The Class Lemon

Okay, so most of my friends and family who have blogs write about their kiddos and what their kiddos do. Well since I'm sans child, let me just tell you about Maggie's first night of obedience school.

So, I signed Mags up for obedience training with a lady here in Florence. She has a great reputation and was highly recommended. The class is 4 weeks (1 night/week) and we started last night. I was so excited to take her!!! 1. because I wanted her to have more association with other dogs; 2. I want her to be an excellent dog...well trained as well as friendly/lovable...I mean she is my buddy, and I want her to be a great buddy. So we headed to the parking lot of Pet Depot last night at 6:30 anxiously awaiting instruction. I began to swell with pride over Maggie. There were about 12 other dogs and they were ALL barking, yapping, whining, etc. Mags never made a peep. She just wagged her tail and wanted to bebop around to each pup to say hi. Everyone was saying how good my dog was and how pretty she was and how she wasn't even making a sound. I told them that I've never heard her bark and that she's only yelped once ...when I accidentally shut her foot in the door :( Well, the trainer showed up and had us all fill out our paperwork. She then showed us her dog (who's 10 mos) who is perfectly trained. Her dog is like the angel dog....sits, stays, comes, etc. I thought to myself, "That will be my Maggie." So I was all pumped and ready to start and the lady began to pass out training collars. I'm not sure if you know what a training collar is, but it's a metal collar that has links in it with prongs that turn in towards the dog's neck. It does not hurt the dog, but is designed for training ie: if you dog pulls on their leash. Well, my pride was shot when the training collar went on Maggie. I have never in my life seen a dog freak out the way mine did. The other dogs whined a bit, but they pale in comparison to the temper tantrum the Magster displayed. She twisted, yelped (it was almost like a dog scream), got tangled up in the leash, was biting it, etc. You would have thought she was dying. She finally calmed down and sat by my feet. She didn't calm down because she was used to it, she calmed down because she realized if she didn't move, it wouldn't hurt her. We were all instructed to jerk on the leash 3 quick jerks when our pups tried to pull on the leash. The first training to work on was walking. Well, Maggie is a pretty good walker, but she's never been made to walk right by my left side. That topped with her lovely training collar made for a terrible experience. She instructed us to say "Let's go for a walk" and get our dogs to stay on our left side. The goal is to get your dog on the left side and walk with a loose leash. If the dog pulls or won't come, you do 3 quick jerks as to say "no" and when the dog is walking on your left side, you give praise so they know they're doing it correctly. She had us walk in a huge rectangle in the parking lot, in a line, and if the person in front of you was having trouble with their dog, just pass them. WELL I GOT PASSED BY EVERYONE!!! Maggie couldn't even complete the rectangle. After about 10 minutes, everyone's dog could quasi-walk on their left side. My dog couldn't even stand on all 4 legs. She was flopping, yelping, biting.......completely freaking out!!! I was thinking to myself...."I wish I was as rich as Oprah and could have Cesar the dog guy come to my house and personally train my dog because this is awful." Well we then moved on to the sit command. Mags has actually learned to sit (sort of) and I was hoping she'd redeem herself. Umm, no. The new way of teaching sit she did not like at all. After about an hour and half, the class was coming to and end and the lady asked if my dog could stay a little longer. Yep, we were "those" in the class....the ones who distracted the others and made a complete scene. Well, of course we stayed and the trainer actually tried to walk her. I'm not kidding....the trainer walked with Maggie about 15 minutes and for about 8-10 of those minutes, Maggie was throwing a fit. She even walked the entire length of the parking lot on her back two legs with her front paws wrapped up in the leash. She finally caved in and walked by her side (pretty good). Basically, the trainer said I have the biggest challenge of the class because of Maggie's breed. (I knew that was coming). She said Weimaraners are extremely smart and almost too smart when it comes to training. She said they make exceptional pets and are very lovable and are great companions, but when it comes to training they are VERY strong-willed. She did emphasize that Maggie will break and be trained, but it's just hard for Weimaraners to "give in" to the mentality that you are the one in charge. Umm....yeah.....I have my hands full. Well, we headed home and Maggie crawled up in the front seat of my car and put her head in my lap. I began to cry on the way home because my dog was the total lemon of the class. I being the wish-to-please in academia myself, hated the fact that my dog was basically rotten and was the class disrupter. I know that she'll get it, but it may be a long road. I'm determined and we'll tackle it and she'll be a great dog. I do think we may need prayer though!!! So.....upon reading this....please no judgement of my pup if you haven't met her. Actually if you came to visit she'd be SO EXCITED because she LOVES guests!!! Just don't ask us to show off any of our skills.....we're a work in progress.