Bella Nova’s fourth obedience class was another successful one. We continued to work on heeling and sitting every time we stopped. Bella is learning really fast and will sit without being told most of the time.

Bella “lay down”

Our homework assignment was to work on staying up to six feet without moving for 30 seconds. Practicing during the week, we are already there.

Bella staying at 6 feet

My dad attended the class and thought Bella looked the best. Our trainer showed us the proper way to meet an unfamiliar dog by reaching your hand closest to the dog. This prevents exposing your face and neck from reaching across the dog.

From just four classes, Bella has progressed incredibly and everyone I show her to agrees.

Three obedience classes down, five more to go! Bella and I are learning a ton of stuff and I already feel like our 8-week course is worth the $119.00 I spent ($95.00 for the class and $24.00 for a 6-foot leash and choker chain).

Bella waiting patiently with choker and leash attached

Here is what we worked on in class #3:

Heeling and sitting when we stop: This is hard for Bella but important. Every time we are walking (heeling) and stop, she must sit. Right now it is with a command and correction with the leash, but no contact with her rear. This we need to practice over and over again.

Sit/Stay: Bella knows how to sit and stay but she gets distracted easily. She needs to be sitting and then stay on command. I walk in front of her and then return with praise. The goal is to increase this from 5 seconds to as long as possible each time.

Lay down:Bella knows how to lay down but I need to get her to do this without sitting first (something we always have done in sequence). She is good at it though so I don’t see this as being a problem.

Release and Return: This is where we are walking (heeling) and I “drop the slack” of the leash and walk backwards. She must follow (should automatically) and I can call her name and come to get her to return. This is to work on coming when called yet still be in control as well as to keep her paying attention. I love this technique because it is quicker than the normal dropping of the slack and turning around. It works well when I can tell she is not paying attention.

Are homework is to do the sit/stay and to continue working on sitting when we stop while heeling. I can do these together while we walk the neighborhood. Bella works better on sidewalks than the backyard, as she still dislikes the grass and mud of the backyard. Yes, she is a bit weird.

We got to play a bit at the end of the session. We went through a series of four “jumps” on the lowest rung of the agility jumps. Bella is always cautious at first but as she learns it is no big deal, she goes over like a pro (never hitting the bar). I’d love to get her to jump over a higher one as well. I still think she’d be great at agility and it looks like lots of fun.

I plan on making a few short videos showing what we are learning. Look for them soon!

Bella and I had our second class of obedience school. Without getting too overconfident, I already can see some drastic improvements and am greatly excited to have learned several new techniques. I will have to get some video to better demonstrate but here is what we are working on.

Heeling: I am walking Bella on my left side with healing commands and techniques to turn right and to turn left. Turning left is more difficult because you have to cross in front of her. But Bella is beginning to watch me more and wait for my directional cues.

She is also supposed to sit every time we stop which I plan on working on about 250 times before our next class. This I can see will be a bit tricky because Bella isn’t used to it and can be a bit stubborn.

Look out: This is the command and body movement to get her out of my path. Essentially, the goal is to walk forward and move her out of my space without touching her. This technique works well with dogs that jump up (Arizona) or just dogs that are often blocking the path because they want attention.

This is a super important command to learn because it will mean Bella will get out of the way when we are carrying things (such as future babies). Besides the safety factor it ensures that we as the owners are dominant and the dog will yield to our space.

It was a pretty intense session, much more so than our first one. We were both pretty worn out from learning. When it was play time Bella went across the agility A-frame 3 or 4 times without a problem and even went through the agility tunnel at full length 3-4 times. She was afraid of it completely the previous week and got a lot of praise from everyone for this!

I’m already excited for our next session and plan on doing our homework all week!!