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My husband and I are new puppy owners- this is our first dog together, and we're working through what it means to be puppy parents!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

First Class

Obedience class today... Stan really liked it, I thought it was okay. Our trainer was 10 minutes late, because she was helping someone from a previous class. Also, there is only one other puppy in the class, and the whole reason I signed Kirby up for this was for socialization purposes. The trainer had some good tips, but she also was somewhat absent minded. Also, the puppies didn't get any off leash time, which was what I was really excited about. The puppies were excited to meet and greet too, and sitting staring at each other for 50 minutes was hard for them! They were barking, and straining on their leashes to play with each other- All of their close contact was calm and playful. Keeping them across a room from one another on leashes made them crazy. The trainer said she's going to try to get a few more puppies in the class before next week. Also, in 8 weeks we're only going to learn sit, down, come, stay, and leave it. Kirby knows a couple of those already. Ah well, it's good for him to get out, and there is an advanced class right after our class, so he meets lots of big dogs that are all very polite right after our class... and Stan said he learned a lot. That's really important as well. I should chill out.

In the meantime.... Kirby is looking less potato with legs-ey and much more lanky! Look at this photo of Kirbs from the back:
He even has a happy face on his back! :)

He's definitely starting to look more like a dog and less like a pup. He's growing so quickly! :)

7 comments:

  1. Wow, it sounds like your class and trainer is similar to my class and trainer with the exception that most of the pups there truly are puppies. Unfortunately they are all toy breed types that don't really feel comfortable with a hairy husky puppy with big paws and sharp baby teeth that wants to crazy play :) Hopefully next week's class will be a bit better!

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  2. That face is the sweetest! So cute!

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  3. Such a cute puppy! I'm your newest follower and will be vicariously raising a puppy through your blog. :)

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  4. are there puppy socials in your area? in san francisco they have weekly meet ups where young puppies (with proof of at least one set of shots) can get together and romp around off leash in a big open room. there are also a couple of "trainers" inside to keep an eye on the play and make sure everyone is behaving. dash learned a lot there about socialization and different puppy personalities without a "class" format

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  5. I agree with your concerns. A lot of Puppy one here was training the people how to train a dog. That was why it was limited to a few things...very important things like recall and stay that could save their lives.
    We tried a puppy social but it was awful and Ryker was attacked by a Pitty and Huskey that ganged up on him, no blood was spilled but we did not go back there.
    Our Puppy two class reinforce what was learned in P one and had more socialization skills and healing, walking in public areas with distractions. Another useful command is "eyes", a command to have your dog look at you in the face. Go settle is our command for him to go to the rug, lay down and be calm. Good for when I have to work with the cats and don't want him nosing in.
    Hopefully they will get more puppies in the class for Kirby. He is indeed growing!

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  6. There isn't a "puppy social" here, but there are classes that we could drop in on for 12.50 a pop. I guess there are about 15 puppies of all sizes, which might be worth it. We'll have to see!

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  7. He's gorgeous! He looks just like my Lucy... :)

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