Puppy Kindergarten - Class Six

Focus: Leave It

Pointers: Food to the nose, when they quit trying to get it - the doggy gets to eat it

Not too many exciting things here. Coco seems to get leave it and Ralph a little bit as well. Coco does not really listen that well at home unless it's focused training so we'll see if we continue to the 2nd level class how things go. It is pretty funny that Coco would rather go around to all the humans in class and say hello than play with the other dogs. Probably because she smells all the yummy doggy treats. Ralph tends to play pretty well with the other puppies.

Coco graduates next week and then we'll wrap up the last 3 classes with Ralph solo which will be good so he gets some unique attention away from Coco. They don't like to be apart - cute but......

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Four/Five

Focus: Loose Leash Walking

Pointers: Must be patient! (that is an understatement with a 9 month old)

This class was more listening and watching. We paraded ourselves up and down the runway a few times. Class Four, Paul and I had to walk Ralph a second time together b/c he wouldn't walk with Paul by himself. Class Five today - Paul walked Ralph, I walked Coco. Seems easy enough.

Wrong! We have been trying to enforce loose leash walking since the first class on it and I am not sure where the patience is going to come from. Coco likes to pull, pull, pull and Ralph seems to like to pick up her bad habits. We'll have to walk them separately for a month (apparently) until they really get it down before we walk them together.

Sooo, here comes the testing of our patience!!! :)

P.S. The only entertaining element was that just about every dog in class pee'd on the floor this time at some point and Coco was going nutzo anytime Ralph and this other larger puppy got close to one another. I'm not sure if she was jealous or being protective. Thank goodness for raw hide to keep her little mouth busy.

Ralphers Joins the Chenuau Family

This post is a couple of weeks late but here it is!!! We now have Ralph Lauren with us (super cheezy name but it goes well with Coco Chanel). He's a wire haired dachsy and red in color. I would never have thought that I would have taken interest in a wire hair. I'm not a big terrier kind of gal and when he gets older he'll have a little terrier or schnauzer looking face when his whiskers grow out. But, when I picked him up and held him that was it. He's very calm and quiet compared to our hyper active Coco. Very sweet and timid demeanor.

Of course, he's been at home with us for two weeks and after hangin' with the Coco beans, he's a little bit nutty when he plays. He's also picked up some of her nosey habits. They shared a kleenex the other day (I swear I was gone from the room for 5 minutes). Our only big issue right now is potty training - boys are tougher to figure out. We take Ralph out about every 30 min's and apparently sometimes that isn't enough for his boutique bladder. It will happen over time if we just stay consistent. The other item we are working on is interrupting play when it's too rough b/t the doggies. They love to bite one another's ears too hard while the other one squeals (I'll never understand doggy play). Coco seems to think Ralph is a football sometimes and will literally run from the other room as fast as she can to tackle him - he just goes rolling across the floor. Trying to stop some of that.

Overall though, they seem to love being with one another and are doing pretty well. Ralph starts puppy kindergarten next Sunday. Should be interesting!!!

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Three

Focus: Come, Sit and combination Come/Sit; then a little bit of stay (50 min's of class)Off Leash/Leave It (20 min's of class)

Pointers: Not anything fresh here but a reminder of the 'Leave It' command and approach

So Coco did a great job with the commands. She has picked them up so quickly that she gets easily bored and full of treats. Then, she usually just lays down on the floor and looks up at us as if to say "C'mon really? Come/Sit Combination again, booooring". Also, when the off leash play time starts we don't see her diving in to play. Of course the more frisky, dominant dogs always seem to come and pounce on her. As we've seen her play with Ralph, it's apparent she'd rather do the tackling and beating up herself!!! She did growl and show her pearly whites with a male dog that was almost 3 times her size that was only 4 months old or so. For some reason all the dogs congregate at my feet and I've been told not to move - they should. Kinda nice to have all this growling and teeth and fussing by my ankles (not really). All in all, kind of a boring class but the ending was interesting when this ignorant couple asked if they really should neuter their dog. Do we really have to ask ourselves about this??? Of course this was coming from the girl that left and came back into the class maybe 4 - 5 times during and let her boyfriend work with her dog. Good luck sister!!! She did want to know if she would get a little certificate for the dog at the end. Guess we know what her motivation is. Maybe she'll get a gold star sticker next time (if the dog ever sits).

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Two

Focus: Come, Sit and combination Come/Sit Review (50 min's of class)Off Leash/Leave It (20 min's of class)Misc. Pointers: I don't remember anything nostalgic.

Basically this was a total repeat of the class before.....yawwwwn. I guess it's great for reinforcement and thankfully Coco did not have any terrors tackling her this time. The biggest thing was my question "She does great indoors and outdoors unless there are distractions". Jeff (the trainer) says "She's in kindergarten, what you are expecting is 5th grade". Ok, I get it. :)

We've done pretty good to use the commands almost everyday. We'll see though.

This post is a couple of weeks over due. :)