Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Una cuddles with Luke

At last night's dog obedience class, we worked on refining some commands we learned on previous weeks.

We started out with the heel command and worked, like we did last week, on getting our dogs to sit next to us automatically when we stopped.

We also worked on changing the pace, going normal pace and then fast or slow.

Una was having a lot of trouble with this for some reason, as if she hadn't been doing it well all week. She kept turning her butt out when she sat down, even when I tried to guide her to do it properly, facing forward.

Then we worked on sitting politely to be petted. We were supposed to have the dog sit and stay, and then someone she didn't know would pet her. The instructor worked with me, moving up gradually because she knows Una can be shy. She started by just walking up to her and getting her used to her. Then she tried leaning in close to her a few times. Finally, she petted her, and Una allowed it.

The assistant didn't go through these stages, and Una allowed her to pet her right away. I praised her profusely.

When we didn't have anyone helping us with this exercise, we were supposed to practice "sit and stay" with distractions. Since I was alone, this meant doing something unusual, whether it was dancing around or making strange noises before releasing her. She did extremely well with this, partly because we've been working on it at home every day. In fact, she seemed highly amused by my antics, as if she was watching a comedy sketch. Then again, she's kind of used to my weirdness by now.

They were coming around to check on this, and I heard the assistant ask the instructor if anyone had checked on me and Una. "They're doing fine," the instructor said, having apparently watched us from a distance.

At the conclusion of the evening, we worked on having the dogs come from a sit and stay position. Then we were working on having them sit once they came up to you. I did this a couple times in front of the instructor, and not only did she say it was good but she told me, "You're doing a good job with your dog."

This really pleased me, because especially when Una is having an off week, I doubt our progress. Although I would say that she's doing better than she was when we started. She seems to understand all the commands; it's just a matter of practice.

You can especially see this when you compare her to some other dogs in the class. There's one lab puppy that still has to have his butt pushed down before he'll sit. There are a couple other dogs that won't walk politely but continue pulling their owners.

The other dog in the class who's close to Una's age is a border collie mix who's always smiling. She seems to love this class. Her owner worked with the instructor last night on correcting a bad habit, which is to sit on her owner's feet. She'll sit when commanded, but she sits on her owner's feet. They worked on breaking her of this by consistently shaking her off and telling her "no." The first few times they did this, the dog immediately tried to get back on her foot, so it because a bit of a contest until she learned the answer was always going to be no.

I especially think of how good Una is when I remember something that happened on our walk yesterday. There's a family who had a pit bull puppy, not even a year old. He was out in the yard without supervision, so of course he ran across the road to say hi. Being a silly puppy, he didn't look both ways and could have been hit if the road hadn't been clear.

He wouldn't leave us alone, so I walked across the road to try to get the owners' attention. Meanwhile, Una was getting panicky because the dog was trying to hump her. She was trying to back away from it to the point of choking herself with her training collar and spitting up the treat I'd just given her for obeying a command.

I couldn't actually get up to the door with both of them acting that way, so I had to stand on the sidewalk and scream, "Your dog's out here" until a 12-year-old girl came out. By this point, I was pretty worked up, and I shouted that her dog ran across the road to greet us and could have been hit by a car.

She just mumbled "sorry", collected the dog and went inside. I felt a little bad afterwards; normally, I wouldn't yell at a little girl. Still, it's important that she understands how dangerous it is to leave a dog without supervision. That poor puppy had no idea what sort of danger it could get into when it leaves home. Not to mention that a lot of people are terrified of pit bulls and might try to take drastic action if the dog won't leave them alone.

That evening, I told my instructor about it, and she clucked her tongue and shook her head, saying that unfortunately she sees that sort of thing all the time. People don't realize that training your dog isn't just for convenience. It's actually good for their safety and welfare, too. One of the many reasons I put Una in this obedience class.

At the end of our class, a new group of beginners came in. They were starting their first week. We stood with our dogs at one end of the gym while they entered the other end, so there would be no inappropriate interactions in the hallways. It was funny: a lot of them were exhibiting the sort of problem behaviors my class did initially. An enthusiastic poodle was jumping again and again on its owner. A couple other dogs were pulling their owners across the floor. Some little dogs were barking at everything that moved.

I turned to a classmate next to me and we exchanged smile. "I can think of some commands they'll be needing," I said. Yet another reminder of how far we've come.

More Musings on Una's Obedience Classes

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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