Training Day

Lori and one of her other pupils.

It's been a few days since Pepper's let's-go-crazy-on-the-raccoon night, and he's been learning on the lead more every day. Yesterday, Karen and I took him for a walk up the driveway toward our new house site, and let him off the lead for a few minutes. He stayed within about 30 feet of us, and came back fairly well when I called him back. So, we were looking forward to today's session with our obedience trainer, Lori McCallister. Let me say this right up front. Pepper learned quite a bit; I, on the other hand, learned a LOT. Clearly, the whole point of obedience training is to train the handler to do a better job. I've got a better appreciation now for the handlers who work the dogs at the Westminster Kennel Club show. I used to think they were just geeky-looking, poorly-dressed leash yankers.Wrong.

Relaxing with Pepper after today's training

The whole training session was geared to keeping Pepper alive and with us. The two big commands we worked on were "Wait" and "Out." Lori was  operating on the information that when we let Pepper off the lead he stayed within about 30 feet of us. Using a 15-foot lead (I'm going to get a 20-footer tomorrow), we let Pepper walk on a slack lead and then gave him the "Wait" command. The point was to make him stay in place, call him back with "Come," and have him set up in front of me. We walked Pepper up and down the county road, and he did really well, though a few times I had to force myself not to go up to him after a "Wait" command.

Lori's dangerous bears

The "Out" command is intended to get the dog out of a dangerous situation, such as spotting a coyote, another dog, a raccoon outside the living room window, or a long-clawed cat. The command is given with a loud, urgent voice, accompanied - if needed - by a yank on the lead, so the dog returns to you. The goal is to have the dog break away from danger before getting into it. Since we didn't have any coyotes or raccoons in the area at the time, we used Lori's most dangerous-looking teddy bears. Actually, the little, Pooh-looking bear didn't get Pepper's attention, but the big Smokey did. Pepper set his jaw and stared at Smokey. I yelled "Out" and he came back to me so I could hold his collar. We did this a number of times, and eventually he simply started to avoid the bear, what Lori called the best learned behavior outcome. Later in the session, I used the "Out" command with our old cat, "Harry," who watched the whole thing, either bored or bemused.

Harry, nonplussed

I worked Pepper a bit on our evening walk, with a few "Waits" and "Outs." And we've started using the "Wait" command every time we let him in or out a door. But the "Out" command really worked tonight while I was starting this blog. Geordie, our long-haired tabby was on an old overturned oil drum outside the living room window, and Pepper, who hasn't yet come to terms with Geordie, jumped on the sofa under the window in a threatening manner. One loud "Out" brought him off the sofa and a "Down" put him in a supine position. A pretty good day of training, I'd say.

Things We Do for Dogs

I'm fighting my way through the first cold in a year. A nose-dripping, throat-scratching, eye-aching, muscle-fatiguing cold. Third day. Yesterday morning, I took Pepper for a half hour walk. Yesterday evening, I just couldn't get off the sofa, so I put on Peppers harness and Karen took him for a walk up to our home site and back. Tea, chicken soup and Sudafed got me through the night, and after breakfast today I was able to take Pepper for an hour walk up to the top of our property and down. Today, he was in better shape than I was, and I really looked forward to coming back down.

After a nap and lunch, Karen went to Post Falls to visit our mothers in the Guardian Angel Homes assisted living facility. I took Pepper into the back yard to continue his obedience training. It's going to be a long process.

Pepper really can sit. Sometimes.

Last Friday, we had our first session with our obedience trainer, Lori McCallister, who operates SmartDog Training in Spokane. It was really a getting-to-know-you session, the you being Pepper. Based on his responses, Lori's pretty sure Pepper's got some gun dog training; for example, when he goes down, he goes down flat rather than lolling around on his hip. He also responds better to hand signals than voice signals.

Today, I worked with him on "Come," "Sit," and "Down." Pepper's not bad on "Come" (though he'll also come to his name), and he doesn't differentiate well between "Sit" and "Down." To him, right now, both mean down. I'll keep working with him, and I'll have Lori come out again next week.

Geordie, the world's handsomest cat.

After about 15 minutes of training, I threw him a tennis ball within the back yard, and watched him race around with it (while I cleaned up his food residue). Now he's sleeping in the living room while Karen and I watch an old episode of Antiques Roadshow. Both indoor/outdoor cats are in the room with us, Harry tucked in with Karen, Geordie sleeping on a wing-back chair. They're all getting along much better now.

Harry, the cuddle cat.

Still some chicken soup left, but really looking forward to the leg of lamb roasting in the oven. Perhaps a salad, Indian lentils, and terrific COSTCO strawberries.