Zeke's NEW Class--Day 4

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Tuesday night was week 4 of Zeke's new class. And it went GREAT!!! After a rough time last week, he certainly made up for it. Heel is going great, much better than I ever would have dreamed. We worked on going to a mat on command, which also went great. He let the trainer snuggle him. She tested him while we were working on going to the mat by surrounding his path to the mat with tennis balls, lol!! That was a tough one. So tempting, lol. That's right...he's playing with ALL tennis balls now, not just his. He even went for a squeaky ball that was in the floor! Really surprised me. The trainer had mentioned to me that she had lined up her stools across the training ring and taught her dog something similar to a flyball routine. The stools were jumps and she would bounce a tennis ball off the far wall, so the dog had to go over the jumps, and retrieve the ball. Naturally, I wanted to give it a go since flyball is what I originally wanted to pursue with Zeke anyway. It went great. ^^ He's a natural. That was the first time he has ever really been himself away from home. She was surprised at the change.


His trainer has fallen for him and I'm just so excited with how well he's doing and how fast he's progressing. As for his shyness, we still have a long way to go, but we're getting there. OH, and he's even taken some treats on occassion. Still madly in love with his tennis ball and I could get him to jump through a ring of fire with it if I wanted to, but he has discovered that treats aren't so bad every once in a while. So, that's our progress so far. Can't wait till next week. ^^
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
GO ZEKE!!!!!!! How wonderful!!!
ISN'T IT FUN TO WATCH YOUR DOG GROW AND LEARN??

My Buddy just "graduated" from his basic manners, had the same lessons you describe, loose lead walking, heel, as well as go to a mat.
Buddy did okay on the loose lead, his heel is still a work in progress...But everything else in the class, he nailed it.
Except for getting along with the other dogs...But Buddy IS getting better, he is. He now looks at me almost automatically when he sees a dog he does not like. SEE, i been teaching him to "Look at me" when he begins to react to another dog. It is almost second nature now...BUT, i gotta catch him very early on in his escalation..very early,I hafta interrupt his focus on this other dog with a "Look at me".....

MUch harder to bring him back once he has crossed over to a full barking lunge...

Ha, for the "Class Picture" at the end of the last class, hope i never see THAT photo, Buddy of course started reacting to get so close to all the other dogs, who all were sitting there in a group acting nicely, til Buddy was supposed to sit in there too...Me and Buddy will be a blur in the front of the group of dogs sitting nicely..

I want to sign Buddy up for agililty, but, they say he needs to take their "Reactive Dog" class first..however, there aren't enough dogs signed up for that class yet...I'm still a lil leary about having him in a room of reactive dogs, he is barely well-behaved with the NONreactive dogs..
 

fickla

Experienced Member
Yay Zeke! I'm glad heeling is going well too! Actually it sounds like everything is going well! I can't believe he went to place with all the tennis balls lying around, I know my Vito is not ready for that!
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
LOL, oh he didn't without lots of encouragement and reminders, haha! Those tennis balls were so tempting.

Glad Buddy's doing well!!! It takes time to get reactive dogs to not...err, react, lol! Though I wouldn't think having a class FULL of reactive dogs would be the best way to go. o-0 I'm wanting to get Z into agility too, but the only club here that offers classes for it is kind of...confused. They use positive reinforcement, but they also are very correction based. They basically tell their students that a dog cannot be trained without a prong collar, and no one leaves their classes without one. When I tried to email the agility instructor explaining Zeke's tennis ball obsession and that I would not use a prong collar, especially considering his very timid nature. Her response just told me to check their schedule for the next classes. Gee thanks. Sooo.....if they'll let me, I'll watch a class or two, and if I'm not satisfied, then I won't even bother. I'm thinking of just doing something private with my trainer anyway. She's very familiar with agility and is learning about flyball, which she wants to get into. She knows Zeke and she's all positive, so I'll probably end up just doing something with her. She'll be leaving Petsmart soon so when she does, she can do outside work. Before she leaves I'll be doing another class with her with Mudflap.
 

fickla

Experienced Member
If Buddy's "reactive dogs class" is anything like a controlled unleashed class I would be very excited! I don't think you have to worry about him at all reacting to the other reactive dogs since all dogs start out in their own little pen, with lots of visual barrier preventing them from seeing the other dogs. Gradually the barriers are reduced and dogs play a lot of games teaching them how to stay calm and not react! It would be really good for any dog really!
 
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