Crikey! What a night! I loaded up the bumbag full of meaty treats, grabbed my gumboots and headed out the door with Aussie to the second dog obedience class. Tonight's class was set to be very different for one important reason - the dogs were allowed to come tonight! I was prepared to have my work cut out for me - he can be a bit of a mutant at the best of times - but man oh man, talk about hard work.
Right from the moment we got out of the car he went nuts! Throwing himself up in the air, barking so all of Hamilton could hear him, making a right royal show of himself. We got into our group and everyone in the group struggled to hear the instructors because Aussie was barking so much. I was struggling just to keep a grip of his lead and stand upright on the wet grass. For my Australian friends, be assured that I defended you when the instructor came over and said "oh yeah typical loudmouth Aussie aye"
It got to the point that one of the instructors put a slip chain and her lead on him and she still struggled to keep him under control. Part of the problem is that the meaty treats I had brought with me were far less interesting than the other 3o or so dogs at the park. Both instructors tried their snacks and still he was not interested. They both kept shaking their heads saying "he's a lab, he should LOVE food, Labs live for food" So Aussie is now going to be on a complete fast every Tuesday and if that doesn't help he may miss out on Monday nights dinner too.
So they got me to take him out on his own to the middle of the park and just try and get him to concentrate on me and the food, and sitting (without being able to use voice commands). Rather tricky when the dog isn't interested in the food which is the training tool!
Then the strangest thing happened. One of the instructors and I discovered quite by chance that Aussie responded to the affirmation of a "good boy" and then he would eat the food. The food was only interesting as a reward as long as it was proceeded by rapturous praise! So I'm thinking there's 5 love languages for kids, 5 love languages for couples, 5 love languages for singles....how about 5 love languages for dogs? Aussie it would seem is "words of affirmation - followed by a nice tidbit of meat"
I am praying that the sessions will get easier than tonight - because tonight was really hard....not cool when everyone in the group has learnt one name...and its your dogs name!
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