Lisa's Blog

Monty started obedience classes tonight - an hour long class followed by a half hour intro to agility class. I'm so exhausted!!

A year ago, when Monty was just a small pup, we took him for a private session with this trainer. Although she has years of training and is an effective trainer, I thought her technique was a bit too harsh for my bitty puppy so I backed off pushing him through obedience lessons last summer. Instead we just worked at with the local retriever club.

Now that he's a year old and knows what 'sit' and 'stay' are, I decided to sign him up when the trainer called this week about a new class.

Some dogs in the class have already gone through a beginner class so we have to catch up! Actually I think Monty did really well. 90 minutes was entirely too long for both of us though. After the first 30 minutes he really did not want to sit anymore so I kept putting him in down stays so I could listen to the instructor.

Monty is so much different than Winger was. I did obedience with Winger when he was older and we got his CD (Companion Dog) title when he was 8. Monty is so much more responsive. He wants to impress and jumps around until he gets into the right place and has excellent eye contact. Winger was like an old man in slippers just shuffling around with a grin and was never a quick mover (although I didn't adopt him until he was 4 - he very well could have been like Monty in his first home and in his first obedience lessons).

Poor Jeff was freezing as he stood on the sidelines as a spectator. I was warned to wear long johns and a toque. The location was a little primitive, but worked fine - it was a new large shack that was built on the instructor's property so she could host her own classes. It was heated with a wood stove in the corner. The lights were powered by a generator outside. The walls were made of long wooden planks like a cabin, and the floor was sand (I sure hope Monty shook all that sand out of his tail just now in the backyard because the agent is showing the house again tomorrow ).

Monty did well with his intro to agility. He gladly went up and over the A-frame a few times. He went through the tunnel and shoot fine with me ducking down and calling him through from the far end. Then we worked on getting him to walk all 4 feet on a slightly raised board (he needs some work).

Overall, excellent class. I'm beat. Monty doesn't seem as tired as I expected him to be.

We have lots of homework before next week!