Tonight we had puppy class. As my trainer Jill and I had discussed, we arrived about 5 minutes late to avoid the crush of dogs during class change time. Plus I carried Alice into the building and ring to be sure we didn’t run into any unruly dogs.
Overall, Alice did fine in class. She had a better time than last time for sure and was more comfortable. But she still had problems walking out into the middle of the ring.
We worked on watches, downs, luring, and taking one step with us. Watches and downs she has easily. Luring she doesn’t like, so I used our method of dropping treats to reward her for forward movement. That worked well in our space, but not so great when we tried to do it in front of the class. She only wanted to get so far away from our safe spot.
At the end of class we did some confidence building stuff. We tried eating out of a box, and Alice approached the box pretty well, but then decided she was done and wanted to go back to her spot. We also approached a wobble board, and while Alice was happy to sniff it, by that time she wasn’t hungry any more and wasn’t interested in treats. So we didn’t push it.
I should be fairly happy with how class went. She did better than last time, she was more comfortable in class. That is the main aim. But instead I am feeling really sad and guilty and worthless. Not about how Alice did in class, just in general. I know it’s just my mental illness, but it’s hard to feel this way.
I got one picture in class, sorry I didn’t get more but I was really having a hard time mentally. It is of Alice wearing a pink coat sitting on my Harry Potter blanket with some dogs in the background.
