Like most new dog owners (especially new dog owners who are a couple with no children and thus have nothing to worry about but their dog), we anguished over how to properly train our dog. Should we go to a class? Hire a trainer? Do it ourselves? Read a book? Rent a video? Some combination of those?
We talked to our friend Justin, who is an actual dog trainer. Unfortunately, he lives in San Diego, so he couldn't exactly come over and give us some pointers. But he did make some suggestions that helped. I asked my friend Mary about training classes, since I knew she had been looking into it for her puppy. I also asked my vet. They both recommended the same place.
So I called the guy and asked about classes. He seemed a bit surprised that Baxter was so old (18 months, which sounds better than a year and a half for some reason). I'm sorry my dog is slow! And that some family didn't want him so he had to spend three months in a kennel! It's not his fault! The guy agreed to send me an application for the class, like what is this, Choate or something? It's a freaking dog obedience class. Whatever.
It finally did and I filled it out. The first part was easy, because it was things like "Name" and "Dog's Name" (you don't want to get those two mixed up). Then you had to put what behaviors you want to change in your dog. There wasn't much space. I guess most dogs are better than mine. Or most owners aren't such control freaks. Given the limited space, I narrowed it down to "Stop chasing and trying to eat cats" and "Stop getting so excited upon seeing other dogs and sometimes people". When we go for walks, if he sees another dog, he starts trying to run up to it. When we get close enough, he lunges for it. And then he just sniffs normally. IT's not like he's running up to BITE the other dog or anything. But the lunges (understandably) scare the other dogs. I think it's because he doesn't see other dogs that much (at least within sniffing range) so he gets all excited. Imagine if you only saw another person like every other day, and even then, you weren't allowed to get that close, and only allowed to talk for like two seconds. It would be kind of frustrating.
So our first day of class was last week. I was really, really nervous, mostly because I think Baxter is what they call "dominant" but what I call "bossy". Or, if I'm trying to put a positive spin on it, he has "strong leadership skills." That's what they used to say about me in high school. And now I'm just bossy. Jim went with me on the first day, because I honestly wasn't sure that I'd be able to handle Baxter around so many other dogs. The best thing we ever did (on Justin's recommendation) was buy a Gentle Leader. It's like a harness for dogs that goes around their nose and neck, so that instead of dragging them around by the neck (as with a normal collar), you lead them by the nose (like a horse). It changed my life. I love that thing so much. I can actually control my dog now instead of getting my arm pulled out of socket. Anyway.
Just pulling into the parking lot, Baxter was all excited about the other dogs. We got out of the car, and he tried to run up to meet his new friends. But most of the other dogs are puppies, and thus smaller than him, and thus scared of him. And most of the owners were a little nervous about letting Baxter sniff their babies. Which I can understand, but the biggest draw of the class for me was the socialization aspect. So Baxter got to sniff some butts, and then he ran around the gym and wanted to check out all the doors. He's obsessed with doors for some reason. Jim hung onto him while I registered and stuff. Did I mention that it was ninety-five degree or so? It was freaking hot. And we had to kneel down next to our dogs on this hard gym floor. I thought I was going to die. So Baxter did okay, but not great. He made a friend named Snickers, an Airedale Terrier. Snickers' owner was a bit clueless. He was asking me how long the class was, and where I parked. I kind of think he just walked in off the street and snuck in. The other thing that annoyed me about Mr. Snickers was that the instructor told us to keep our dogs on our left. Part of that is a dog control thing, but I think part of it was so that there would always be a person between each pair of dogs. And Mr. Snickers kept letting his dog wander over towards Baxter, and then Baxter would get all distracted and it was bugging me. Anyway. WE got through that class. Jim, who had been observing from the sidelines, assured me that BAxter was not the worst dog there. That was my biggest fear. And that he would try to eat one of the other dogs. Which also did not happen.
So last night was our second class. I was a little nervous this time because I was going by myself and I honestly hadn't practiced the commands and stuff ALL that much. I mean, I do make him sit before we go in doors and randomly throughout the day, but I don't always do it exactly how we learned in class. So we got that and people were a little more relaxed about the dogs meeting and stuff. Baxter made some new friends named Mya (a yellow lab puppy), Abe (some sort of lab mix), Toby (an Australian shephard whose owner is way overprotective), Rowland (the one dog in the class who's bigger than Baxter, a lab/collie mix), Gunther (a German short-haired pointer) and a couple of others I don't remember. I made sure we didn't end up next to Snickers, and that was a wise, wise decision, because I kept an eye on him and he was once again bugging the dog next to him throughout class and his owner didn't notice or care. But Baxter was like a superstar! He totally obeyed me and did nearly everything right. His one problem is when I try to put him into a down position, he resists. But he will eventually go down, and stay down, so I'm sure it just takes some more practice. We ended class early so that there would be some free socialization time -- and everyone left! I was so mad! It's kind of hard for Baxter to socialize with himself. One guy stuck around a little bit, and even commented that he thought Baxter did a great job this week. Which of course, paranoid me took to mean that Baxter was a terror last week. I also think that whenever the instructor says something about a dog being challenging or difficult or just sucking in general, he looks at me. But Jim says I'm paranoid.
I just don't want to be the owner of the annoying dog. I don't mind being an annoying dog owner -- I've been an annoying cat owner for years. I just don't want my dog to suck. I don't want him to sniff crotches, or jump up on people, or try to bite their hands when they go to pet him, or bark nonstop. I mean, he's a dog, obviously, and he's going to do doggy things sometimes. I think the most annoying thing in the world is when people just let their dogs run amok and don't even try to stop them, or even worse, laugh it off like, "Ha ha! Isn't it funny that he won't stop sniffing your crotch?" No, it's not! It's annoying. So I'm hoping the obedience classes make Baxter less annoying. I don't think there's anything that can make me less annoying. I wonder if they offer dog owner classes. I'll have to look into that.