It was a blast! And I learned tons about puppies! I wish I had borrowed someone else's puppy and attended months ago!
The other dogs in the class are all the same approximate age, and include a Boxer, a Bloodhound, a Belgian Malinois, a GSD/? mix, a Golden Retriever and a Husky/Lab mix. We worked on motivating our dogs to succeed, redirecting undesirable behavior, and exposing them to new sights and sounds, which I've already been doing with Baloo. He seems so bold and sure of himself compared to the other puppies...no signs of fear at any point tonight. The trainer gave us each a list of about 50 things to try to expose our puppies to before next week and some were things I had not thought of. The entire obedience portion of the training was done off leash, which I thought was interesting. Baloo actually does better off leash than on at this point, but I kind of got the feeling that this will change in the next few months, when they reach their "teens". I'm just so excited about finally getting to experience this with him. He loved the class, the trainer, the other dogs and people, and he didn't want to leave. It took two of us to get him into the car at the end, after spending maybe 10 minutes with him digging his toenails into the asphalt parking lot.

This is really great news. I am so happy for you.

If you are interested in righting a paper someday, Id love to publish it on "BD4U" and Im sure Steven would also publish it on K9A.

You have an exceptional dog in Baloo and your are in for a woderful life together. Reading about him makes me want to jump in the car and come to meet him!!!

What sort of paper?

Baloo isn't really any different from any other puppy, but I've spent lots of time working with him and intend to keep doing that. It's my once in a lifetime chance to go from puppy to old age with a dog and I want to enjoy every single minute of it!

Ann wrote:

What sort of paper?

Baloo isn't really any different from any other puppy, but I've spent lots of time working with him and intend to keep doing that. It's my once in a lifetime chance to go from puppy to old age with a dog and I want to enjoy every single minute of it!

I absolutely LOVE reading your threads and as i do so, I go back in my memory to when Chip was a puppy. But its been 16 years and many of the little details are not clear anymore. As I read your posts, these little things come back to me, but I wish I would have taken more video.

At my age, I will probably never have a puppy again, but my neighbor, and two of my friends now have new puppies.

I would love to be able to provide them and site visitors with a clear understanding of what it REALLY takes and what you have done and gone thru to get Baloo off to the great start he has recieved. From how you bonded with him to the amount of "1 on 1 time" you spend, to what you have done to socialize and teach him about his world around him.

Instead of simply saying "I work with him several hours each day" .. Maybe go into a bit of detail of the actual things you do during your sessions. EXAMPLE: I read that you took him in the car to expose him to sights and sounds. That is briliant, and most ppl would never think of that! I did that with Chip from the time he was 8.5 weeks old and with every dog I have had and they have ALL responded in the same way Baloo has. Neka and Patchs actually RUN to the door of my car if I go anywhere near it.

I get emails every week that ask, "What should I do to get my new dog off to the right start?" Or "What training can i do with my new puppy and how should I do it?" Even, "All my puppy wants to do is play. How can I get his attention long enough to teach him anything?"

It would be great for them to read your story.

No pressure, I understand that your are very busy so I understand if you are not able to do it at this time.

Thats definitely a good idea, it sure would take some time to write up but seeing how Baloo has turned out it would be a great guide for people barely getting pups!

Hehe glad to hear that he had a good time at the class, and I can just imagine him being like "No no no, I wanna stay!".

So is this class something you found? I thought you said that around your area some classes wouldn't take him because he wasn't fully vaccinated or something like that? And that you and a few other pup owners might start a group of your own?

glad you both had so much fun!

Betterdog4u wrote:

You have an exceptional dog in Baloo and your are in for a woderful life together. Reading about him makes me want to jump in the car and come to meet him!!!

He's still a work in progress! But you can drive over and meet him any time you want!

Steven_L wrote:

So is this class something you found? I thought you said that around your area some classes wouldn't take him because he wasn't fully vaccinated or something like that? And that you and a few other pup owners might start a group of your own?

Yeah, the other pup owners and I met up twice, then one of them found a trainer who was looking to add a few more to her class. I had never met this one, but like her a lot.
It wasn't because of vaccines that other classes wouldn't take Baloo, more about him being a bigger than average puppy and they had smaller dogs in their classes. I'm the one who wanted to wait on the vaccines, Parvo in particular. He's had 3 now and will get one more in another couple of weeks.

Ann wrote:

Steven_L wrote:

So is this class something you found? I thought you said that around your area some classes wouldn't take him because he wasn't fully vaccinated or something like that? And that you and a few other pup owners might start a group of your own?

Yeah, the other pup owners and I met up twice, then one of them found a trainer who was looking to add a few more to her class. I had never met this one, but like her a lot.
It wasn't because of vaccines that other classes wouldn't take Baloo, more about him being a bigger than average puppy and they had smaller dogs in their classes. I'm the one who wanted to wait on the vaccines, Parvo in particular. He's had 3 now and will get one more in another couple of weeks.

Oh I see, well definitely a good thing that you guys found this trainer! You should take pics if you are allowed to or find a chance

We're heading out to our next puppy class! So fun!!

The other pups were working on sit, down and stand tonight. Baloo has those down to a science, so instead, we were stuck working on keeping all 4 feet on the floor while greeting humans, which seems to be what he REALLY needs to work on all of a sudden. He just started jumping up a couple of weeks ago, and he's being quite persistent with it. We listened to a tape of kids laughing and playing and then a baby crying all through the class tonight. Baloo looked for the kids a few times, but none of the dogs reacted negatively. I think all of the humans left with a headache though.
Baloo got into one of the women's purses and took her wallet. He also walked up to the Rottie in the mirror and peed on it. It seems we have more than I dreamed of to work on, but the plus side is that he made progress with the jumping tonight and also allowed every human in the room to turn him upside down and touch his feet, ears and teeth.

He'll get there!!! Its just gonna take some time ...

My neighbor's Rottie (Keta) is almost a year old and she still jumps A LOT. But they arent working with her. I guess it's going to be up to me ...

Every human in the room turned away from him when he jumped (as instructed) and it still took him about 10 minutes to stop doing it. By the end of the class, he would jump up but not make contact with his paws, but I still don't think he's really getting it. Won't really know until the beginning of class next week, when he greets everyone.

He's a smart boy, he'll get it pretty fast!!!

Once he got THAT, you'll have to work on "croch sniffing" ... it never ends ...

Have you tried putting the jump on cue? Ask him to jump at certain times but when meeting someone ask him to do something else (gimme 5, sit, lay, etc).

Hehe can't believe that he went and got someone's wallet though! Wow Baloo is certainly full of surprises!