Big Dog Puppy Class

Doppler hanging out at Celebrate Etown

I was all set to write about Doppler’s crazy busy day yesterday, but then I realized that today was Doppler’s first day in big dog puppy class. So instead of writing about how Doppler spent most of yesterday under my desk; went for a 1.5 mile run after work; aced his little puppy evaluation (with some things that still need improvement); and spent two hours at  the Celebrate Etown event at WITF where he took a tour of WITF, relaxed in a down while Vocaline sang, and generally wowed people with his cute face; I’m going to tell you about his first big dog puppy class.

I knew that Doppler is very interested in the smells on the ground and other dogs, I decided to get to puppy class early so he would already be inside and settled when the other dogs got there. In theory, he would then be calmer. Well, my plan worked partway. Doppler was the first puppy there for class. However, as soon as SSD Jana came in, he went into a barking frenzy. I managed to get his attention, and as the next dogs came in, I just shoved treats in his mouth. If his mouth is full, he can’t bark. Plus, all the treats helped keep his attention on me.

Doppler started learning two new behaviors in class. First, I started shaping him to put his nose through the loop in the leash. Why on earth would I do that? The loop is just a stand in for a comfort trainer. When the dogs enter advanced training and when they become working service dogs, they may wear a comfort trainer to give their handler more control. So Doppler is learning to stick his nose through a loop in the leash. It’s probably going to be a slow process. Doppler hasn’t yet figured out that he gets a click and treat for interacting with the leash loop.

He also started learning the cue “lap,” which is where the dog rests his two front legs in a person’s lap. Doppler actually did pretty well with this, once he figured out that he’s really not a little dog anymore. I had to use a treat to lure him up to my lap, but he put both legs up there.

We’re also going to be working on going up and down stairs in a controlled manner, although we didn’t start this in class.

But then, we played a game. Every semester, we play a game at the end of each puppy class. This semester, it’s Par for the Course, a type of golf game with dogs. There’s a square at either end of the room. You have to put your dog into a down-stay in one box, walk to the other box, and then call your dog to come to you. You get additional points if your dog does anything other than come to you, such as visiting the other dogs or heading to other distractions. Now, Doppler is very distracted by smells, and I knew that once all the other dogs put their butts in that square, there would be no way he would settle into a down. So I volunteered to go first. It still took a little while for Doppler to settle into a down. He was very interested in SSD Annabelle, who was sitting near the square. Luckily, her puppy raiser was really nice and moved Annabelle away. After that, Doppler laid down after a few more tries, although he wasn’t quite in the box. But, good enough!

I really wanted Doppler to be successful, so instead of going all the way to the other square, I just went partway and called him to come. He did great! He popped right up and bounded over to me. He looked so happy! So I put him into another down-stay, and this time I went all the way to the other box. Doppler got up before I called him, so I took him back, recued him, and then called him to come again. He came right to me! He didn’t even care that there were three other dogs in front of him! I was so proud of him.

So despite his crazy barking at the beginning of class, we had a very successful time. Next week, puppy class is at the Harrisburg Mall carnival. Definitely going to make sure I have lots of power treats for that. 

Sleepy after his busy day