I wanted to share a little Delilah story with you.
First I have to tell you, I’m not very good about setting time aside to actually work on training my dogs, which is one of the reasons I really, really like our Thursday night drop in obedience class.
I also think it’s a really great opportunity to expose and work the dogs around other dogs.
Last Thursday we went to our drop in obedience class after having missed it for about a month, for whatever reasons health, weather, a soldier returning home 🙂 it had been a long time since we’d gone to class.
Hubby goes with me and he works Sampson, while I work the Diva. Apparently even though we do make the dogs sit, down and stay at home, someone forgot the rules in obedience class. It really didn’t take her TOO long to go into a down for me, but she had a real problem ‘staying.’
Anytime I would walk away and she would follow, I would turn around and gently lead her back to her place. We’ve got a real great group of people in that class so a couple of times she got up and someone would take her leash and stop her.
I’m the only one in the class that carries a treat bag on my hip (and trust me, all the dogs know it!) And I was running pretty low on treats and basically had to let her lick the bag to reward her, so during a ‘stay’ command, I took the opportunity to run out to the store in order to grab a sample bag of kibble. I’ve been using Taste of the Wild in my treat bag and I’m telling you, if I could figure out how to get my dogs to stand on their heads, they would do it for this kibble. They like it THAT much.
I’m sorry, I do digress at times.
Delilah happened to be on the far end of the training room in a ‘down stay,’ and Hubby and Sampson were at the front of the training room, so if you were looking at the shop as a long rectangular room Delilah would be at one end, I would be at the other and Hubby and Sampson would be about half way in between. Also at the far end of the room was my friend Dave with his dog Molly.
I had put the kibble in the bag and was throwing the wrapper out when I heard Molly, for no apparent reason let out a noise, which if I really think about it, sounded like a howl. Whatever it was, it scared the Bejesus out of my little Diva who with no mommy to reassure her she was ok, sprinted across the room for daddy. Needless to say the entire class burst into laughter, while I walked in saying, “What?”
Yes, my dogs DO make me laugh on a daily basis.
Book update: My book has 11,324 words.
Ugh – I hate when I run out of treats. Good that they have the shop right there!
Awww, poor baby got scared – at least she had Daddy to run to in your absence.
Maybe Molly was howling because she wanted some Taste of the Wild too…. 🙂
I don’t think anyone knew why Molly howled, she just did. LOL
I’m really glad that the shop is there, I’ve asked Sara to see if I can buy a box of the sample bags because the dogs love them so much and I don’t want to buy a five pound bag and have it sit. 🙂
Do you have a favorite treat your dogs like?
Oh that is a cute story. I think Molly wanted some of your treats 😉
I’ve been using these awesome treats that are made from salmon, their soft so I can break them in half so they go farther. The puppies already know what goodie and cookie mean, thier so spoiled 🙂
My kids used to say, If we can make mom laugh, we can get away with anything. Now my dogs have figured that out.
I’m really impressed that you could walk away at all! Well done Delilah! (And Jodi!)
Running out of kibble is like running out of toilet paper – highly inconvenient! 🙂 Glad to hear that there was a store nearby!
I bet that was funny. Good thing no one had a video going…lol.
I was going to say somethingy… BUTT.. when I saw that toilet paper comment… BaaaWaah
You know I love Delilah stories. Thanks to her, you’ll never have writer’s block.
I just can’t get over that you had a good enough Down Stay you could run out to the store!
Ugh. I hate running out of treats so much I have an emergency bag of biscuits stored in our agility bag, just in case. I used to have two.
I also agree with Kirsten above. Delilah has quite an eviable down-stay to last that long with you out of sight! You have so much to be proud of!
Hey Jodi…Isn’t it so funny how are pooches don’t show off their talents in public. My boys are generally very obedient especially when they have treats being waved infront of them. However, when I drag them to work with me, they simply don’t respond as well. I blame it on all the interesting smells around that interfere with their ability to focus. Your obedience classes sound like a heap of fun especially for Delilah & Sampson.