GIGGLES

On Sunday, I got up too early after staying up late Saturday night. After letting him out for his first potty break of the day, Ozzy was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, looking at his reflection in the fireplace glass, growling at it! Too cute! It made me smile and giggle quietly to myself. Do any of us truly ever just get childlike and giggle every so often.

We had our 1st puppy class on Sunday. We are ready to find out what the best method of teaching him is. I'm sure Bert and Ernie will appreciate having the dog around more if he doesn't harass them every step they take around the house. Josh got a little better with him Saturday. He wasn't quite a skittish around him and took more control of the relationship as the day went on. He'll learn. He LOVES his new best friend!

The puppy class was mostly orientation but the last 15 minutes we worked with a clicker. First we "loaded" the clicker. Sounds weird but once I understood why we were doing this, it made sense. Ozzy caught on very well for his first class. The first homework is "Watch Me". We have to teach him to pay attention to us and by saying "Ozzy, Watch Me", directing his eyes to ours and having him calm down for a moment is a very important lesson for our family. Ozzy has begun to just run away from us when we call him so "Watch Me" will be good during those times. We also worked on "Sit". Ozzy is perfecting that quite well! He's such a smart dog! Dave's biggest wish for Ozzy's education is "come" or "here". We are using the clicker combined with treats to teach these new obedience skills. The store bought treats aren't going well. The trainer said we can use low sodium hot dogs cut up into bits instead. So today, I cut up a whole package of low sodium turkey dogs and put them in a baggie for quick, 15 minute training sessions.

Ozzy did well in the car ride yesterday to take Josh home. For being in and out of the car 7 hours, Ozzy did very well.

Today, when I came home for lunch, I did a quick 15 minute training and Ozzy now seems to have "Sit" pretty well mastered at least for me. "Watch Me" is a close 2nd with me. He impresses me day by day! After supper we took him outside to run the yard. Dave had an empty plastic pop bottle that Oz kept chasing around. It was HILARIOUS!!! Oz would jump into the air, all 4 legs spread and POUNCE! Cute as can be! While he was distracted, I would say, "Ozzy, Watch Me" and HE WOULD!!!! Yay!!! The training is working so far! Dave worked on "here" with him. I know that will be super important while we are out in the yard more than anywhere else so that we can feel like he can run yet will come when called. I'm loving this adventure so far!