Day 2: Orientation and Commands

Today was a much more interesting and exciting day than yesterday. The first hour or two was spent going over rules of the school and we played a game with the seizure response class to help us begin to think of how a dog feels when being told to do something. English is not their first language so it can sometimes be confusing and tough for the dog to understand what you want them to do. The game really enlightened everybody about this.

Before lunch we went over some very basic commands. (Heel/Right [depending on which side you keep your dog], sit, behind, etc.) We first used the trainers as our dogs while practicing walking around the room and trying to keep them focused (away from any distractions). After lunch we were introduced to two of the six dogs that we will eventually be using. Their names were Fleetwood and Anouk. Fleetwood is a gorgeous brindle lab (black with brown/grey patches) and Anouk is a beautiful yellow lab/golden retriever cross. As I will be using my dog on the right side, my commands to practice first were "Right" and "Behind" (which is used when going through doorways to get the dog to move behind you). I used Fleetwood all day (as well as a few other people in my class) as Anouk was trained on the left side and Fleetwood is trained for the right. At first it was tough. There are so many things to think about. Is there enough slack on the leash so that he doesn't choke himself going through doorways? Is he right beside me? Is he getting distracted? What do I say next? After going through the little pathway we created using chairs in the room a few different types with increasing difficulty, we learned about relieving our dogs. I had a chance to take Fleetwood to the relief area and get "busy busy" which is the command for the dog to go to the bathroom. He was very good and went immediately after I told him to get "busy busy". After having a treat we returned to our classroom and practiced feeding the dogs. This is trickier than it sounds. We had the dog attached to our chair while going across the room to pick up a few pieces of kibble. This was distracting for Fleetwood because he wanted the food that was in my hand but we still had to walk to the other end of the room before I told him to "sit", followed by "wait", until I put the food in the bowl. Once the food was in the bowl I said "Okay" which means that he can now eat. Other than being slightly distracted on our walk to the bowl, he did very well and waited patiently until he was told "okay".

We finished up with a few more small lessons about collars and haltis (a device used to help us have more control over our dog) as well as crates and how to properly crate our dogs (which I only plan on doing while in training - once I get home I will be using a dog bed).

I still don't know which dog I will be getting. Hopefully we all get to find out tomorrow. I know everyone in my class (there are six of us) is very anxious and excited to see which one we will be getting.

Tomorrow morning we have a fire drill at 9AM. Hopefully afterwards we will get our dogs! Fingers crossed...