Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Gryffin graduated from his Pet Obedience class this morning. I am so very proud of him.

There were 5 other dogs in the class and he and another dog (a boxer) were hands down the two best dogs in the class. It was astounding how the first day he was just all over the place and difficult to work with and during the last class he sat there just observing what was going on and wouldn't even blink when another dog barked or whined at him. Liz came to the last class with me to see what we do, and she said "He's a completely different dog".

Liz was actually so impressed she is thinking about taking Daisy for the same class.

Where did Gryffin improve the most? When we used to go for walks, he used to have a horrible problem passing other dogs. He would growl, whine, bark, and pull as hard as he could to get to the other dogs. It was embarrassing how terrible his temper tantrums like that were. Nowadays when we pass other dogs he still pulls a little to go to them but no longer makes noises. The teacher said he would make the noises because he was afraid so it was a coping mechanism to show aggression. By teaching him that other dogs are good things and he should be happy to see them, it has made him much calmer around other animals and people.

So what commands does Gryffin know now? He knew some of these before but most of them he's mastered.

• Sit
  
• Come
• Down (lay down)
• Leave it
• Stay
• Watch (teaching him to make eye contact with you and to pay attention)
• OK (release word)
• And his marker word: "Good boy!"

Like I mentioned though, his biggest change is just in his general behavior. Teaching him to remain calm around stressful situations.

The one command he knows the best is "Stay". He was the best of any dog at that. I could tell him to stay and then go walk around the room and leave him sitting there for 30 seconds or more, and he would keep watching me and stay exactly where he was. It was impressive.

At the end of the class, the teacher came up to us and said that she would recommend Gryffin take the advanced obedience class next if we were interested. It's the Canine Good Citizen class which is super exciting because it's something I've always wanted to do with Gryffin. I knew he was smart, but he's just excelling like I never thought he would. So it looks as though my boy is going to graduate school. He's going to get his PhD.

Go Gryffindor!