School Days

Happy Saturday friends, I am anticipating having lots of baby photos next week so thought I'd post some pics of Hunter's first day at obedience class.

Waiting to see if we are going on a walk or a drive.

Meeting our instructor; I was very impressed with her and her style of training; I will say that age has made my responses with training quite a bit slower than they used to be and I think she'll have more work with me than with Hunter.  It is a very small class; today was just Hunter and I and her daughter who is training to assist her, with a friends dog, that needed training.

I feel like I've already learned so much; it is so different than when I last trained a dog-which is probably about 28 yrs ago.  One of her strategies for Hunter is to have other people to work with him, to help teach him not to be so shy. 

The trainer's daughter getting him comfortable with her.

I will have to curtail his walking with his friends for now because of the distraction and wanting him to focus solely on me.  If I can get the timing down to reward him immediately when he obeys-that is my challenge this week.  We are also working on making sure he does not think he is alpha, which also entails no free feeding-I don't think he knows what he is in for.  He did really well and actually played, at the end, with the big yellow lab for about 20 min.  The lab was perfect for him, as she stayed laying down and wasn't too overly rambunctious with him.  The other dog that will be in the class is a German Shepherd so Hunter will learn to relax with big dogs.
Have a great weekend!
Noreen & Hunter