SPDT-Week 3...

Thursday night was Week 3 of Scotch Pines Dog Training for Stella and it was AWFUL! (no pictures...I forgot the camera) I wanted to cry half way through because she was not doing ANYTHING like she was supposed to! We were continuing to work on heeling and the automatic sit. She heeled okay, but her sits were always slow and crooked. I had to correct her almost every time we stopped. At one point during the first hour of class, April (the trainer) looked at me and said "Jamie, I don't know what to tell you." It was THAT bad! I was doing EVERYTHING right...so why wasn't she responding??!! There were two reasons. First, one of the dogs in class that night was in heat...which is a great, but very frustrating, distraction. Add to that the fact that we had 6...yes SIX... intact males in the class created chaos. Second, she needed more praise. I thought I was praising her like crazy...turns out she needs EXCESSIVE and EXCITING praise in order to do what she is asked. This week we're working on Sit-Stays...here's to hoping we see some much needed improvement before Thursday night!