Make My Monday - 1st Puppy Class

Sunday afternoon, I took Tucker to his first of 8 puppy classes. He did a terrific job with the two commands that we learned: "Watch me" and "Sit". We practiced a bit last evening and this morning. He still remembers them. Of course, he gets a treat for remembering. Eventually, we're suppose to ween off regular treats into just verbal praise and pats. We'll see how that goes. By the way, in class with us are a gal, her girlfriend and their kids (and their very smart dog). She came up to me afterwards and said, "Hi Weyrd, I'm H..., remember me?" I knew the gals were together, but it didn't occur to me that I knew either one of them. Turns out I did know H... as we used to socialize a bit at a nightclub in town about 20 years ago. Haven't seen her since. Now we'll probably catch up over the next 8 weeks of Sunday afternoon classes.

Tucker's potty training is going pretty well. Since Wednesday he's only had three small accidents. One was in the bathroom on the tile when Weyrd was taking too long getting ready to leave. The other two were near the door. Tucker tends to balk at doors and apparently if he has to wee...he promptly piddles right there on the carpet. He's none too thrilled with going out my front door or with going up and down my outside steps since you can see between the steps to the floor below us. However, Tucker will go IN my front door now. He will also go down most solid steps if they aren't too steep and up a few solid steps.

I've taken Tucker off leash part of the time inside now, as long as he recently pottied outside (Tucker still thinks the doggie litter box is a bed and the doggie litter is a toy...this is different stuff from cat litter, btw). He likes to race around the outer part of my living room and between the furniture as fast as he can. Sometimes with a toy in his mouth. Tucker will also throw a toy around or up in the air and then pounce on it. The other thing he likes to do is roll around on the floor growling and acting like a ferocious huge dog. I'll attempt to capture some video at some point. In the meantime, Tucker is also learning the cue of "Uhn uhn" which if given more than once or twice results in a removal of attention or a time out. Hopefully, he figure out that chewing on furniture stuff isn't so fun afterall... Now it's time to go check out Doggie Day Camp.