Noelle had her second training class last night, and she seemed to have taken a step backward since her first class. I think this is due to two things - first, I missed a few days of working on her training while I wasn't feeling well. Second, I took her for a 15 minute walk before her training class. Now, you may wonder why a 15 minute walk would influence how she did during class? Let me give you a few examples of how class went (of course, I was using hand signs whenever I was speaking to Noelle)...
Trainer: Okay, let's see her do a sit-stay.
Me: Noelle, sit.... stay.... no, don't lay down...come on, back up.... stay.... no, sit up.... stay... look, here's this yummy treat right above your nose, just follow it back up to a sit position.... no, don't lay back down!
Trainer: Hmmm...okay, how about a down-stay.
Me: Noelle, down..stay... ... watch me.... no, put your head up so you can see me... watch me... here i am, watch me... look, I have yummy food.. no don't close your eyes... noelle, wake up!
We actually worked on a new command - "leave it" - she saw a treat, saw the trainer put her hand over it... sniffed her hand for a second, then put her head down on top of the trainers hand and fell asleep. It was hilarious! This dog is the laziest dog I have ever met in my entire life - and she's only 6 months old! The trainer asked me to not take her for any more walks immediately preceding her scheduled training session. :-)
In other news, Joy is learning so quickly. She is house-trained now and so well-behaved. She has started sleeping on the bed with Noelle and Remi and and Doobie and me at night, and she is just like Remi - she tries to lay in the middle of the bed and stretch out as much as possible. Fortunately she's quite a bit smaller than Remi so I still have some room left over. Joy's favorite thing to do is to stalk the cats. She'll happily spend an hour or more just sitting and watching the hallway, waiting for a cat to appear so she can sneak up on it. Doobie doesn't mind - he just looks at her and ignores her. Montelle definitely minds, but sometimes I think he's just playing with her too, because he has plenty of opportunity to get away from her and usually just stays out and taunts her.
We're all going to PetSmart again this Saturday, and I hope one of my foster cats gets adopted. Okay, I'd love one of my foster dogs to get adopted too, but right now they're my Christmas dogs (Joy and Noelle, get it?) and it'd be fun to still have them around for Christmas! :-) I'm playing a game where everytime I'm with them and a Christmas song comes on, if I hear their name, they get a treat. Joy really likes the song "Joy to the World" and Noelle's favorite is "The First Noel". Silly I know, but I amuse myself rather easily. :-)
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