On Monday Dave, Nika and I headed to Gemini for the fourth session of puppy class. Nika was friendly and brave right off the bat again, and she went all around the room meeting everyone and playing happily. She has two favorites: a golden and a NSDTR. They're both about the same size as her and are boisterous puppies. There were a few play sessions interspersed with training. She's doing very well with all the training--sits, downs, leave it, etc. We even have to mix in some other tricks to keep her busy so she doesn't get bored. She does spins, hand taps, and we're working on paw. Her stay still has work to do, but her come is very good. She's heeling pretty well on leash, too, and will do her sits and downs next to me very nicely.
Then, with just a few minutes to go, we had another play session. Nika and the NSDTR were rolling and tumbling and made their way under a chair on the edge of the room. I'm not really sure what happened but I assume someone got scared/stuck and started crying. Then there was some snarking from both puppies. They broke it up themselves and would have gone right on playing but the instructor decided to separate them and talk about what to do when dogs fight. I was a little disappointed that the end result of Nika's class was being pulled away from another dog (by the teacher) rather than having a positive play experience to end it, but in retrospect I don't think she even really noticed. I was stressed for a while that I'd ended up with an aggressive dog (the stress kept me from writing this post right away), but after a days distance from it I think she was just playing and they mutually got a little crabby. There wasn't any real biting or anything--just noise.
I took Nika to Beaver Brook again today and she met at least 6 dogs, all of whom she was friendly with.
Then, with just a few minutes to go, we had another play session. Nika and the NSDTR were rolling and tumbling and made their way under a chair on the edge of the room. I'm not really sure what happened but I assume someone got scared/stuck and started crying. Then there was some snarking from both puppies. They broke it up themselves and would have gone right on playing but the instructor decided to separate them and talk about what to do when dogs fight. I was a little disappointed that the end result of Nika's class was being pulled away from another dog (by the teacher) rather than having a positive play experience to end it, but in retrospect I don't think she even really noticed. I was stressed for a while that I'd ended up with an aggressive dog (the stress kept me from writing this post right away), but after a days distance from it I think she was just playing and they mutually got a little crabby. There wasn't any real biting or anything--just noise.
I took Nika to Beaver Brook again today and she met at least 6 dogs, all of whom she was friendly with.
No comments:
Post a Comment