The second puppy class has come and gone. This week was more entertaining than the first session. Two dogs were absent and a third showed up twenty minutes late. I can't imagine the "ice storm" we had played much into the absenteeism, but I could be mistaken. We were the first to arrive shortly before the scheduled start of class and as we were being allowed access to the members-only suite at the PetSmart, the second member of our class arrived. The instructor allowed us to let the dogs off leash and play with each other. Bella and Archer, being the only two in class, got acquainted with each other. Bella executed her go-to-move, jumping on the back and waiting to be thrown off or removed. Archer slipped underneath her a couple of times and continued to move, preventing Bella from gaining the upper hand. Her initial excitement wore off and eventually they were able to calmly sniff each other. Shortly thereafter, the third member of class, Heidi, the rescue German Shepard joined us. Her arrival brought on a second round of eagerness from Bella. Heidi, however, seems to be a bit timid around other dogs. She did not like Bella's aggressive style of introduction and would not only run away from her, but actually try to hide. Eventually they seemed to get settled down and then something sparked Heidi to react to Bella. Bella dropped her tail and started to sprint around the room. Unfortunately, the room wasn't big enough as she ran face first into the glass wall surrounding the room. That put an end to the rumpus to start class. That's when I stopped paying attention....
Just kidding. The main focus of this lesson was "loose leash walking," not "loose leaf walking" which was what I originally thought the instructor said. I was only slightly confused until we started practicing in the aisles of the store. Once the instructor showed us the proper technique, we had time to practice. Monday was the first time I was able to put it into practice. My initial reaction is that it shouldn't be called "loose leash." There's nothing loose about the leash as we're walking. The idea behind this concept is to keep the dog on one side of you (we've chosen the left) without allowing her to pull on the leash. If she attempts to pull, you give a jerk back on the leash to correct her. If she sees something that would catch her attention, you quickly turn around and head the other direction.
The walk was much faster. Before this lesson was applied, we do our lunch time walk in ten minutes. We covered the same distance in five minutes. Before, when she pulled forward, I would stop and wait for her to sit. With this method, she doesn't get out far enough to pull and when she wants to... a quick check is all it takes to correct her. So, as I got her to sit down on the sidewalk with plenty of time left, I made the decision to walk toward the busy street. We've never ventured out that far and at first the new smells were enthralling to her. Then we got about thirty feet away from the main road and she came to a dead stop, dropped her head and was totally unsure about all those cars passing by. I told her to sit and she obliged. Then she began to watch the cars, back and forth, just like she was watching a tennis match. We watched for about a minute, then I said, "watch me" and she gazed up at me. I said "let's go" and we headed back up the street toward home.
Today, we altered our route again because a tree was being taken down just around the corner from us, right in the middle of our normal route. Bella wanted to pull almost the entire time. We only walked for about seven minutes and after about four my left hand was cramping up from holding onto the leash and checking her when she wanted to pull. Luckily, by the fifth minute she started to get the hang of this "loose leash" drill. Hopefully, tomorrow she remembers at least some of what we've learned and won't take as long to apply it.
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