Tonight Maverick and I, with a great deal of help from my good friend B, finished our second training class. This one was called FOCUS, something we greatly lack. I went into it with the attitude that we were going to have fun, learn as much as we could, and if we had to repeat it, so be it. It was a fun class, we did a lot of work, it was intense and a lot but it was, indeed, fun. And no, we won’t repeat it. We will continue to work on the things that are applicable to us, however.

There was a lot of stuff about crate training. We haven’t used a crate in 4 years, so that was all good for the people with younger dogs but not reallly for us. I turned it into “mat” training instead – when the instructor would say to send the dogs into their crates, I would send Maverick to his mat. Honestly, with all the crap that we carried into the classes, I can’t imagine adding a crate!

We did some rally type work, a lot of “watch me” and “leave it” – we need work on that. We need work on all the things! But we made progress. It might not have been a lot of progress, but it was enough.

I learned many things:

• feed Maverick some of his meal before class or he’s too hungry to focus
• don’t keep using his name – tell him what you want him to do
• clickers are pretty awesome
• I need to practice patience
• It’s more often my fault than his when we screw up
• Me leaving for several days set us back several weeks
• He really likes tricks
• we will be in classes for the rest of our lives – going to training classes has made a difference for us, and although Maverick is still anxious and overwhelmed a bit, we’re learning and even when progress seems slow, there IS some progress

Maverick had the best trick tonight . We did a “spin, twirl, take a bow.” The others did “roll over.” Maverick says that “BOOOORRRINNG!” He does like a challenge.

I was away for 10 days – my annual trip to NY – which may be my last. It’s a 6 hour drive and it takes more out of me each year. I had a good time, saw the relatives, had good visits. I got some work done, relaxed a bit. When I came home, Maverick was over the moon. And I quickly realized that no training had been done the entire time I was gone, except for the class he attended with B. The next two days were catch up days. We didn’t do well the first day. We did better the next. I realized I need a plan.

Next week will be daycare for four days. Then daycare is closing for a week for cleaning and repairs, so he’ll be home for 10 days. Our next class starts in a month. We’re homeschooling for those ten days and for that month. I’ve already started thinking about our training plan. We’re going to be rockstars. I’m determined.