Week 1

I was extremely excited to start working with the dogs, I was planning it for months. The hardest decision of all was choosing which puppies I should focus on, who needs help more over others. It is so surreal, how attached I can get to the dogs, after only a couple of months of work at the shelter. The other day, for example I was talking to my mom, and I barely even noticed, I referred to my favorite dog as a person!

Anyways, choosing the pups was one of the hardest decisions I had to make in tha last couple of months, but I finally decided. In my first plan, I had 5 dogs, but after the first training session I quickly realized, how unrealistic that goal was.

One of the nominees went into foster care, and another is still only 5 months old, so I decide to leave her be a cute little puppy, and not introduce grown up life, with the training. :)

My report based on the first week and the dogs:

Pammy: hyperactive dog, with lots of energy. I needed to work her for 30 minutes at least before I could even attempt to start the training. Very energetic dog, has some shepherd characteristics. She repeatedly tried ( and succeeded) to untie my shoelaces, but I consider that puppy behavior, respectively of her age. HATES the leash, because she associated it with going back inside to the kennels and other dogs. Mostly dominant dog, and known to be somewhat dog aggressive, however this could be the negative effects of the shelter.

Sparky: older dog, really playful, but knows when to calm down. Really attentive to me all the time but only wants to do the exercises when there is a treat involved. Walks great on the leash, and learns really fast. Plays well with other dogs, has an interest in other dogs. Not aware of his size, and will try to jump for the treat even though he is like a 100 pounds.

Gotti (Remus): not very attentive, however really active dog and seemed to really like the treats. From my experience I would say that he knew the couple of basic tricks we did, but didn't show much interest in performing them. He jumped on me multiple times, and I used negative punishment to show him it is not good to jump.

Gracie: I was told she doesn't really like other dogs, she was kind of not attentive. She wasn't flattered by the treats, liked to be outside, but wasn't really motivated to do the tricks. Completely untrained, didn't know how to sit and lay down, and gave up trying to learn it as well. Really sweet do however, came over for rubs and was really playful.

Sadly, with all the potential adopters who needed my help choosing a dog, I didn't have time to take out Libby, my favorite pup. I would like to say it was the lack of time, and how busy I was but somewhere in the back of my mind, I was just scared. I have seen how the kennel techs take her out before, and it is a real challenge, but hopefully next week I will face my fears and take her out.

Knowing how much time it took me to work with these dogs though, and how much time I don't have, I am going to make cuts from this training program, and focus on only a couple of dogs, so I can really help them.