It's Cold Outside

 Like most of the U.S., I've had enough of snow & cold.  At first I didn't mind since I got stuff done.    New Year resolutions were actually kept. Now we're in the last half of February and the weather hasn't eased up.   Dog classes with my dogs was one of my resolutions.

I registered for two classes with Aeon, our newest addition.  Aeon is a 2.5 year old black miniature poodle, weighing in at 14 pounds.   A fuzzy-wuzzy, bumble-bee ball of enthusiastic energy whose root belief is:  Everybody is wonderful, smart, lovable & beautiful.  Including herself.    Aeon appreciates being groomed & has great manners.  In addition, Aeon takes daily 4 mile hikes with Kaili, standard poodle, and Joe, human.  Aeon runs while they walk.  She loves running through weeds, mud & water.

We're taking our classes over at Boom Towne Canine Campus www.boomtowne.com   Dog Yoga and Beginner's Obedience.  

 About Dog Yoga; our practice at home is going well.  It's a different story in class which includes incense, cheese sticks, massage, and lowered lights.   Unfortunately, there's an agility practice taking place next door and while Aeon is willing to go through the break-down of asanas, her entire body vibrates with tension and energy.  She wants to go check out the room filled with lights & alive with action!  

Obedience involves clickers, which is new for me.  You click when the dog exhibits the behavior you want which means you need to be paying attention to your dog from the very beginning.  If your dog sits, you click and give a treat.  If your dog lies down, you click and give a treat.  Eventually, the transition is made to verbal and non-verbal cues.  I took the class because of Aeon's size, I didn't want to chance an injury due to a correction on my part.  I'm a big person and I've always worked one on one with mid-sized dogs or larger.  In addition, Aeon is so responsive that I knew she would work well with a simple band collar.

What I'm finding out is that clicks works on Kaile the standard poodle.  Being a poodle, Kaile had the smarts to figure out how to behave off leash.  She can be counted on to return on command or stop/wait in the event of an emergency.   She is very resistant on leash.  I figured out her preference for the wide collar used on greyhounds.  This works well when we've needed to go to the vet, groomer or other places.  Still, "sit"and "down" are not part of her working vocabulary, on or off leash.   I want to add these.  

I started Kaile on the click last night.  Kaile was charged on the clicker by the 3rd.  Her head whipped around so fast, I feared whip-lash.  Both dogs sit, I click and they get treats.  Pavlova was right.  They're becoming clicker savy and adding more behaviors in hopes of more treats.

 I'm learning something new and my dogs are enthusiastic about our new games.   Joe has cleared out our basement of of unused fitness equipment so there's quite a bit of room down there.  So, that's where you'll find me;  down in the basement, hammering the bee hives, watching the dogs from the side of my eyes, clicking at wanted behaviors and handing out treats.