Saturday

This picture says it all!

All three of us were terrible in dog training class this morning. We screwed up so many times and in so many ways it was hard to keep track. Our spirits were crushed by the trainer’s rebukes even though she was gentle and holding back. We knew we were bad without her having to say a word.

The only comfort is that John said the other dogs were worse than Toby when we were out on the floor doing commands.

At one point, we got the 15 foot leash tangled around Toby’s legs, and in trying to free him, he got excited and started jumping on us and playing with us like we were dogs (with teeth). He got sent to the classroom—alone—with the door closed. It worked because when he came out he did his sit/wait and sit/stay without further drama.

Our trainer wants us to bring him in for a new harness fitting, thinking that will give us more control. But she keeps saying we need to step up. We feel that we have and don’t know what more to do. We’ve decided we don’t understand dogs at all, apparently.

The trainer was gentle and said is this your first dog. John said, no, it’s our third and the previous trainers said the same thing she was saying about us. John said he was afraid we had broken Toby. She assured us that we hadn’t.

The only compliment I got was during the group “heel” exercise. But it wasn’t because we were doing it correctly; it was because I was laughing so hard because we were doing it so badly. She said she appreciated my attitude.

The newest insight is that he needs to play with other dogs. We can walk him, play fetch, and train him, but we can’t play with him like a dog, and he needs that. 

We’ve lined up a play date with a neighbor who has a dog Toby loves, and we have an orientation appointment for doggie daycare Wednesday. We didn’t think we needed that because we don’t work, but now we realize he needs it.

Part of his behavior issues (jumping, using his teeth on our arms and clothing) comes from him seeing us as his pack and treating us like another dog. We have to be the alpha dog that is his pack leader that he submits to. None of our dogs have submitted to us as their leader. As our trainer said in the beginning, dog training is for the humans more than for the dogs. We are having to learn and behave in ways that are not always natural to us.

We were crushed afterwards. We’ve been working so hard and have so much more work to do.

Our trainer says: “It’s a process,” “You haven’t failed unless you stop trying,” “Keep swimming.”

Miles walked: 7.1

Miles biked: 0