PetsMart's Intermediate Class Second Lesson

Last week was cancelled, so we had the second lesson today. I had spent an hour at the dog park and then another half hour walking Cody on leash so he was a little tired. However, since it is a Vizsla, when we arrived at PetsMart, his energy was revived. Today, we worked on sitting with distractions as well as heeling (being on leash). When it's just Cody and I, Cody is pretty good with toy or food distractions since we've practiced (at the tennis courts, I would make him sit while he watches me throw the ball). However, when there are other people or dogs around, that distraction makes it harder for Cody to sit still (though we also have been practicing that at the dog park). Since Cody and I have also been practicing heeling extensively, he was pretty good at this once he started to calm down (and not try to sniff everything and everybody). All in all, I think Cody was the best at today's instructions since we'd been practicing (and he was finally tired after he got used to being at PetsMart and realize that he was actually tired).

The greatest discovery I learned today was a new collar. The great thing about being in class is that I can try out the collars or training devices for a session and then decide if it was helpful enough to buy. We tried a training collar last week, but it was about as effective as his current pronged collar (which is pretty good. I will be writing my next post about the different collars to prevent pulling.