Week 2: Canine Life And Social Skills (CLASS)

[Jen & Ember]

This week was the first week with the dogs present. There were two other dogs--what looked to be adult German Shepard mixes. We didn't have any interaction with the other dogs/owners because the trainer wants to maintain their "stranger status" for stranger greetings later on in training. 

This class mostly consisted of evaluating the dogs' and pinpointing areas of growth. For Ember, we were able to demonstrate sit and down on verbal cue. The down lacks duration though. "Stand" for Ember is confusing because she gets it confused with "say hi" command that she learned in Puppy Basics. The trainer suggested starting over on "stand" and taught a new hand signal and started at the beginning with full lure w/food and are phasing the food out over the week to just the hand signal. We hadn't been doing "settle" much since Puppy Basics, so we're also starting this over. 

We also started with "heel," which is brand new for Ember. The trainer is teaching it in two parts and then combining them later in the training. The first behavior is "heel" which Ember is learning currently on full lure phasing to hand signal. The second behavior is the loose leash capture with click/treat only when Ember is in the heel zone during walks. 

Given that CLASS is a positive oriented, reward-based training, all the work we're doing is utilize clicker training and rewards. Reward is not necessarily always food but could also be the chance to greet someone, playing with a toy, etc.   "Punishment" is lack of/denial of reward, which might mean me turning my back on her and walking away if she doesn't do the right behavior or having the person she was about to greet turn around and walk away. 

Homework is specific to each dog, based on performance in the class. Ember and I are working on getting her to complete hand signal for settle, heel, and stand, capturing loose-leash walking, working on "leave it", and polite stranger greetings. We also will continue with reinforcing the other behaviors.

It was a fun evening! :)

 

[Becka]

I'm glad you had fun! I like the part about the homework being tailored to each student. That makes a lot of sense to me.

[Bonnie and Kona]

It sounds like you are in a good class. Thanks so much for posting so we can all benefit. Happy Ember is such a smart girl and learning so much. Have fun!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This really does sound like fun!  What exactly is the "settle" command and how does it differ from a down/stay?

[Jen & Ember]

Settle and down/stay are nearly the same. We bring "settle mats" and teach them to settle (down/stay until they are told it's okay to get up) on the settle mat. This whole idea is not exactly my favorite because I don't want to have to bring her settle mat with me wherever I go should I want her to lay down and stop bugging everyone. :) I am not sure if eventually the mat gets phased out or not. I'll have to report back on that.