Tonight was the big night. I was terrified to say the least. SO NERVOUS. We pull into the parking lot 10 minutes early and the gate is still locked, we can’t get in. That’s alright. I take Midas out of the truck and we practice loose-leash walking

(here I am pretending to hold Midas back…which is obviously fake because I don’t look frustrated )

until we are both hot and sweaty (that took about 2-3 minutes…and he wasn’t sweaty of course, but panty), which included a significantly large distraction - a Great Dane.

Finally, Kristie gets there (ok, she was on time, it just felt like forever) and we head into the enclosed part for our test. We find out it will be alphabetical so Midas is last. At first I though this was great, but as we were waiting and he was getting worse and more antsy I became really nervous (which didn’t help him in the least).

First up was Annie. I figured she was the only positive, for sure pass in the class (later, I was talking to her owner and Kristie and they both said the first class (that I had missed), Annie was so bad, she was fighting and everything…I would have never guessed).

Here she is getting “groomed”:

And meeting a friend with their dog (Clapton):

She passed!! Yay, Annie! Next up was Bear, the cutest dog I’ve ever seen. But, Eric only took photos of him not being tested:

He passed too - yay Bear!!! Next was Calvin, again, only photos of him waiting his turn:

Unfortunately, Calvin didn’t pass. But, to be fair, he was only at the last couple of classes and I think he will do just fine if he continues on. He’s just very friendly . Clapton tested next and his owners both confided that they didn’t think he had a chance of passing:

But he did, good job Clapton!

Next it was our turn, I was so nervous, but trying really hard to act confident and get Midas interested in what I was doing (he was really hot and bored so he kept dazing off).

First of course, we had to wait our turn:

Then I gave Midas a pep-talk:

And here we are walking through a “crowd”:

Midas passed!!!! I’m very excited, but I am also going to miss chatting with all of the other owners once a week . Here is a photo of the form I have to send into the AKC to get his official certificate:

Afterwards, someone not in our class tested her English Mastiff - he is not yet a year old:

He did not make it through the test because he was so distracted by everything going on, so his owner is coming back a different time after more practice. I asked her where she got him and she said that she would never recommend his breeder to anyone, he was living in a barn and it was disgusting. Sad .

So, if you’re wondering what exactly the AKC requires for a Canine Good Citizen it is this:

1. Accepting a friendly stranger

2. Sitting politely for petting

3. Appearance and grooming

4. Out for a walk (walking on a loose lead)

5. Walking through a crowd

6. Sit and down on command and staying in place

7. Coming when called

8. Reaction to another dog

9. Reaction to distraction

10. Supervised separation

All with a flat collar and no treats. I can’t wait to get Midas’s official certificate, I’m so proud of us and how far we’ve come!!

Tonight was our 4th and final “real” class. Next week we have class, but it will consist of The Test. Our regular instructor, Kristie, was gone so Christine filled in for her. I think we have more similar mind-sets than do I and Kristie. She thinks along the same lines and backs up what I do with Midas.

Midas, on the other hand, was horrible.  Our worst class since the first one. I had him on his Blocky Dogs collar instead of his prong because he can’t test with his prong. Thank goodness I had that on instead of his regular flat. I needed all the extra help I could get. I took him for a walk before class, to refresh his memory of what we were working on. We got to class and he is a complete…jerk. He was lunging, whining, not listening, not staying, nothing. I was mortified. I don’t know what got into him. The weather was unusual, it was hot and extremely humid and started thundering right before the end of class. Eric thinks he was so tired from the “lesson” earlier that he just didn’t feel like listening in class. I don’t think that’s an excuse. He should listen regardless, and if anything, our lesson earlier should’ve tired him out. It didn’t. He was horrendous.

Mercifully, Christine decided everyone should have a couple minutes working on heeling…at the same time. We had not done that in class ever, only one person usually worked on heeling at a time. Needless to say that Midas was extremely distracted, not only by the other dogs, but by all the smells (we practiced at a different area of the enclosure than usual too). I was unsure how forceful to be on his heeling, not knowing how Christine taught. She came up and demonstrated…the exact way that I usually work with him. So, I continued and he straightened up after a bit. He passed most of the other tests fine, with flying colors. Although, I have to say he was the worst of the bunch, which is abnormal for him. At the end of the class though, Christine said that he would have barely squeaked by. She said if we keep practicing at home, he should be fine by the test next week (I told Eric half way through class that I wasn’t even going to show up at the test, it would just be embarrassing). She did manage to increase my confidence a little and make me feel more hopeful. I haven’t decided yet if we will test or not. I feel that Kristie is much less lenient on what she will allow and what will “pass” so I don’t know if it would be worth the drive or not. It also depends on Midas’s attitude that day…although, I was gloating to Eric how perfect he was on our practice walk, so maybe that’s not a solid indicator either. UGH

SAR Training

Tuesday night Mason and I met Eric at work and we headed over to an open space land that has a huge field in the middle of it. The grass was at least 6 inches over Mason’s head. After we determined which direction the wind was blowing, I took Mason to a mowed path over on the far side of the field from where Eric was going to hide. We waited awhile and then headed out to grid out the field. I had no idea where Eric was hiding besides that it was on the far side so my grid was kind of sloppy (he tells me). Oh well, I will keep practicing. We got pretty close before Mason started on the scent cone but he did find him and that’s what’s important. After he got his tug reward Eric took him back to where we had started and I hid. Eric knew exactly where I was going though so his grid was a lot better and while it took Mason awhile he was quicker at finding me. I love watching him work the scent cone - it’s so neat! He was pretty hot and tired after this so we headed home.

Obedience Class #4

We had class finally on Wednesday night. It was originally supposed to be our last one but with all the cancellations it is the third to last one. I tried Midas with both his flat collar and his prong collar on and switching the leash between the two. He did farely well. We did a practice test where she ran each of the dogs through the testing points and then at the end we worked on what was harder for each of us. Midas and I have to work on loose leash walking. While it’s 10x better than it used to be, in that he is not hauling me all over the place, he does seem to like to keep the leash pretty taut, which is a no-no for CGC. He did have a moment of excitability which would also have disqualified us, but I can be content with the fact that the other dog started it . He’s doing a ton better with the whining, but if there’s a dog not in our class but still within his sight, he whines - which is also grounds for disqualification. The next two weeks (before the test) we will be practicing a ton on these things. I would really like him to pass.

Water Wubba

Midas’s foot is finally doing well enough that I felt we could do a little bit more work on The Catch as his last event it was clear he had forgotten the goal of the game (and my throws need more work). I also got him a Water Wubba as his new dock jumping toy since the Tug was retired for Mason’s use in SAR. I’m glad I decided to practice this as it took a couple of tries before I figured out how I had to hold it so that he could consistently catch it. He was all revved up for the game too. He sat and stayed perfectly and was extremely tense and alert and blasted out of the sit to me every time. It was fantastic. Next I brought Mason out. I left off with his training at the point where he was consistently lunging after the toy. He has come leaps and bounds since then. He has a strong enough sit that I can get a couple of feet away from him and he is now jumping and catching the toy. I didn’t have him go too far off the ground and still his landings seemed a little hard to me so we only did a couple of times (with loads of praise) before calling it quits, don’t want to hurt his tender joints. I think we’ll have another great dock jumping dog…if we can ever get him to jump off the dock .

Loose Leashin’ It

Tonight I took each of the boys for a walk to practice loose lead walking. With Midas I decided to completely forgo the prong collar and just see how things went with the flat collar. It went really well. His walk went as well on the flat as it’s been going on the prong, which is a HUGE difference from when we started the loose lead training. We do have to work on it being taut and also on our left turns. But, progress is being made. Hopefully enough so that by the time the test comes around he’s got it down pat. Next up was Mason. He has a habit of straining at the leash until he can’t breathe and is literally gagging. This is usually in an attempt to get to where Midas is. I decided that if we got him strong in walking without Midas then our attempts to walk with Midas would be more successful. He is great with the “checking in”, which is looking up at me every once in awhile. He did extremely well. He did pull a couple of times but by switching directions and praising a TON when he was in the right position, for most of the walk he was where he was supposed to be. That was really exciting for me. He is so eager to please that once he gets the hang of it, it should go really quickly.

Potty Bells

On a side-note. I hung up some cute potty bells and began to teach Mason to ring them every time he needed/wanted to go outside. At first it was a struggle to get him to ring them before he got so excited he leaked all over the floor. Now though, he is eager and willing to do it. I say “go ring your bells” and he races over, smacks them with his nose a couple of times and then (wiggling all over) bolts to the door. All that is left is to teach him to do it when we aren’t telling him to

Our last couple Obedience classes have been cancelled. One due to rain and the other due to extreme heat and humidity. Unfortunately, the solution to missing these two classes is to add 15-20 minutes onto the end of the last couple. Which doesn’t give us back all the time we lost and personally I really don’t care for it at all. That being said, on to the lesson.

Midas did really, really well today. We’ve been practicing the “look” command where he then has to move his focus from my hand (with the treat) to my face to get the treat. He hardly whined at all today. Actually I think perhaps his whining is becoming more water-dependent. He was fine until the last 15 minutes of class we moved over to where he could see other dogs swimming in a little pond and then it started. It might also be because he was tired of class. He did well in all of the little tests that we had to go through tonight. This included: weaving through cones (practicing left and right turns), weaving through a crowd, walking past a dog/dogs (several times), sit/stay and come, a visitor meeting me and a visitor petting him. We’ve been working hard about not going potty on the leash unless I tell him he can and that went decently well too, only a couple of slip-ups.

One thing that did change is that he started to almost demand a treat. I learned in my psychology class that it is more reinforcing to treat on a sporadic schedule because it keeps the subject hoping for more. Well, Midas decided a couple of times he deserved a treat and either tried to treat himself (out of my hip bag) or started to “wuff” (a voiceless bark). I didn’t take him out for any walks (or any The Catch training either) because of his foot. You can read that story here.

This week’s goals: practice The Catch (with his new Water Wubba ), practice loose leash walking without the prong collar, practice walking past houses with dogs on loose leash, practice not marking everything in site…I hope that’s all for now. I’m really nervous about the test (which is the last day of class, so definitely won’t be making time up on that day either ).