The_Hillwood_Herald: SF SPCA Dog Obedience Training: Week 2 and 3

Week 2 was Halloween, but Rio still went to her class. Apparently, she has been there before because she was like the star student.
Week 3 was really fun. We did many fun things. The first thing we worked on was mat work. Rio loves the mat it seems. But I think it's because she knows we have hot dogs for her. Hot dogs are the high-value treats.

The second thing we worked on was find the hot dog. Find It is a fun game to play when there are other dogs coming your way and you just throw a treat on the ground and say "find it." This is to train the dogs to stay focused.

I personally love the game. I think Rio does too because she loves hunting for things and loves her treats. First a stuffed dog walked by. The funny thing is that some dogs do react to it. Then, the other trainer, brought in her real dog. They walked by while you went the opposite way playing Find It. I think almost every dog looked at it but then just went right back to finding the treat.

The third thing we worked on was touch. Touch is when their nose has to bop your hand when you say touch. When your dog touches your hand you have to click with the clicker because the clicker is quicker!

Once you click you have to give your dog a treat because they are focused on you. While you practiced this in your pod, which is something you stay in so the other dogs don't see each other, the trainers set up a course. There are two hula-hoops one orange mat and a small table. First you tell them to touch in the first hula-hoop. It they put at least one paw in you say yes and you give them a treat. You do that with the other hula-hoop and the orange mat. The table can make some dogs scared which is totally fine. If they don't want to get on you can just say touch close to the small table. Most of the dogs got on. If they don't get onto or into any of these objects and they want to sniff around first that is also fine for them to because they probably don't understand what to do at first.

The last thing we do is the game Look. They show the dog a stuffed dog. If they look you click the clicker. The clicker means they get food. Which all of the dogs know. That was also sort of fun.

The training is going pretty well and it's very fun. In the following interview, Nicole talks with me about the SPCA dog obedience training.