I don't mean to brag (or maybe I do) but she was definitely the smartest dog there. They gave us clickers to use and it's obvious that this is going to be a really good training method for her. We worked on sit, down, not jumping up, name recognition, leash manners and handler focus. She gets all of this. After three or four repetitions of a behavior she got a little bored. Maybe it's the owner focus we need to work on then. All in all,, though, I think it's a good experience for both of us. If nothing else, the clicker training was a revelations. It is also great to her to be exposed to a variety of people and dogs. She was pretty worn out afterward.
On a side note.. At first the trainer greeted Megan by saying, "Oh! I have a BC at home." I didn't bother to correct her. She looked at the attendance list though then turned to me and exclaimed, "THAT is an English Shepherd? I didn't know they came in black and white."
Welcome to the world of owning a black and white ES. Most of the world seems to think Chandler is a Border Collie. The second guess is usually an Aussie. The really observant tend to guess a BC/Aussie cross. Oddball guesses I've gotten were a Shetland Sheepdog (at 60 lbs?!?) and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.
ReplyDeleteYou will probably find that Megan catches on quickly to most anything. A friend and I had our ES in a Family Dog II class...and frankly, they were making the Golden Retriever in the class look a bit slow. Chandler also will get bored with many repetitions. We were working on a "send out" to a mat one day and after a few trips out to the mat he got bored, went on strike, flopped down, and started watching the other dogs to entertain himself. I find that varying routines by mixing in a bunch of fun tricks helps.