Coco's Training, Day 1

Nearly three years ago, when Coco, the family dog for whom this blog is named, and her best friend, Starsky, were mere pups, Brad and I enrolled the two of them in a dog agility class. That's where the dogs run over an obstacle course, like the weave poles, the teeter-totter, the A-frame (up one side and down the other), the tunnel and various jumps. At the time, Coco was far too wild, though she demonstrated a lot of drive. Now I've decided to try training her. We've worked on "come", "sit", "stay" and "back", most of which she does pretty well. She loves to play fetch but she's more interested in tug-of-war when she brings whatever she fetches. But she's learning to give.

Today was the first day of her training. We worked on "stay" after I threw her toy. I can see it will take a while before she learns that command when there's something fun, like chasing a toy. Our first session was only 10 minutes, the recommended time, since dogs' brains are the size of a walnut and their attention span is short.