Puppy Kindergarten!

So I mentioned in a previous post, it was very important to John and I to get Carter into an obedience class as quick as we could. Well, John happened to look up a place yesterday that had been recommended to us and we found the class started yesterday! We did say quick. lol

I called them during lunch to see if we could still sign up. If we didnt sign up for this class we wouldnt be able to get him in to one until after the summer and we didnt want to wait that long. We were told that they were not sure if the class was full because they could not get a hold of the trainer, but puppy classes never filled up and if we lived close, to just come out at 7 and register and find out then.

So that's what we did! Luckily, the park is pretty close. It only took us 15 minutes to get there and that was with pretty bad traffic. When we got to the park we had to drive all around it to find the equestrian part of the park, as that was where the lessons were. The park was HUGE. As we were driving around it we saw that the have a dog park. It's pretty nice too! good to know there is one so close to us!

Anyway, we finally found where we were supposed to go and were able to sign Carter up and join that day. YAY! The classes are 7 weeks long and every Monday night from 7:30-8:30. I was SO excited! :D Our instructor's name is Lorianne and there are 4 other puppies in our class. We got lucky and they are all 4 months old. On of the other puppies was actually born the same day Carter was and another one was born the day before!

In our class we have Maximus-I believe he is a boxer mix, Rocky- a bulldog, Jack- a mini dautson, and Champ- a golden retriever. They were all SO cute. I fell in love with the bulldog. But I think the prettiest one was Champ. Anyway, we didnt have a choice but to take the puppy class even though we already knew a lot of what the trainer was telling us. I dont like paying money for something I already know, BUT it's good reinforcement and she will be able to help us learn how to train him with distractions, how to walk on a leash, and how to play nice with other dogs, etc.

For our first puppy class we spent a lot of the time introducing ourselves and our puppies and showing what they can do. Jack cant sit yet, but the others had already learned that. I was glad about that because I dont want to spend a lot of time on things we already know. lol. It did seem like most of the dogs were at the same development stage as Carter, so that is good. We also practiced walking a leash, which most of the time went pretty well. He still pulled a lot. We learned that we pretty much have to entice him the entire time with treats until he learns to walk next to us. Previously, we had just been stopping and making him sit when he pulls and it's worked some, so we will have to try this too.

Then we got to pass the puppies around so we could all get to know the other puppies and make the puppies learn to like strangers. Maximus jumped on me and knocked me over (I was sitting already, but he still got me!) LOL! They are all very sweet and I look forward to getting to see them each week.

We also worked on name recognition with distractions. Carter was not good at this at all. It was getting towards the end of the hour and he wasnt even interested in the treats we had. It was frustrating. Lorianne came by while we were doing it and we told her and she said that was normal and we have to remember he's a baby still and gets tired and bored real easy. Times like that it's nice to rehear things because I feel like we have had him forever and I just want him to know it! Boy is he teaching me a lesson in patience!

Overall, I think we had a good first lesson. We have a lot of homework! I'll keep you posted as he improves (hopefully!). I wanted to take pictures, but was afraid people would get mad. However, next time I am just going to do it. haha. so pictures next week!