Puppy Preschool

Although Maple was a bit of a bully (see post below) at the puppy preschool (pps) last night, I thought that it was actually fairly well run.

We went to the pps at the local vet clinic. Amy, (the instructor) was one of the vet nurses who is also a certified animal behaviouralist and dog trainer. Because I had done a lot of research prior to getting Maple, and because we have had her for 3.5 weeks prior to starting pps, there wasn't very much information that was new to me last night. I thought that Amy presented the information quite well, and it was good for my kids to hear the information from an expert rather than mum.

When we got to the pps, chairs were set around in a large open ended oval, with a small dish of treats and a stuffed kong at each pair of chairs. Amy even had a kong stuffed with chicken only for Maple. (Maple had been to the vet earlier in the day to get clearance to attend pps due to loose stools).

While Amy was presenting the info she was watching each of the pups carefully. She explained some dog psychology regarding obedience such as look, come, sit, down, drop etc and then demonstrated how to teach the dog how to do it. She also introduced the class to clicker training, and was pleased when I pulled out my clicker and said that we had already been doing that with Maple. During about 3/4 of the time we were at pps there was a background tape playing to help desensitize the pups to various noises such as drums, fireworks, thunder etc.

When it was time for the pups to have a play Amy asked that everyone put their pups up on their laps, and only the pups that she selected were to be let off their leashes. Maple was in the first group, and was paired up with the jack russell, who was very placid. It was a good pairing and Maple did not show any aggression to him at all. Amy then asked the lab puppy to join Maple and the jack russell. All the groupings of pups playing went well, except when Maple tried to dominate the lab puppy. When it was Maple's turn to sit on our lap she wasn't too happy and wanted down to play. The kids wanted to hold Maple on their laps during this time and were not happy when we said no, as I was having a hard enough time holding the determined, wriggly pup that I couldn't imagine that a 9 or 6 year old would be able to hold and control her.

Towards the end of the pps session Maple was calmer and happy to lay on her blanket, so we did end on a good note.