I’ve been meaning to follow up on my original blog post Unleashed on the class that Micah and I are enrolled in, but just hadn’t gotten to it.
The class has been going pretty well, for the most part. We’ve done some interesting exercises. As I explained earlier, in our first week we basically worked on getting our dogs attention while working in a gated “box”. If our dog was doing well, someone might approach a little (on the outside of the gate) to see if our dog could continue working, and stay in their “comfort zone”.
Since then we have also had dogs working on opposite sides of a single gate, walking back and forth together. The gate serves as a visual barrier for them, while allowing them to work surprisingly close. For a reactive dog, this is harder than you might think.
We’ve had handlers approaching each other, meet in the middle, and then continue on.
We’ve had dogs use a tunnel or a jump to get a little revved up, and then go to their mat to ramp it back down. (The mat is used as a calming zone for the dog).
There are lots of different things going on at any one time during class. While some people are working with an instructor and/or another dog and handler team, others are working on maintaining eye contact, or doing relaxation exercises. The point is to be able to work while there are lots of other dogs and people around, and still stay under their “I’m going to lose it” threshold.
I would highly recommend this class for anyone who needs their dog to have a little more self control, focus and general calmness.
