Control?

My initial reaction our first exercise at OccuPaws training class was "Oh Oh". We were told to drop the leash and maintain focus and control of our dog. Monte behaves well on leash when I am able to control his impulses. To my surprise he performed like a champ, until he was sidetracked by a crated puppy.

He pranced away and I remained calm because any excitement results in him fleeing and regressing to a game of chase. I waited for his brain to re-engage and asked him to HEEL and he trotted back into place. That's my interpretation, others may have thought that I wasn't in control of my dog. And I wasn't. However, chasing is counter-productive and actually takes more time.

The one caveat to this approach is that is effective when dealing with one dog.

After introducing a walking down, it was time back to basics, SIT STAY practice. Picture all eight puppies sitting in a line with puppy raisers lined up ten yards away. Monte was at the end and I called him to COME first. Two of the other dogs broke their STAY, not sure who to credit with the false start, but the race was on. Since Monte was already in motion he figured it was play time. Now picture the three oldest dogs (highest energy) at class running around the warehouse. As mentioned, waiting for three dogs to locate their brains is not a good option. Eventually, the pack was corralled, order was restored, and class continued without further incident.

During the rest of class, we were introduced to some CVC commands to spice up our training: FRONT, SIDE, SWITCH (standing and sitting). Based our our experience, we may need to stick to the basics. Monte was very uncomfortable being on my right side - we never work with him on the right. In my opinion the odds of our trainee being a guide dog are greater than him being a CVC dog.