Obedience Class Week 4: Chester is full of surprises

Sorry I have been so remiss in updating the blog! It's been a busy week in the Dang Household. Tuesday night I had a work meeting and didn't get home until later. Then Wednesday night we had our D-SLR2 class at National Camera. These classes are complimentary with a camera purchase, and very much worth it. We've learned so much from them. We're looking forward to the third class in a few weeks. While at National Camera we looked at lenses. We want a wide angle lens, macro, and "nifty fifty." We ended up purchasing the Nifty Fifty that night. It's a pretty *inexpensive little lens. I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet, but Adam has and really likes it.

Then of course tonight was Obedience Class Week 4 (3rd with dogs). We got there early so we could get Chester relatively calm before going into class. It worked pretty well. He still got excited when we got inside and saw all the other dogs and people though. Adam was his handler to start the class. Adam did great with him. Chester was really focusing well and listening to Adam. I had practiced with him a lot this week and I think that paid off along with the fact that he's getting more used to the class environment. Also, we bought a martingale collar over the weekend, which really reduces his pulling on the leash. We only use that for training though, not outside or for walks (not yet at least).

Working on heeling. Sorry for the bad iPhone photo, but you get the idea.

I took over from Adam about halfway through class. He was pretty good for me too.  However, he was pretty bad at "stay" especially when the instructor came around squeaking a toy and bouncing a ball. There was nothing I could do to get him to focus then. He just kept jumping up and wanting to play. The instructor said it's important to teach them that every toy is not theirs. Chester just looked at me like, "HA! Didn't she read the pug property laws?"

The only really negative thing that happened in class was when we were on break. The instructor asked one of the other people when his dog was going to get neutered. He was like, "Oh no, he's not, we're breeding him." Really? This dog is a mix. They will be breeding it with their female. Total backyard breeders. Did I mention that this is probably the most nervous and worst behaved dog there? He does this "crying" sound for the first 10-15 minutes of class and then off and on during it. He does not have the temperament to be bred even if he was a purebred. Yeah, let's breed more mixed dogs when thousands of dogs die every day in shelters. Ugh. Some people are so disgusting.

Overall, I think it was a good session and Chester seems to be learning a lot. For once he wasn't even close to the worst behaved dog there! Hooray for small victories.