Training Session- 2

We met with our trainer for our second training session on Saturday. It had been scheduled for last Thursday night, but because of the tornados she had to assemble her dog rescue team and do a cadaver search in Macon County, so we had to reschedule. Fortunately, for them they didnt find anything. She said that her dogs are trained to do air scent, but because of the size of her dogs and all of the devastation that occured they really needed "rubble dogs" to be able to get into the tiny places beneath collapsed houses and such. She said Coopers size would be perfect for what they needed. She asked me if Cooper needed a job! Ha! Unfortunately it would mean about 40 hours a week of unpaid work for me, or I might seriously consider it. He would love it!

Because of the beautiful weather we had on Saturday (upper 50's and sunny) we spent the day outside, addressing Coopers lack of control around other animals, children playing, and bicycles. She was amazed at how much action we have just on our street. She had previously thought we would have to do a field trip for this session but she said we have plenty of opportunities right here in our front yard. Our neighborhood is filled with kids and when I say that, I mean I would feel safe to say that every house on our street has at least one child under the age of 16. There was a football/basketball game going on in our front yard, at least 3 bicycles went by, and lots of people were out walking their dogs which was perfect! Connor napped during this, which made it even more perfect since I didnt have to wrestle and try to keep up with him during this. We hadnt been out there for more than 10 minutes and she was giving us some instruction about what we were going to be doing, when our first opportunitiy approached. It was 2 ladies with a golden retreiver... I was about 2 seconds away from saying, "Make sure Coopers collar is tight enough." Cooper has a history of coming out of his collar when he is trying to get after a dog. Well, you guessed it... He came right out of it and charged after the dog across the street. Brad ran after Cooper and apologized to the ladies. Nikki told us that in that situation we should calmly walk over to the situation because the other dog would see 2 conflicts coming at him instead of 1. Brad and I were both glad that this happened while she was there to see just how out of control he really is. Nikki also had her rotweiller in the car and we spent the rest of the afternoon working with Cooper so that he could get close enough to the dog to meet her. This is going to take lots of work and practice on our part, but I have confidence that it can get better. Next, we were trained on how to get Cooper to walk on a leash. To do this, we used LOTS of treats. She said that we should use as many treats as possible to get the attention on us right now. Once he gets the hang of it, the treats will slack off. After a few minutes of me trying it, it really started to work! Again, this will take a lot of time an practice on our part but I know if we are consistent he will do it. I cant wait until it gets warmer so that we can go outside more. We also worked on Coopers ability to stay in control when someone knocks or rings the doorbell. For any of you that might be visiting us any time soon, you might be standing on our porch for 10 minutes before being greeted because we have to ignore Cooper until he calms down to open the door. This will teach him that by barking and acting crazy will not get us to open the door, which is what he ultimately wants. Thanks Mom for helping us practice this yesterday when you came over. Nikki told us that we should pay one of the kids next door to come and ring the doorbell over and over. Oh my goodness! I never thought I would have to think about doing something like this!! Ha! All in all, everything is going great and we will meet with her again in a week and a half. Cant wait to see what we will learn then!