Roxie's first day of class

Ok, so I totally forgot to talk about Roxie's first day of class, which was last Sunday. There were 4 students (a new person will be joining us this week) - 1 large dog, 2 medium dogs, and Roxie. The best part is they all had anti-dog attitudes (but not dog aggression). There was a whole lot of barking and snarling going on. Yet within a few minutes of class starting, things quieted down. We worked on "sit", "look", "leave it", "forward" and "down". It was kinda funny, as we were working with our dogs, they sort of forgot about snarling at each other (unless two dogs got too close). Roxie already knew "sit", "look", and "leave it". She pretty much knew "forward" but I don't use that one a lot - only when I have stopped her for some reason. I need to get into the habit of using it more often.

"Down" we had problems with. Roxie would either do nothing when I gave her the command, or she would back away? Weird. Michele came over and worked with us on this one. The idea is to reward Roxie if she does anything even close (eg just front end goes down, or just head lowers), and work up to a full down. By the end of class she had done 3 full "downs" and I was very proud of her. I realized the next day that I use "down" to order her off furniture, so that was probably confusing to Roxie. From now on I will use "down" for lay down, and "off" for getting off furniture.

The other thing we worked on was direction changes while walking. The technique here is to step into the "tickle spot" on your dog (very lightly) and turn their bodies, then continue in the new direction with a "forward". Because Roxie is small, I have problems with this one. I feel like I am kicking at her, so I definitely need to practice. Much easier on larger dogs! We have been practicing on our walks. I come to a stop, step in to turn her, then continue on. Coming to a stop seems to give me more control over the nudge.

Sadly I will be missing tomorrow's class, as I have a couple of meetings at the shelter. Bummer :-(