I Wanna Be A Dog Scout

In preparation to pass her test and become a Dog Scout, Lottie Moon and I attended our first class in June. Kym Jarvis, owner of Anything Goes For Dogs, has graciously donated her time and wonderful facility to Columbus Dog Scouts prep class, and I was so excited to bring Lottie and work on her skills. Dog Scouts is a great organization, and that is my first big goal for Lottie, to pass her Dog Scouts test. For more info on Dog Scouts, go to http://www.dogscouts.org/






 
 

Lottie did amazingly well. This was actually the second class of a series of four, but I was out of town for the first one, so Lottie was working at a disadvantage to the other dogs. She did just fine, I was very proud. There were about ten other handler/dog teams there, all at different skill levels. We worked on sit and down, stay, and heel.  Lottie struggles a lot with "stay", but she is doing much better, and up to about 8 seconds and about 2 steps away from me. Kym had some good suggestions for us, and we discussed ways to work on her comprehension that "stay" will be for several minutes . . . seconds . . . nanoseconds . . . whatever! Seriously, she has really improved, and I know she will holding that stay just fine very soon. She's made so much progress already, and really, who wants to sit still when there is SO much to do?

Working on "heel" was interesting, as this was the first time we had tried this. Up to this point, we've just been practicing loose-leash walking. I've been concerned that she doesn't care how many times she bolts forward and crushes her laynex on her collar, she continues to do it. I switched her to a Easy Walk harness, and now she does much better. "Heel" means walk right next to me and follow closely, without leaving my side. That presents some problems for a blind dog. The trainer Trish suggested I teach Lottie to bump my leg with her nose while we walk, and I like this idea, that might be a way to get her to stick close to me. We'll work on some things and see how we do.







Lottie in her favorite position,
standing and "watching" the world from underneath me!