Noelle and I have started formal obedience classes. She had her first class last night and she did great! Because she is a pup born during the winter and during a pandemic the opportunities to go out and explore new places and meet new people have been rare until recently so I thought she might be nervous. She really wasn't. She rode in a crate in my car on the way there. She whined a little but eventually settled in. We got there and she walked right into the facility with her tail wagging and wanting to meet the instructor. During the class she was focused on me and what we were learning. She's really got "sit" and "touch" down well. We're now working on "come." Below are a few pictures and videos. We are going to classes at A Sound Beginning. They offer a really great obedience program that is positive reinforcement based. Each dog attends the in person classes in their own "pod." That's why you see the gates and sheets in the picture. Each dog can hear and smell the others but can't see them. This helps focus dogs who are particularly reactive to others.
Noelle is doing really well ringing the bell on the door to let us know she wants to go out. The number of accidents in the house have decreased to just a couple in the last week and I expect the improvement to continue. You can see an example of her ringing the bell below.
She's doing well on our walks each morning. She now gets excited when she sees me get the harness.
I've also attached a video of Noelle and Winnie playing today. Noelle is all about play, play, play. She loves to wrestle, tackle and play bite. Winnie is about 4-5 years old and enjoys it too. My 13 year old standard poodle on the other hand does not like it and stays out of the fray.
Noelle sleeps quietly in a crate in our family room all night. She goes into the crate with a "go kennel" command and a treat. I work during from home during the day and when I can't keep an eye on her she stays in the crate and does well.
She is an energetic girl who will benefit from continued obedience training.
You can read more about her by scrolling through to prior blog posts.
In the next video she is doing "touch" by touching her nose to my hand. Because I couldn't film and treat and hold my hand out to be touched at once she goes out of frame slightly. Trust me, she did it and was focused on me like below the full class. The "touch" behavior was the start to teaching her to ring the bell. First I taught her to touch my hand with her nose , then the bell. She is very food motivated so training has not be hard with her.
