Stevie's First Snow

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Graduation Day

Graduation Day

It's been quite an adventure, but Stevie has finished beginner puppy classes and has graduated. Yes, graduated. He passed all his tests and performed admirably. Of course there were a lot of treats involved but he demonstrated his ability to Sit, Come, Spin, and many more important tasks. We will continue to refine and reinforce his new skills and add on to these as time goes on. Who knows, maybe he'll go on go the advanced class and really impress us.

First Day of Puppy Class

The adventure has started! Friday night was the first night of class for Stevie and for us. Since our sweet puppy hasn't mastered the fine art of riding in a car, Walter had to sit with him in the back seat to hold him steady. When we arrived at PetSmart, we let him meander through the doggie "potty" area before approaching the store. There were so many distractions that Stevie became overwhelmed quite rapidly. At that point we noticed that we didn't have his harness on exactly right so had to calm him down to adjust that before going inside. Keep in mind how difficult that was because of all the dogs around going in and out of the store.

Once inside the store, another set of challenges developed. There were dogs everywhere, along with food, toys, and cats. Stevie acted like a kid in a candy shop by crying and pulling hard on his leash so Walter walked him around in the back of the store waiting for class to start.

We ended up picking a great night for puppy class because there is only one other dog enrolled and he was unable to come for the first class so Stevie had private tutoring. I think he needed it! His teacher's name is Kelly and is a vet student at State. She started out by giving us some information in handout form and explaining what we were going to be doing. Stevie was quite nervous so she suggested that we let him off the leash to explore. She locked the door so that no one could get in and Stevie couldn't get out. And then we began.

I can't say why we did this, but one of the new things Stevie learned was to go around in circles following a treat. We were told this would make more sense later. The other feat we are working on is teaching him to "watch me". With a treat in hand, we get his attention and then immediately hold the treat to our forehead to get him to look at our eyes. Their feelings are that if we can't get their attention, we can't get them to do anything. We will gradually increase the time between saying "watch me" and giving him the treat. The third item we will be practicing on this week is to put a treat in a closed fist and have him smell it but not open our hand. As soon as he stops trying to get into our fist we are to give him our treat and say "good boy".

We also have a spray bottle to squirt his "rear end" when he does anything we don't want him to do. Kelly instructed us not to spray his face because dogs enjoy this. However, a direct squirt to his posterior is seeming to be successful.

More later.

Puppy School

Although Stevie is a sweet, handsome, and lovable young puppy, he is in dire need of learning household manners. So on Friday he will be starting Puppy Classes at Pet Smart for one hour starting at 8:00 pm. We took Stevie on a short car ride last night to practice his skills in the back seat without his crate. Walter held him on his leash just to make sure he didn't jump up to the front seat. He sat up straight the entire mile that we drove, no barking or crying, but a little nervous for the entire trip. It was, however, easier than loading the crate into the car and forcing him in. Being a good car rider is one of the skills he will learn in school. Hopefully he won't drive the other two puppies crazy.

Stevie's Name

Naming a dog isn't easy. Since Stevie was adopted as a stray from Wake County Animal Shelter, he had no official name. The shelter had been calling him Eric or Love Bug, but neither seemed to fit. After leaving the animal shelter, I wanted to call him Monkey. We tried that for a day but it just didn't fit. The next day we tried calling him Peanut after the first dog I tried to adopt but that also didn't work. Walter was actually the one who came up with the name Steve. That seemed perfect except he is only a puppy so I opted for Stevie. Perfect fit. Although I sometimes call him Sammy after our former cat, I think Stevie is an excellent name for our "perfect" dog.