CCI Class

Hubby will be joining us soon to the CCI Classes in order to take photos, because it is too hard to handle a dog, or help my kiddos with the dog, and be responsible for photographs. I am missing some really sweet growing up moments of Haddie. The urgency has been noted.

Last night's class was very helpful. We worked more on new commands. While Haddie knew some of them, it was nice to work with her in a highly distracting environment with new puppies surrounding her, and older experienced dogs too. The commands she was not familiar with, it was nice to get one on one attention from Terri to get the scoop on what our objective was for the command, and how to train Haddie on the command.

Haddie has a bed at home where she plays with her toys, and depending on attitude of the humans or dogs in our household, she is sometimes put on her bed with toys on a tie-down. Last night we worked on the Bed command; used to get the dog on a designated bed area in a Down. Terri worked with Haddie to teach us how to lure her into position.

When Terri was finished, she looked at us and said that Haddie was very smart and took to learning very quickly. I agreed. Then she said, "This also can be dangerous."  Ha! Yes, I got the point. Alpha Dog Status of the human-kind is necessary for Haddie at all times.

Thankfully, I feel, we have done a good job in this role. We don't need her being too smart for her own good. Working and expecting her smarts to be positive and appropriate will be key to consistently bringing out Haddie's Super Dog status before Turn-In.

Haddie's eyes tell all her secrets. You can see her think. I like that.

My son was offered an experienced dog named Monroe at the start of class. He quickly took the leash happy to have a dog "all to himself". He enjoyed his evening and was highly impressed with all the different commands he could give to Monroe, who would respond quickly and accurately.

My daughter and I shared the training role for Haddie. After class, my girl came up to me and gave me a high five. We did it!! We were a good team - supporting each other, and not going crazy when things just didn't work as we thought it should. We alternated nicely, and helped each other with soft critiques. Yay - Team Haddie!!!

It was a good night at CCI Class.