Georgia and I attended our first session of a four-week training class last night. Georgia went through private training when she was about a year old, and it did make a big difference, but some things never quite clicked. I’m not blaming her at all. It’s probably mostly my fault, but she continues to jump on visitors, pull on her leash, and she won’t come if there’s anything even remotely interesting going on.
If these three behaviors are corrected, I will be the owner of a very well-behaved dog, and my stress level will decrease dramatically. I want to be able to have her outside just relaxing and not trying to take off every three seconds. I frequently go away on weekends (Georgia comes too), and I’m so tired of always being stressed out because she’s misbehaving at someone else’s house.
I think the class is going to be really good. Honestly, Georgia is acting a bit better already. She’s definitely more attentive to me (at least in the house with no distractions–ha). One of the things the trainer recommended is standing on the dog’s leash so that she can’t jump on people. The person tells her to sit, and if she tries to jump, she corrects herself. Why didn’t I think of that? Instead I’m usually gripping the leash feeling like I’m holding a bucking bronco and apologizing profusely as the poor person tries to battle off a 75 pound missile. We’re going away this weekend and I’m looking forward to practicing not jumping with some new people.
We still have a long ways to go, but I’m hopeful that we’re going to get there!
