The Dogs of Jackman Ave

Little Miss Full of Herself and I went back to class tonight. I should have known we were in for trouble the minute we got out of the car. Lola was barking & lunging at all the other dogs, flailing herself around at the end of the leash & generally being a total brat. ~sigh~ How the hell did this happen? I've done everything right with this dog...super socialized her with people and dogs as a teeny puppy, enrolled her in 1/2 dozen classes, taken her lots of places to experience lots of things and done training at home with her almost everyday. It must be my destiny. I went through all of this with Penny...I didn't however, create the monster that she was. It's just frustrating to take so much time & end up with the same thing. Maybe it's a Boxer thing, maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's just me & I suck at this. I don't know. Lola is lucky that I love her & will continue to put in the time to make her as perfect as Penny. I must say...working through all of these issues is very fulfilling when your hard work pays off.

Anyway, one of our new things is little dogs. There is a Bichon, Fox TerrierX and a Cairn Terrier in our class...and of course, Annette had Chip (affectionatly referred to as Demon Dog). Lola's never really been around little dogs and she's decided that it would be best to eat them. Well, probably not, but she gets so overstimulated when one walks past her she loses her mind. After about 20 minutes of sheer frustration (and Annette reminding me "YOU wanted this!!") I decided to put what I've learned reading all of these damn training books & break out the Peanut Butter (which I carry w/ me in a food tube & use if I need the "Big Guns"). I did open bar/close bar with Lola, which is essentially, little dog is near...Lola gets PB; little dog walks away, PB goes away. This actually worked pretty well if the little dogs weren't too close. We need to do more work on this & I may try to find a small dog class I can participate in (at a distance, of course) to work on desensitizing her.

By the end of class, I was exhausted.