Our First Class

Yesterday we had our first L2 class at the MSPCA. I was very nervous going into the class because Catch has developed some serious fears and bad behaviors lately. I arrived 40 minutes early to give myself enough time to look around and let him settle down. When I arrived the first thing I noticed was that I knew my instructor. She used to be an assistant at that other place, as well as work in the Daycare. So not only did I know her, and feel comfortable with her as an instructor, she knows me and knows that I'm not just some random person walking in off the street.

I brought Catcher into the classroom when it was empty and let him sniff around and get acclimated. All the time feeding him for good attention, if there was a noise, if someone came in or left, etc. I briefed the instructor on Catch's issues and we agreed to set a condo up. He did great in the condo, and by the end of class he was working beyond the condo and with the sheets pulled back a little.

We went very slow and if something was too much we backed up a step. She also positioned me at a door so I could have a quick escape if he needed a break. I was amazed at how calm he was in class. I really expected him to be stressed but I also think that my calming down seeing her helped dramatically to keep him calm.

He did let out a couple growls at the other dogs and the assistants, who seemed a bit hesitant, and I think he sensed their hesitancy and fed off of it. As soon as they walked by and dropped food into the condo he was fine with them walking by and talking to him. He even got to demo hand targeting because none of the other dogs had done it before, and he didn't let me down. He also engaged in the leave it exercise, in Flex he would just shut down and ignore the toy. This time he was actually picking the toy up, which isn't a desired response, but in my mind it's much better than ignoring the toy all together. To me, it showed that he was getting comfortable enough to play.

I'm glad that I went with this class, it's small 5 dogs total, and it's all stuff he learned in Flex. I think it helps that he's not being pressured to learn a lot of new behaviors, but instead is learning to do solid behaviors in a different place, with distractions.

I bought a head collar after class, and will spend the next couple weeks getting him acclimated to it very slowly. And I spent a while talking to the instructor and we agreed to take it very slow with him. We're going to keep working him in the condo and gradually pulling the sheets back, and letting him set the pace. But if he continues as he did today she thinks he'll do great, and so do I.

I'm so relieved that he was nowhere near as horrible as I thought he would be. I expected barking non-stop, lunging, etc. He let out a couple minor barks, and then mostly whined when he was bored.

Yay! Maybe there's hope for him yet!