We went to our first class for the “Better Manners” training course at Community Canines at the MSPCA in Methuen, MA
There were a couple of familiar students, & a couple of new ones; Carol was our instructor and Jill was a new (for us) assistant, Melissa was on vacation and will be back next week.
Anyway, Mindy was a crazy girl (complete with crazy eyes) when we arrived and for a good portion of the class. Thankfully, they added a little gate/fence in front of us so she didn’t get too distracted when Carol was speaking.
She did calm down a little, and did a fair job with the exercises. We have a long way to go, but I was proud of her. I think I was a lot more nervous than her, sometimes *I* feel so caught up in trying to do a good job, that I totally miss the instruction from Carol. God bless her, she has a lot of patience with me! hahaaa.
This class will be practicing more “shaping” behaviors, and we learned about the 3D’s – Distance, Duration, and Distraction.
We worked with eye contact, sit & down with distractions, let’s go, recall (come), and leave it.
So, now we have 5 more classes; Mindy really loves it and it gives her a good workout!