Braggin’

Pugly and I have just completed our second go-round of Basic Training. Our first attempt last year was with one of those clicker training classes and it just didn’t take.

First of all, I just don’t think Pugly was old enough to really catch on then and he was the oldest in the class at six months. He really just was more interested in playing and taking in the smells than focusing on that little clicker thing. He clearly had Puppy ADD.

Second, that little clicker thing was annoying and it was so hard to catch him at that exact second he did exactly the right thing and click the thing and then reward him. It’s hard enough to carry around treats all of the time, but then I was supposed to keep an eye on him and click when I caught him naturally doing the things I wanted him to do like sit, down, etc. and then reward him and then you have to build from there. It was just too much work and too tiring for both of us.

But this time he was the star of the class; at least that’s what the Trainer said. He really took to every “trick” within a few minutes or so. We’re still working on some stuff, mostly the maintains, particularly when I want him to maintain while I walk away, but he really has become a well-behaved, well-trained dog in just six weeks. He now sits (and with great flourish, I might add) for his breakfast and dinner and waits to be told it’s o.k. to go to the bowl I just set down. He’s even sitting to have his leash put on and off 75% of the time — the 25% problem area is when I first get home from work and he’s excited about me being home and anxious to get outside so he’s doing that pee-pee dance. He even sat when I told him to despite the lawnmower man being at the door and he stayed there while I went outside and paid him and came back — much to my utter amazement; of course, he got a really good treat then. This morning he completely surprised me by going over to his leash hanging on the wall and touching it with his nose to tell me he wanted to go out — mind you, I’ve been trying for over a year to train him to touch some bells I have hanging from the doorknob when he wants to go.

So, he sits, he downs, he backs up…we’re working on maintain and we’re doing some work on walking next to me though I’m training him that he can walk ahead and sniff and explore and be a dog as long as he comes back and checks in every few minutes. We’re still working on recall — he ran off down the street after a bigger dog on Sunday, which is a reoccurring problem and didn’t want to come back. We’re working on stand and hush.

But overall, very much improved from the wild puppy of two months ago.

And the really interesting part was that in the last class the Trainer brought out all of this Agility Training equipment so we could see how our dogs would react. Pugly loved it. He was the only dog who absolutely loved it. He had no fear of heights — raced right up and down the ramps with no prompting. No fear of small spaces, right into the tunnel, even turned around at the end once and went back through. He liked walking on the little raised balancing beam board. Had no problems with the wobbly square boards. Even walked through the ladder-looking obstacle thing like he did it every day. And when we took them off of their leashes so the dogs could play together, my dog went back to play on the Agility equipment. I guess he figured that he got to play with dogs enough at daycare but he hardly ever got to play on jungle gym equipment.

The Trainer was just as excited as I am. So Pugly and I are on a waiting list to get into the Intermediate Training class, which is reinforcing what we’ve learned plus manners, etc. and moving away from using treats as much. After that we will be able to take the Agility Training class as well as try to get into a Pet Therapy program, which is what I had planned.

Meanwhile, Pugly and I have to keep working on what he’s learned. No slacking. He’s got to keep that star quality.

Tagged as: agility training, basic training, dog, photography, Pug