First day of school!
Today was Ebony’s first official day of school. She started a puppy class at the Aurora PetSmart with Jennifer as the trainer. I chose PetSmart because it was affordable, close by and Jennifer was enthusiastic to work with Ebony. I wanted to get an early start with some expert advice.
The class only had only other puppy enrolled in it and they did not make it to the first day of class. Ebony basically got an hour of personalized consultation and training. It was ideal that Jennifer had her big 3 year old Doberman with her that day. Jennifer was able to show me how to train Ebony with another larger dog around who really wanted in on that yummy treat action too! Since it was just us, we had the luxury of really focusing on some of our special needs within the context of their curriculum. My speech is sometimes impacted by my MS and we discussed using a clicker, hand motions and easier to manage words and phrases.
Their first class curriculum focuses on:
- nutrition
- house training
- socialization
- using a clicker
- getting the puppy’s attention
- word choice
With our needs, we spent a lot of time on attention, words and the clicker in general. It takes just a tiny bit of coordination, nothing for the able bodied but I had to concentrate on it. Jennifer was patient and considerate in working with me on timing the clicker and using it unobtrusively. I am pretty excited about this whole clicker thing!
As I have mentioned before, I am sometimes worried about how connected Ebony is to Fergus instead of me. I must say it was extremely rewarding to teach her “watch me”. Even with the “bribe” of the clicker/treat combo, it felt satisfying to see her whip her head around and focus on me even with Jennifer providing her with distractions. The other big highlight was “all done”. I have struggled in the past with communicating with Fergus when he could stop sitting or waiting for his treat or whatever. Training Ebony now that the task is done and that she is now “at ease” just makes sense. That was the part that she doesn’t understand yet but it will come.
July 10th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
congratulations on your goldendoodle, even if she is not very golden colored! I remember AJ as a puppy, one big uncoordinated fluffball. Training Ebony as a service dog sounds like a great idea. The only input i can offer about my experience is to wean her off puppy food relativley quickly. Goldendoodles can be large dogs and grow quickly. Puppy food just has to much “fertilizer” in it and the dogs grow way to quickly. This is actually fairly consistant with most large dogs.
The other bit of information is that you have three choices for grooming: 1) learn to love brushing, her fur will mat easily. 2) get yourself a good set of clippers and learn the basics of a good puppy cut (may be difficult in your situation). 3) Become really good friends with a groomer. If Ebony has the poodle type fur, the good part is that she won’t shed much at all. The bad part is that her fur will continue to grow and sionce it is probably rather fine, it will mat easily.
Good luck with Ebony and her training. I actually have 2 goldendoodles and they are by far the best dogs I have ever had.
rickrat
July 10th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Good luck with training! I am anxious to enroll my little girl in class too. She is a bundle of uncoordinated energy! However, I am pleased that when I go on the deck and say,”Sadie Come” she comes running as fast as she can.