Tag: obedience

Today was Hoshi’s last day of obedience class. We tested off on our commands then did contests. Hoshi won 1st place for the longest sit and stay and 1st place for the longest down and stay (hooray!). We messed up on the fastest recall contest. Hoshi wouldn’t come to me AT ALL–we need to practice “come” from across a room. 🙁 So Hoshi graduated with his diploma and two 1st place ribbons. We start our Canine Good Citizens course next week. My wife came and took pictures. I put them in Hoshi’s album.

Hoshi has been doing good. Yesterday, Hoshi was complimented because he stayed without a leash. We stood at one end of the room and walked away from our dogs then told them to come. The instructors had to hold our dogs while we walked away so they wouldn’t follow us. I asked that Hoshi not be held and he stayed until I called him from the middle of the room. I’ve signed him up for the next class: Canine Good Citizen.

I know someone asked me to take pictures. I’ll ask if it’s okay to take some next week.

No one told me dog obedience class required physical endurance. 😛 I was out of breath and sweating at the end of class. Today’s class went very well. There weren’t as many people in our class this time. I think the first class had people from both morning and evening classes together. There were maybe 5 of us. We met Marcella Mutsulavish, our instructor and her shelties for the first time. Charlie? filled in for her while she was on vacation. Marcella is very nice and down to earth. 🙂 We reviewed what we learned last week and she passed out copies: You Are The Top Dog, Body Language, and Crate Training as well as our 5 week syllabus. We practiced heeling running along the ring. I had to stoop over to reach Hoshi and bait him with a treat as he ran to keep him in the proper heel position. Marcella said Hoshi was doing wonderful. He did look impressive although it took a lot of endurance on my part. I think this class was more of a review and reinforcement on week 1.

We were told to practice our lessons so far for at least 1 hour each week. We haven’t practiced anything since Wednesday. We did 30 minutes just now so I need 30 more until next Wednesday. Lying down is still troublesome. I have to help Hoshi along with a gentle push but he’s starting to anticipate lying on his tummy.

It seemed all too quick for me. Hoshi’s taking Beginner Obedience at the Sportsmen’s Dog Training Club of Detroit. Here are the commands we learned today:

1. Sit
2. Lay
   • Lay – stepping on the leash
3. Come
4. Heel
5. Stand

Our class is about 6 people. Hoshi is the smallest dog in the class. The toughest was getting Hoshi to lay. Hoshi wouldn’t do it on his own. I had to force* in a lying position It looks like I’ll be doing lots of practice at home. I checked out a few books at the library to look at.

*The instructor said persuading wasn’t going to work so I had to put Hoshi in a laying position.