I probably haven't said much on here about Cooper's classes. He's the sweetest little guy - almost three years old, so a bit past the age for "puppy classes" but a friend in Nevada, MO had told me about her dog that was afraid of everything and a trainer in Nevada had helped her dog so much. I contacted the trainer and we got Cooper enrolled in classes. Today he finished his fourth class. Two more to go. He has come so far but I don't think the trainer had expected things to go so slowly and she's probably going to suggest more classes but . . it's a bit over an hour there and a bit over an hour back and an hour there twice a week. With the garden, I'm not sure I can do it.
Honestly, I think I learned more than Cooper has. Apparently Cooper needs more self-confidence and I'm always doing things for him and shielding him from the experiences he might learn from . . very nicely, she said (I think) that I need to stop being a mother hen.
Today was Class 4 and this was the first class where he hasn't seriously tried to bite her. The first class, I kept him back and didn't let him get too close to her. She kept telling me not to pull back on the leash when he got too close but she didn't believe he would bite her. I was pretty sure he would. The second class, he lunged at her and had I not yanked back on the leash, he would have bit her and she thanked me for keeping the leash tight. At the end of that class, she asked how I felt about using a muzzle. I told her I would be a lot calmer if he was wearing a muzzle. She showed me the kind to order - he can eat and drink through it and he can pant so I ordered one . . actually I had to order two because even though I measured, the first one was too big.
Class #3 he had his muzzle on but when she got too close, he flipped out, barking and screaming like she was killing him (she hadn't touched him). You may remember that he did that once at the vet - he started screaming when the vet walked into the room before she ever touched him. Class #3 he was on a leash with a muzzle so she took him farther from us, sat down on the floor. He backed as far away from her as he could with his leash, growled every time she made the smallest move, screamed if he thought she was coming close to him. After about half an hour of that, he moved over closer to her and before class was over, he crawled up on her lap and let her pet him.
The worst thing he did at Class #3 - the trainer had a small-ish stuffed dog. She got him down to show me how I could put food through the front of the muzzle and he would stick his nose right in and I wouldn't have to fight him to get the muzzle on. As soon as she sat that dog on the floor, Cooper attacked the dog - seriously attacked the stuffed dog!
We've been taking him out in public, far away from people and other dogs but he can see them and today he didn't growl, didn't bark at her; didn't try to bite her.
Near the end of class, she got the stuffed dog out again and put it towards the end of the room. We were instructed to walk him towards the dog, pay attention to his body language and when he tensed up, we would turn and walk away from the dog. We did that several times and then she moved the dog so we would walk just a bit closer and he never reacted to the dog. She was teaching us to read his body language and remove him from situations that made him uncomfortable before he over reacted.
She had one of those tunnels and she wanted Vince to get at one end and I would get at the other and we were to see if he would run through the tunnel. She didn't think he would but wanted to see how he reacted. He ran right through it . . THREE times! Then she had a bar kinda like jumping hurdles but for a dachshund, it was barely off the floor. She wanted us to use food to see if he would jump over the bar. He did!
Today was a great day. Next week, instead of going on Tuesday and Friday, we're going to take more "field trips" with him, expose him to more and see her on Friday.
He did so much better today and we were so happy with his progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting! I read every comment and try to respond to all of them!