Saturday, September 3, 2016

Training Jaws


So get this.  Jaws is going to the dog show today.  Now THIS should be interesting.  The dog who cannot sit still for a nanosecond is going to stay on a grooming table for an hour.  You know those big suits that they use when training canine protection dogs?  The ones that are all padded so it makes it hard for the human to walk?  I am suggesting my human wear one while holding onto Jaws on the table.  Actually, the vision of that scene is pretty funny...

I REALLY shouldn't tease Jaws about his biting so much.  He went to a class on Thursday night with the Terrific Tracy - and he wasn't THAT bad.   Terrific Tracy is like the Amazing Aimee.  They both train humans how to behave with us dogs.  Aimee likes to work with puppies.  Tracy works with puppies and adult dogs - who eventually hope to compete in obedience.  Velcro dog and I have both worked with Tracy.  We have trained her all about PONs.  And she has trained our human.  Anyway, Jaws had his first Performance Puppy class.  Sounds like he is going to learn how to play the piano.  Or juggle.  He went with my human AND the little girl from down the street - who had never been to a puppy training class before.  There were several puppies in the class - two mini Aussies, a Weimaraner, a Bullmastiff, a Golden Retriever and Elroy.  His brain exploded when he first went in - but he DID do lots of things he was supposed to do.  Probably because my human was shoveling treats into him like a gambler in front of a slot machine.  And all was going well - until my human ran out of the REALLY good treats.  The freeze dried liver.  And all you "trainers" know that feeling when the GOOD treats are gone.  You dig in your pockets or the ugly fanny pack that holds your rewards - PRAYING that you can find a CRUMB of the GOOD stuff.  But no - all you have left are the REGULAR treats - and you KNOW your last card has been played.  And it was just about half way through the class that the liver ran out, and Jaws decided that was enough class.  He started whimpering.  So my human assumed he needed to pee.  But it was just a ploy to go outside and sniff the ground where 4,000 other dogs had previously peed.  He finally peed and back in they went.  And he started squeaking again.  So now my human figured he needed to poop.  So out they went again.  And he didn't need to poop.  So back they went in again.  They started doing some work on recalls - and it was no problem because the door was behind my human.  He definitely came racing when called - and bolted around her to head for the door.  When the Terrific Tracy said that there was only a few minutes left of class, my human was breathing a sigh of relief.  She was exhausted.

And the good news?!  For the VERY first time EVER, when Jaws came home, he went ALL BY HIMSELF into his crate and fell asleep.  Really.  My human thought she would NEVER see the day.  And Frodo was relieved as well - his hairdo would stay intact for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow we will SEE who gets to go to the Show and represent the PONs at Meet the Breed.  Frodo went the last time...so i think it's MY turn.  We'll see.

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