PetSmart does obedience school in my area, so I signed up for an 8 week course with Rusty. Of course, Bimmer Man is a little too busy to go, but whatever.
There's 7 dogs total - there were only 4 of us for the first class though. It was nice, small and very personalized. Of all the other dogs, 2 teeny Yorkies, standard poodle, rescued boxer mix, rescued lab mix, Boston Terrier, Rusty is the tallest and he wants to please his owner the most. Except for the poodle. The poodle is pretty cool - she has all of her commands down to a perfect T. Holy crap, I want to be like that!
We went over quite a few items, namely (hahahaha) answering to their names. And so the journey had begun.
"Rusty! Here!"
Say it ONLY ONCE.
I take a treat between my first finger and thumb of my left hand, put the treat in front of Rusty's nose (let him sniff it), then draw the treat up to your eyes (he should be watching your hand signal/treat), while holding the clicker in your right hand. As soon as your hand with the treat reaches your eyes and he's looking at you, click immediately and give him the treat.
Even if he's too distracted, put the treat in front of his nose again, bribe him into looking at your eyes, click as soon as he looks at you and give him the treat. Say the words, "Rusty! Here!" only once. Dare I repeat that again? Say the words only once. You do not want to confuse the dog into looking at you the second time.
Example - if you're at the dog park and you want to call the dog, you want him/her to look at you the first time, right?
Yep. That's how he responds to his name now. He actually looks at me! Woo hoo!!!
So that's Week 1 of training. I'm learning and learning and learning with lots of guidance from books and hands on training from the trainer at Petsmart, who by the way is just awesome.
Week 2 preview: Sit & Loose Leash Training
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