Dog Genius

Although I'd taken all our other dogs to basic obedience training, none of them really excelled at it.   Max our first male springer spaniel enjoyed it the most. Missy thought it was a joke.  Mini used class time to get to know everyone and Jintsy just couldn't be bothered.  In fact, she was a little annoyed with the idea.

Jenny seemed beyond basic obedience and when my therapy dog research led me to the Humane Society they told me that she had to go to basic obedience and that she couldn't be a therapy dog until we had her for six months.  The basic obedience trainer and I talked about Jenny and agreed that basic would be too basic for her and since I had six months I looked for a more advanced program for my dog genius.

My vet referred me to a trainer that had a more open program.  Ed and Marie Wilson train all kinds of dogs for all kinds of activities and Jenny and I started going there every Saturday.  It really was a process of training me to handle Jenny and although Jenny was already a velcro dog, our bond was strengthened and we definitely improved our communications.

 There was one incident that made me put as much as possible into Jenny's training that nearly gave me a heart attack though.  One day, just one week after starting her training, a neighbor came to the door and when I opened the door Jenny bolted out looking for lizards.  I called and called her and she just completely ignored me.  She seemed to be in pursuit of something and ran across the street, into the neighbors back yard and jumped directly into the lake.  There is a four lane road on the other side of the lake and all I could think of was how I'd be chasing her across that road, hoping we both wouldn't be killed and then we would be on to the swamp on the other side of the road.  Jenny finally noticed me at the edge of the lake and swam toward me and came out - I gave her the down command and went over to get her.  Whew.  We were a stinky mess,  but I had her.  Definitely needed more practice!

When it finally came time for Jenny to "try out" for the therapy dog program at the Humane Society we were very well prepared and were able to proceed with certification.