Business trip day 2: Chester aces class
As I said yesterday, things went well. I took Chester out at 5 am, and he did his business (instead of just peeing as he has the last couple of days). I brought him back in, put him in his crate, and went into the living room to lay down some more.
Then I fed and played with the boys (our cats). All in all, Chester was in his crate in an empty bedroom for almost 2 hours, and didn’t make a sound — or have an accident.
After breakfast I took him outside for a while. Our backyard is now fenced in, so once he’s done his business, he gets to be off leash. He will get the zoomies in the morning, but it still seems that he much prefers the indoors to the outdoors. All I have to do is walk over to the door, and he’s right there. At least I don’t have to worry about trying to get him in!
Why is it that wherever you want them to be, they must be somewhere else? If he’s on the couch and I want to quickly check email, I’ll tell him to stay, that I’ll be back (always using that phrase). 9 times out of 10, he’ll come zooming into the office after just a few seconds.
But if I want him to stay on the couch, so I can relax, it seems he must go lay somewhere just out of my line of sight.
We relaxed for a little while, then went back out for our walk. He surprised me by pooping again. That’s 3 times in 4 hours! But there’s no more mucous, there haven’t been further accidents in the house (yet, anyway), despite the fact that I can’t always have my eyes on him.
I’ve been having him stay when I go out the front door. Not really practicing it, but I went out yesterday to get a couple of packages, and this morning to get the newspaper. I just tell him to stay, go out, and then come back in — trying to make sure I’m blocking off the door when I come back in. So far he’s pretty much stayed where I left him. I certainly wouldn’t put him in a sit-stay and just leave the door open, but it’s nice to know that I can walk out the door for a few minutes without him trying to dart out.
Today was the first time I’ve taken him to training by myself. It was just us and one other dog, as it’s Easter today. I was half hoping there wouldn’t be class, as I was ready to rest some more.
Chester did very well today. We practiced heeling, which we just started last week. Then we tied them to a post, and practiced sit-stays and down-stays with us out of sight. Chester did very well on that, only breaking them one or two times. The trainer said he was watching my feet in the next aisle (we’re taking an intermediate class at Petsmart).
Next we practiced sit-stays and down-stays with distractions. We put them into the stay, and then one of the other people in the class walked by. Then the trainer and the other person. Then both, with the trainer jingling some keys; and finally with the trainer throwing the keys on the floor near Chester. Chester was awesome. I’ve been doing a lot of work on stays, especially stays with me out of sight, while he’s off leash outside.
Still, I saw someone at the farmer’s market who had her dog on a sit-stay off leash, and I complimented her. She admitted she had to put him back into it once, but still, it was impressive. I’m not sure I’d ever feel that comfortable with it.
Finally we practice heeling with a right turn, then heeling with a stay — and us circling our dogs. Chester really did well in class. The trainer mentioned that she thought Chester would do well in rally obedience.
Chester does very well with his kong in his crate after dinner again. I’m able to train the boys in another room, and feed them — he did get a little whiney after about 10 minutes, but by then I was finished and he settled down with the kong again when I came into the room.
In fact, he hadn’t quite finished it after half an hour. I helped him get at the last carrots stuck in the bottom, left the crate door open, and he was in there another 15 minutes. After having his teeth brushed, he was ready to zone out on the couch and was quiet the rest of the evening.
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