PUPPY OBEDIENCE & MANNERS – CLASS 4 OF 6 – 10.05.2010

Puppy class tonight was quite the challenge for me!  I was there alone with Orso, so there are sadly no photos with the exception of one that was taken and shared with me by Daniella, Cupcake’s mom, see below.  Thanks, Daniella! 

The main reason this particular class was a challenge was because it appears that Orso – who is fully house-trained since the first week he came home – decided to have a pee-pee-party the ENTIRE class!  It was awful.  Orso had 8 accidents in a one-hour period.  He even pee’d on Dr. Pane when he came out to say hello to us at the beginning of class.  Dr. Pane and I laughed about it and made joke about Orso taking revenge for him re-cropping his ears last week, but the truth was that I was sooooooo embarrassed!  By the end of the night, almost everyone in class had helped me pick up pee at some point.  Dee and I started to think about it and came to the conclusion that it might have to do with the meds he is on from his surgery a week ago.  I suppose it makes sense, especially since he is on 3 different medications – Clavamox, Rimadyl & Tramadol.  The vet tech that stays for our class also confirmed our suspicion.  He’s off his meds tomorrow, so let’s see if he returns to his normal, continent self!

Everyone except Bongo was at tonight’s class.  We worked on getting our puppy’s attention and calling him over while in the middle of playtime.  This was not easy.  Not even my super duper fancy puppy treats can compete with puppy playtime.  I am pretty sure that Orso did not come even once to me when called!  I think the only puppy in the class that actually did this exercise correctly all the time was Brinkley.  On the other hand, when we worked on keeping your puppy’s attention on you, Orso did great.  Once he is engaged, he is very easy to work with, but getting him engaged can be a challenge.  It’s definitely something for us to work on.  Like always, the puppies had their playtime together off-leash, which is always a riot, but tonight I was definitely a little stressed with Orso’s stitches.  I debated even going to class tonight, but considering the WWF matches that continuously go on at home with Mouse and Luna, this would be a walk in the park.  WRONG!  By the time the night ended, the vet tech had to snip a couple of stitches that had come loose on Orso’s left ear.  Thankfully, he is healed enough where it didn’t make a difference.

Another treat tonight was that Dee brought Marty McFly, her one and a half year old Australian Shepherd, to class to use as a training tool for the puppies.  It was interesting to see the dynamics among Marty and all the puppies.  Interestingly enough, Orso was pretty shy and continuously looked to all the humans in the room for reassurance.  I thought that was funny since he is always the bold one in the group.  I suppose he was being respectful of his elders!    See below for a 2 minute clip of Marty and all the puppies in class.