DAY FIVE...

Thanks so much for the comments!!  I know people were probably reading, but since I can't see you read I thought maybe no one was.:)

We were busy again today.

We only had one lecture though.  Most of the day was spent in learning new commands, practicing what we knew, having a "conference" with one of the trainers, and of course our first field trip.

C had a lot better day.  He didn't complain too much about staying in class.  And when he and Nanny S were in class, they played with some file folder games and colored dinosaurs.  During the lecture they did leave for about an hour.

The commands we learned today were:

car
get
give
hold




"Car" is for getting in and out of a car of course.  And the trainers talked about how to tether the dog in the car, etc.

"Get," "give," and "hold" is for when the dog picks up an object from the floor and gives it to the person.  These are commands that C can help with.  Whenever the child gives a command the handler is supposed to say the command first since the dog is trained to respond to the adult.  We practice with our dog picking up things off of the floor, telling it to give  to C when C would start to take it, and then C would give it to one of the trainers.  C wasn't supposed to do the last part of course.  He just thought that since the trainer had put the object down on the floor, that they were supposed to get it back.  It was kind of cute.:)

The lecture was on safety in public and at home.  It was also on how to act in public with the dog.  In the folder they had given us before this week, was a list of things that we were supposed to do and not do in public to be a good team.  I'm thinking that this list is what we'll be tested on on our final field trip/testing next Thursday.

We went to a restaurant for our first field trip.  We will go on 4 more field trips and then of course the public test.  While we were waiting for our meals, one of the trainers came and put some chicken on the floor near our dog.  We are supposed to keep our dog from getting food from the floor when it's dropped.  DH wasn't quite fast enough in stopping the dog from getting the chicken.  We are supposed to grab the mouth and fish the food out of its mouth, and DH didn't quite get the chicken out.:(  (thumbs down!)

The afternoon was when we actually did the "get" sequence of commands.  We also practiced with trainers on the commands we needed extra work on.  The three trainers leading the class did one on one "conferences" with each team.  This is to let us know what things we need to focus on, etc.  It's a very low key meeting.  The main thing the trainer wanted us to work on was working with the leash in making it fluid in switching hands, etc so that the leash becomes automatic and we don't have to think about what we are doing with it.  We also talked about how the dog seems a bit confused when DH and I switch off on the dog.  The trainer suggested that the person getting the dog interact with the dog to get the dog's attention on him/her.

For my own personal goal for the weekend, I plan on working on keeping the dog close to  me when we are working.  She is supposed to stay within 12 inches of us, and I'm not very good on that.  The other things I want to concentrate is correcting it correctly, and working on "side" and "heel".  This isn't something that the trainer suggested, it's just what I know I need to work on to become a better team.

We do have a class tomorrow, but not Sunday of course.  We will have a lecture and another field trip.  I have been trying to take pictures.  But I'm not posting any of them until next Friday, when we can say which dog we are getting.  I was thinking of posting other pictures, maybe on Sunday I'll be able to get to it.:)