apple juice

Well, we had puppy class #2 last night, and once again, a very interesting experience. I could see how someone could get very interested in a behavioral science kind of way with the way dogs interact with each other. For instance, our dog is a total wuss. Since there was about half the number of people this week, after completing pass-the-puppy again, (I had to hold two pugs this time, Obi, from last time, and Lucy, the grunter) we let the dogs loose to run around in the lobby of the veternarian.

Yeti, being the explorer that she is, did a perimeter run around the entire place, avoiding the dogs that were playing in a group in the middle of the area. I picked her up and plopped her down near the pack, so she would get a little play time in, she ran behind me. Repeat. Third time, she found a dog that was half her size to pick on. As she’s doing her butt in the air growl, Molly, a 30 pound lab, knocks her down, Yeti quickly gets up and runs over to some little girls that were reading books. They love her up.

I go and grab her since the whole point of this is to socialize her with other dogs. (She has no problem with people, during pass-the-puppy we get all these comments about how nice our dog is, how amazing it is that she comes when she’s called, how she sits for us) So back to the smaller dogs she can pick on. Bigger dogs come, she runs.

This will get better, I’m sure. A couple more of these puppy classes and she’ll be good.

The Number One thing we learned at puppy class. The shaker jar. Soup Can. Pennies. Duct Tape. The best way to keep your dog away from the Christmas tree (your toes, the antique coffee table, etc.) When she is doing something bad, shake the jar, and tell her no… She’s already responding better to a simple No! since I made the jar last night.

Major Bonus points for: Sitting at the entrance of the vet when she wanted to go out to the bathroom. Following the path I shoveled in the snow out to the back corner of our yard and then sitting still on the blanket when she came back in while I got her a treat and wiped her feet off.