Mason’s Intermediate Obedience Class #1
Tonight was Mason’s first Intermediate Obedience class. It is through The Humane Society of Kent County just like his other obedience class. Although, this class was significantly smaller, only 5 of us total, and way more structured.
The objectives for this week:
Refresher on eye contact, sit and down. The difference is that the goal was to not use food or leash correction as a prompt for the behavior and instead use it as a reward. And to avoid multiple cues.
Our homework for this week:
To practice identified areas to be improved and use treats only when increased distractions are present or randomly for established behaviors and to use praise only for good behaviors.
Areas Mason excelled at:
Sit, stay, lay down, focus.
Areas to work on:
Loose-leash walking. He did really well for how infrequently we practice. Really well. I was very proud of him. His worse distraction is not the other dogs, like one might expect, but the treats those other dogs leave behind lol. We even had one of the volunteers that work there come up after watching us for a bit and compliment not only my training style and timing, but Mason’s attention and willingness to please. He also mentioned that Mason looked like a Chesapeake Bay Retriever lol. We get that a lot.
We also need to work on gently taking treats. He is a horrible snapper but class actually went a lot better this time than any time in the past. There’s hope yet! 