Ella Attempts Obedience

After three months of getting Ella accustomed to us and our environment, we decided to try an obedience class. You might recall, we tried a group agility class a couple months ago after a few private lessons. She shut down and we stopped attending. Since then Scott's been walking her twice a day around the neighborhood. It took several weeks just to get her to walk to the end of our street. Now, she walks up to the dog park at Giddens and if there's a willing companion in the park, she jumps right into play mode. Last week she was invited to a dog birthday party. (I'll let Scott tell you about that since he escorted Ella.) She has become quite the society animal. So, we figured we'd give the group class another shot.

The class was held at the Humane Society animal shelter on Armenia. Ann Farmer, an instructor from Courteous Canine was teaching. As we walked up to the building, I wondered how Ella would feel about this place. She was in the Animal Services shelter for two months and one step away from being euthanized when we got her. The room inside where the class would take place was very small. Ella let us know just how anxious she was by defecating on the floor. Ann spent some time stroking her and gave her lots of treats. She was concerned this might still be too overwhelming for her. But we could tell Ella was relaxing a bit and when the next dog showed up, she wanted to greet it.

There were five of us enrolled, a Jack Russell named Dancer, big chunky lab named Carter, Zoey, a beautiful Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix, and Peewee, a not at all small Pit Bull mix. Almost all were rescue dogs. We introduced ourselves and our dogs. We were all couples, bringing our dog children to class. I imagine that's a recent phenomenon. In the past, it might have been a single person, or one parent, or even a child who brought their dog to train. Now, our pets have become a part of our culture. We walk them as a means of being sociable. We take them on dog dates and to dog parties. We consider them in our wills. We expect them to be family members and there lies the need for training. The training is mostly for the owners, so we can learn to communicate with a family member that doesn't speak the same language.

"Sit" was the first lesson in class. We were so proud when Ella was used to demonstrate. It is the one thing we successfully taught her at home. She offers sit whenever she wants attention, so when the trainer approached her she sat like a queen, looked up with pleading eyes and was promptly given a treat. After a few more sits, the teacher moved away to work with th rest of the class. Ella followed her all night and everytime she got near her, she sat. At that point, we knew she was totally relaxed. The rest of the night was spent learning "down" and teaching the dogs to focus on us by looking directly in our eyes on command, which is a crucial training element.

When we packed up to leave, I felt we had already bonded with this new dog family and their caretakers. We were on the road to learning how to communicate with our canine pals. One last note, we bought a new harness on the way out. It's a Gentle Leader called Easy Walk. It's much easier to put on the dog with quick releases under the belly and around the chest. The leash attaches in the front so the dog is no longer inclined to pull against pressure which is natural for them. Ella took to it right away and has been walking much better on the leash. Can't wait until next week so we can show off what Ella has taught us!