In the groove and working the program

Gee, Dog Camp is a lot of work! The past three days have been non-stop between lectures, learning the commands, practicing the commands both in the training rooms and outside, reading informational handouts and completing the take-home quizzes every night.

Whew, as a consequence, here are two commands that were needed multiple times throughout the day by us as well as our dogs: Release (relax and take a breather) and Hurry (it's time to potty). Above at the left, we are doing a joint Release!

Imagine - there's a command to tell the dog to relax! That's because otherwise he is on command, which is work, and that creates a certain amount of stress. And yes, Hurry is a command to "go to the bathroom". Actually, the toilet process is to command him to the spot where you want him to relieve himself, give the command Release so he relaxes a bit and then command Hurry. Guess what - he goes pretty quickly! That means no unending dog walks, praying that perhaps around this corner he'll decide to go and you can get back home. Sounds like good time management skills to me!

We've learned 30 commands so far and have another dozen or so to learn. Here I am as we practice Carry. We had our dogs pick up items from the floor (Get) and then we walked around the room while they held them in their mouths. When we were good and ready, we touched the items while they were still in our dogs' mouths, commanded Give, and our dogs let them go. "Fido" and I got A's on this exercise although some people needed to correct their dogs and try again and sometimes, again and again.

Note than I'm wearing all white! Much of my wardrobe is black but now, a lot of the black will have to go. Tonight after dinner, I ran to the store to get a lint/hair remover roller so the two pairs of black pants I brought won't stay covered with white speckles. The other night I ran to Kohl's to buy these white shorts.

My brain is a little overloaded with all the commands plus all the lectures on Resistance, Canine Communication, Grooming, Canine Learning and Safety & Public Etiquette. Our dogs accompany us to class - see Courtney with her dog (and her son Findlay's dog). The Grooming lecture led to a grooming exercise. Except for nail clipping, they loved it. Especially the tooth brushing - they licked every final bit of toothpaste off the brush.

Speaking of all the classes and exercises, the trainers are magnificent! There's a whole crew and it's clear they love their jobs. They attend a three year apprentice program to become certified as dog trainers. Three years! Of course they fall in love with the dogs they are training but then, those dogs graduate to their owners and a whole new class of dogs to be trained comes on board. I guess it's like being a teacher. Lisa was the trainer for my dog. I've done pretty well learning the commands with good responses but the starting point is great training. Go Lisa! And then, as we've learned, it's up to the handler to be a proper Pack Leader. I'm learning!

I have more to share but it's late and I need to get my clothes out of the dryer. There's a huge laundry room with plenty of washers and dryers, a sink, counter and drying area and plenty of detergent. I didn't need to bring my baggie filled with Tide after all!

I'm going to tip-toe out out to get my clothes because "Fido" is sleeping now. Yes, I have an overnight guest! See him trying out the crate when we got back from training today. It's our first night with our dogs and we'll keep them from here on out.

Notice that he doesn't take up all the space in the huge crate. When I got here, I was taken aback by the size of the crate. One of the trainers explained that the crates were donated and although they are big for our dogs, they were free. Like with any non-profit, donations and volunteers are the lifeline. Thanks to those who donated great crates!

Our last activity today was a group outing to Target. I'll share about that next time! You should have seen us!