Sunday 29 January 2012

Lost and gained - Puppy Class No 10

Rodders woke at 6.48 on Saturday morning and wanted out in to the garden, he was then happy to go on his bed pad for a snooze.

He came upstairs with me while I got washed and dressed but was quite quiet. I couldn't get him to eat any breakfast at all.

When we got to Puppy School he couldn't wait to get out of the car as he could hear Leo barking. Soon we were joined by Leon, Lucky and a new girl called Beau who had arrived with the whole family including two little ones. Rodders took a real shine to Beau and she didn't seem to mind the attention. It was good to see how much Lucky had improved since we last saw him.

The class before us stopped on their way out to say hello and Rodders seems to love the bigger dogs best. He just wants to play with them and it doesn't matter how big they are or how deep their bark they don't scare him at all. This is a good job as he could be in their class next week!

Sam came out and joined us in the car park and she welcomed everyone and made a fuss of all he puppies before we made our way in to the hall. Rodders led the way and did a beautiful sit and wait at the door. Poor Abs with Lucky didn't do so well and it took him nearly 10 minutes to get in the door. As we were all sitting waiting inside Rodders was sitting nicely but kept looking over at Liam who was making squeaking noises. Liam is so funny, he makes these noises all the way through class whenever he has to sit for a little while.

Sam checked how many classes each puppy had done and confirmed that it would be Rodders last class, Lucky and Leo's 3rd, Liam's 5th and Beau's first. We put Beau in the middle of the room so that she got a chance to watch as we did heel and sit around the hall.

We then moved in to the car park and were doing heel and turn, heel and sit so that Beau could have a go. Rodders was doing really well at this. Once we got in to the field he was being a bit more challenging and kept stopping to scratch or bite his back leg or he was too busy sniffing about to pay attention to me.

He was very good at sitting while the other dogs weaved through him and was happy when it was his turn to have a go. We then swapped puppy's to get them used to other people and I got to play with Beau, Liam and Leo. I have found that I need to move right away from Rodders though or he just spends his time watching me and doesn't pay any attention to whoever has him.

We then did sit and stay before moving on to sit and wait. Rodders was not bad at the first but brilliant at the second, I was able to let go of his lead altogether and move quite far away before calling him to me.  Sam also got me to get him to heel without his lead but this didn't quite go to plan as he wasn't prepared to walk at all without me holding the lead so I tucked it in to my jeans which worked quite well. Next we played with their tuggies, getting the dogs excited and playing before getting them to let go of the toy and sitting before we threw it for them to play with again. We did end up with Lucky on the loose but he came back quite easily once Abs stopped running after him.


Sam got me out to the front a couple of times to show how to do things, this just shows how far Rodders has come in the 10 weeks especially as he did what he was asked without problems.


As we headed down the field doing heel sit and heel and down towards the agility course I spotted something on Rodders back leg and bent down to see what it was and he had another tooth caught in his fur. That will explain all the scratching and biting then!

Rodders just loves to go through the tunnel and over the A Frame and he is getting better at the low jumps. We didn't even need Sam to hold him at the start of the tunnel, he was happy to sit and wait until I called him through.  He did poo while we were waiting so I cleared that up and dropped the bag by the A Frame to collect later.

We made our way back to the hall and there was a loose dog being walked on the field so it was more important to get our dog to concentrate on us. Luckily Rodders didn't seem to notice it! Again Rodders sat and waited beautifully at the door and while we were waiting for the others he was lying between my legs. Sam gave everyone their homework for the week and then presented us with Rodders certificate to show that he has successfully completed puppy training. I am very proud of how far he has come from the scared puppy all those weeks ago.

After we left the hall we went back up on to the field to collect the poop bag and I let him have another go at the tunnel and the A Frame and then let him follow me back to the edge of the field with his lead trailing behind him.

Very happy with my boy today!

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