Very belated update

This is going to be a long post, I have a lot of catching up to do…

First day of Obedience Class
We started History (aka Duke) in an obedience class this weekend (4/20). Not that he is bad by any means, but I wanted to put is eagerness and food motivation to some good work! He was a bit overwhelmed at first by all the dogs. There are 10 of us in the class, but it is a wide variety of breeds and ages: from a beagle to a very shy Newfie. With all the activity, he was not so interested in the tasty treats I had, but eventually started to relax a bit. Then towards the end of the class, he noticed the big mirror on the wall. At which time his attention when right out the window again because this seemed like whole new bunch of dogs to see!!! All in all he did fine considering all the newness. The instructor was impressed with how outgoing and confident he is considering that he is a greyhound. Now if we can just keep up the good impressions!

Monday night after work, we went for a short 10-15 minute walk and then practiced our homework in the yard. Silly me, I tried to work with walking/heeling with Duke on the leash, but Aspen was also right beside him (unleashed) but following us every step of the way hoping for treats as well! It was funny, and Aspen actually did better while he was OFF the leash than when it was his turn to be on leash. Duke also followed along even when it was Aspen’s turn. We spent about 5 minutes doing that, then moved inside to practice sits. Well, OK we actually practiced “downs” since ‘sit’ doesn’t quite work yet, but we will get there.

Second Obedience Class
We made a little headway this week. Walking on leash is great, the initial attempts at down-stays were nearly perfect, but sit… not so much. We accomplished just one sit after much struggling, pushing, pulling, folding, luring… he just didn’t get it. Thankfully with some expert greyhound advice, while practicing at home the following week I backed Duke up a slope in the yard and then asked for a sit. VIOLA! 2 days later, he sits without the hill and in the house on command as well. The rest of the week we worked on sit-stays and down-stays while I moved around him. No problem!

Third Obedience Class
Well… although I took a dog that resembled Duke, it may as well have been Dumbo the elephant that accompanied me to class. We walked in, did a perfect sit while everyone was finding their places along the wall, and we did wonderful walking with attention, both slow and fast, (except for him occasionally picking up treats that others had lost on the floor). Then we were asked to practice our sit-stay routines, and out popped Dumbo and Duke the wonder-hound disappeared. He suddenly wanted nothing to do with the yummy treats (left over BBQ chicken breast for Pete’s sake!!). Duke briefly re-appeared partway through the class when we did down-stays, but then Dumbo soon returned. We tried the “meet a stranger” with other class members, and Duke was perfectly fine with the other dogs, just did not sit as he was supposed to do when the humans met and shook hands. Maybe it was the phase of the moon, but his attention just was not with me in class tonight. We have our work cut out for us this week.


Fourth, fifth and sixth Obedience classes
Things have been definitely improving since the time I last wrote! Duke pays attention to me during the class and seems very eager to please. He is confident and not afraid of anything new. We take the Canine Good Citizen test in two weeks. Unfortunately, we will be out of town this weekend, which is the last class before the test, so we have some serious practicing to do on our own. However, we are not using the training collar anymore. He does fine on walks without pulling hard and responds to me even with the distractions in class, so I think we have permanently retired the training collar.

At home he still LOVES to chase the squirrels, I am sure that he will get one eventually! He and Aspen have a good time chasing both the squirrels and the neighbor’s cat who strolls through the yard on occasion. On walks, he anxiously meets new dogs, but gets along fine with them. There is a chocolate lab on the corner of one the streets in our neighborhood. The lab is contained by an underground fence and comes running full-speed and barking at us each and every time we walk by. Duke now, merely pricks his ears at Sassy, and then completely ignores the ruckus as we walk by. For awhile he would stick like glue to my leg, but now we just go on our merry way past the lab.

Inside the house he is perfect. Aspen and Duke get along fine, even while jockeying for position when it’s time to open the magic closet (where the food and treats are)!. Actually, Duke will stay out of the kitchen during meal prep with the “Out” command and pointing to the doorway. And he knows “Manners” means that he pauses at the door instead of rushing in or out. He will stop and look at me until I tell him it’s OK to come in or out. That has helped greatly the traffic jams that occur when going in and out the door from the yard!

This weekend will be his first stay at another house while we are traveling. I’m sure that he will do fine and enjoy the change of scenery and change in the routine! Besides, there will be new squirrels to chase and a new greyhound buddy to get to know. Could life get any better? Maybe when he “graduates” and gets the CGC (Canine Good Citizen) added to his name, the ultimate reward will be to remove “foster” from his title too…. Anyone out there ready to adopt a soon-to-be new graduate????