Saturday, March 22, 2008

Adventures in Dog Training

Today was training day for the dogs. Apparently, no matter how much SweetPea insists that Tatiana's a good dog, a good dog trainer can see that she's really a very sweet dog with no manners whatsofreakingever.

Duh.

We did some sits and some lay downs until Tatiana got bored and decided she was done. So we had a bit of a walk around and then did some more sits and lay downs until she got bored again. Then we had a little walk around do you see where this is going? and almost got a snake! Except I held on to the lead and wouldn't walk towards the snake anymore. I know, I am no fun at all! Then we did some more sits and lay downs until she got bored and then we walked back to the truck and got some water.

The dog trainer gave us some advice on Gomi's mouthyness, and said that Gomi will probably need a firmer hand in training than Tatiana. SweetPea wants Gomi to be a service dog, and I just want Tatiana to be well mannered enough to take places. So Gomi will get a lot more training than Tatiana. Ha ha Gomi!

The trainer also recommended getting Tatiana a sensation harness or a martingale collar for her pulling. So I guess I'm going to do some research and figure out which one I think would work the best. I have Tatiana in a regular harness now, with a reflective collar (you know, for the early morning walking we're supposed to be doing). She's pulled out her collar before, and, as big and untrained as she is, the harness makes me feel like I have a little more control when we're out of the backyard. But she's definitely a puller, so that's not cool.

Getting Tatiana into the truck three times was a blast. Yes, I did have to lift her up and practically shove her in, why do you ask? Trainer suggested getting some super yummy treats and work with her on getting up on the floorboard, then the front seat, then hopping over to the back seat.

Anyway, I am super pooped, but, strangely, really feel like going on a nice, long walk. Huh. Wonder what's up with that?

In the morning, I'll be getting up early to procure Easter goodies (uh. oops?), and then going for a walk. We were going to have a visit with my dad, but SweetPea appears to have caught my flu (uh. oops?), so I think pretty much anything is out for tomorrow.

OK, time to do some shopping research!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We use these down on the farm. There's a reason they're modeled on a Doberman.

dolphyngyrl said...

I thought about one of those, but as thick as Tatiana's fur is, I'm not sure it would be as effective as it could be. I think I'm going to go with the sensation harness, but I have to figure out whether to get the "sensible" or the "sensation" version. The website really isn't any help at all in explaining the differences between the two. Which means I'll probably end up picking by color.