis shoes in knee-deep snow! We're definitely going to be working harder on the "come" command!
Although Toby still won't sleep up on my bed with me, he will now come and lay down next to me when I'm sitting on the couch. He's mellowed down quite a bit but still likes to play with his toys and chase the tennis balls. He also enjoys the mental stimulation of his "muffin tin" hide and seek game. He's pretty smart; I have to keep adding layers to make it more difficult for him to get the treats. He's also still camera-shy; when our training instructor was taking our "graduation-from-green-class" photo, I figured I'd finally get a good picture of him because he now knows how to sit. But he sat facing me when he saw the camera and would not look at the camera! Silly dog. I did get this cute picture of him after playing in the snow. I do love this boy!
I can tell this "Dog School" thing is becoming ingrained in me when I catch myself telling my second graders to "Watch me!" - complete with putting my hand up to my forehead the way I do when talking to Toby.
