Monday, October 02, 2006

2 Months and counting...

September was a busy month and flew past. We've now had Colin for just over 2 months and the excitement continues. Colin "graduated" from his manners class last week. He's pretty good at "sit" and "down" and is good at loose leash walking when I have treats in my hand. We've started a little Flyball training with him and when he's in the mood he is very good and focused. This week we plan to start Obedience class with Colin to continue to improve his skills.

We've certainly exposed him to a lot of dogs, people, places and activities in the last 2 months and in general his socialization skills have improved greatly. He still usually barks at new dogs and people who pass us on a walk, etc. and we need to continue to work on that. He still occasionally spooks at new and unusual things like an empty wheelchair at the training center or a swinging bridge on a hike (I don't blame him for that - Tamber didn't like it either but after carrying them over 3 swinging bridges both Tamber and Colin walked over the 4th on their own).

Saturday I had Tamber at Agility class and as usual she was very excited to be on the agility field, see her old friends (dogs and their owners), etc. Someone remarked about how excited she was and I replied, "... and this is my calm dog!".