Wendy's Short Chapters

Training ~ Wish

Ok Jennice. got your comment and hint.. and thanks a lot for your support on my blogging efforts.... : P

Wish's training class is really quite boring to really describe in details.. but anyway for your sake... I die die will also try.. soooooo..... Here goes nothing...


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The Reason for enrolling in a Training class

Wish is very different from the past doggies that we had.. He barked at anyone .. (i.e. any dog that doesn't belong to our home).. I mean .. He also barks at the small Shino (The white Maltese who lived next door..She is a frequent visitor of our home ever since she joined the neighborhood is especially since she is small enough to slip through my front gates, which is quite cute. Will probably elaborate more on this if I have time.)

So.. anyway .. Wish's social issue is pretty obvious once I started to bring him out for outings... This proves to be quite different from what I initially thought. By right he should like it a lot.. Like all dogs are supposed to like to go on their walks right...?? But I was so wrong and off target on this ...

The First Encounter

..So off we went to my friend Joleen's petshop... When Wish was introduced to all the doggies present..he was half barking half shrieking away in fear.. I mean I can actually see him tremble as he barked. Ok, so your new friends are large golden retrievers.... but.. hey they turned wary of Wish instead of their not so pleasant introduction. Those friendly retrievers were not even close enough to carry out the usual "stiffing initiation ceremony"

Evidently enough, he barked loudly and fanatically at all dogs that we met along the way on subsequent East Coast park outings... This included a very very handsome Husky.. who on the other hand wasnt even bothered or i would say aware of Wish's fanatic barky presence...

Lost face totally ... Wah la, paiseh until no hole to hide man... this is when we decided that we have to send him to a training class. I have been asked this question, hey thought that u have trained your dogs in these kind of classes before.. cant u just train Wish on your own... then can save up the training class course fee..."

Therotically , that's very possible. the training content and methods are all there. but i would like to share a thought and observation.. to bring your puppy to a training class has 2 achievable objectives... firstly : to of cos get him to be more obedient, secondly, which is more important, it is to have your puppy / dog interact with other doggies.. this socialising reason is very important and cant usually be achieved if you should train your dog on your own. Plus you are training your dog in a distractive environment where there are many humans and dogs training together.. thus it gives a better training on the concentration and attentiveness ability .

Wish'sTraining Classmates

There are altogether 7 students for this session..Namely, a golden retriever, a husky and a labrador retriever. They are from this family with 4 kids and heir mummy... there is also this min schnauzer... the breed that our dearest Casey doesnt like most.. She is a very obedient little doggy. basically quite good already... should have good potential for future training levels.The last two would be a silky mix owned by a young couple, and another cross breed owned by another family.

Wish's Well Behaved First Lesson

The trainer started off the class by demostrating the proper way of holding the leashes and the basic principles behind succesful training. then all of us were encouraged to walk and train our charge, sending vibes that we are the real leader of the pack .. and they can only but to listen and follow us. Afterwhich, we were briefed on the new stuff to be practised for the next 45 mins in class and also for the whole of next week which is also wish's and my homework.

Then all of us were lined up in 2 lines facing each other, where we practised our heelwork among our classmates upon our Trainer's command. As we all walked and halted with our charges, it was pleasantly surprisingly to note that , Wish not only didnt bark at other doggies as we walked past them, but he also didnt put up signs of rebelling or resisting of my leading him.. Of cos he did show subtle signs of sudden panic when we walked past each other... I was quite proud of Wish then.. As we always say, this marks the little milestones for Wish..

After our practical, we are given a summary briefing and a last demostration for the homework to be done for the whole of next week...So that come next Sunday, we can practise something else..

So come every week we will practise new add-on components till we have a mock test at the 10th week......

hmmm,so its really paying off, a little by little....Hang on there Wendy!!!... we must perserve on and will definitely see the results.... (Ah kee, in order to show your support for both Wishie and me, hope that you can also perserve and send us to our class every Sunday morning, k? ; ) )

Wish us luck... everyone!!

posted by Wendy @ 3:20 PM