So proud of Hazel! she had her first puppy class tonight.
Originally we weren't going to take her, as I've trained the other 2 and my mum's dog at classes previously, and I felt confident we could manage obedience at home, and we were going to use friends and family members dogs as our socialisation 'training'.
However, we've quickly realised that whilst Hazel is great with cockers, well, our 2 girls .. and fine with people coming into the house, she is petrified of other dogs and strangers in the street (as well as cars - parked and moving, fences, plant pots .. the list goes on)
She simply shuts down or tries to run away
So we booked into a puppy class for the 'mass socialisation' side, and who knows maybe I could use some help with the training
I fully expected her to sit and shake, being totally unresponsive and try to run away. :embarrassed:
We struggled to get into the hall, bless her, and she sat shaking like a leaf during the introductions.
By the time we'd done some sits and downs she'd relaxed a bit. Then they were allowed off to socialise however they felt - she was let off with the smaller more gentle dogs and she slowly paced around, warily, but she sniffed them, and allowed them to sniff her, though she never wagged her tail really. She also allowed other owners to touch her and talk to her.
By the end of the class she was holding her tail up a bit, instead of between her legs and she wanted to approach some of the other puppies.
It isn't much I know, but it was so nice to see her with dogs and people who she doesn't know and be relatively in control of herself and not completely scared to the point of not functioning, or fleeing. Fingers crossed we keep progressing
