About 6 weeks ago I met a lovely young person just over 16 years old and her dog Luna. She came to our Manners Foundation workshop because her grandmother and her dog were coming and I think they both wanted the support of someone they knew in class. Sometimes we forget how scary that very first dog training class can be. I know mine was way more years ago then I want to admit on paper!
This is their story.
Luna is a herding breed dog and I already told you her human is a teenager. They live with family and other dogs. So in my mind probably not a lot of consistency and I suspect stress on the dog as she has some herding behaviors the other dogs don’t appreciate. Luna spends time in her human’s room segregated. When I first met them like most Day One classes, they seemed discombobulated and I didn’t see much connection between the two. I saw love but not communication. But the majority of class was that way! Sadly, from my point of view I didn’t feel Luna’s human was paying much attention to me and I didn’t feel I was communicating with her very well either. I put some thought into that before they were due the following week.
Week 2 of class, again Luna and her human came with her grandmother and her dog. I was so very impressed by this woman and what she accomplished in the first week. They were a different team! I had set up a visual barrier just in case based on previous week but it wasn’t needed at all. They were starting to understand each other. And Luna’s human started asking questions for clarification or how something they were learning worked outside of class. I felt very happy for her.
Week 3. Luna and her human came alone and her grandmother’s dog came with a different family member. I could still see improvement and felt her sense of pride in the skills Luna was gaining. This level of class is merely starting that dialogue with your dog and getting the very basic of behaviors down.
The last two weeks continued to show improvement, less frustration on both human and dog and great progress from week 1. Luna’s human smiled more, and was more relaxed even when Luna was bouncing off the walls.
They were the only dog team to come to all 5 weeks of class and graduated successfully from Manners Foundation. We truly enjoyed watching these two start their journey and we hope we get to see them again.
Yes, this is why I love coaching humans to train their dogs.
If you know someone who could benefit from some coaching with their dog, stop by our website and see what we offer.