Dog Obedience Classes, Session Eleventy Billion

Vance and I participate in weekly dog obedience classes, and last night was our scheduled night. We go to a local place with a really great trainer. Vance is flunking leash walking, still. The dog won’t stop pulling on the leash!

We’ve tried lots of dog obedience tools like a Gentle Leader and a harness, but that only works as long as he’s actually wearing them and the Gentle Leader looks enough like a muzzle (in reality, it’s nothing like a muzzle) that I don’t want him wearing it when we’re out and about.

So, last night, after showing off his perfect off-leash recall (I’m a proud mom there–his was the fastest time in the class, by a significant margin), and demonstrating beautiful *off leash* heeling, we snapped on the leash and he became his usual headstrong, “Isn’t it my job to pull you down the street when we’re attached by this rope?” self.

Grr. Don’t get me wrong, he’s actually improved considerably. He no longer bolts when he’s on the leash, or bucks like a crazy person trying to get it off. Now he just pulls like a sled dog. The dog obedience classes have definitely helped, but I sure would like to be able to get him Canine Good Citizen certified and that can’t happen until he’s as much the perfect gentleman *on* the leash as he is *off*.

It was funny listening to the other people in the class, too. We had two new classmates who were at our dog obedience class for the first time and they oohhed and awwed at Vance’s off leash obedience (he really is good), and one of our classmates turned to them and said, “Yeah, but wait till you see what Jen has to deal with when she puts him on the leash.” I chuckled at that. It’s nice having their sympathy because usually people don’t understand why if he’s so obedient off leash anyway I’d need to train him to behave on leash too.

Last night at our dog obedience classes was the first time I mentioned this blog to anyone in “the real world” so Cammie and Joe, if you decided to stop by and check out my little site, welcome! I won’t mention how your Boxer, Pete, has a crush on the Yalt’s toy poodle ;-). (It’s so cute–he brings her toys and tries to coax her to play with him, and she just sits there, glaring at him. Of course, during play time, Vance enjoys racing around the other dogs in a circle, with a tennis ball. All our dogs are nuts!)

So, that’s the update from last night’s dog obedience class–fun as always! Do you take your dog to a local dog obedience class? If you don’t, have you ever?