Stuffed to her floppy little ears…

We decided to enroll Molly in a puppy obedience class at a local pet superstore (which shall remain nameless until I decide how I feel about the class and the trainer). Of course, the class if probably just as much for the PH and I as it is for our dog. If nothing else, the threat of a graduation requirement and the fear that our dog will be the first ever to fail puppy class should be enough to make us practice the recommended one hour a day.
Anyway, we ended up having a one-on-one session with the trainer. I say “trainer” but she was more a 20-year-old pet store employee with some questionable training herself. The entire time she was explaining the concept of the class and going over what we would learn, she was taking treats out of a pouch on her belt and feeding Molly treats.
When it came time for her to show us how to train Molly she used– of course– treats as an incentive to get her to obey. By the time the little monster was handed over to us to try the training, she wanted nothing to do with us. I mean, we made her learn things in exchange for a treat while her pal the trainer gave them away for nothing. It was a difficult time getting Molly to even stay near us, let alone teaching her to sit.
Despite all this, it’s been a pretty good week and she is getting good at sitting on command. We have kind of picked which things we’re going to continue to teach her from the class and which things we’re abandoning. The first thing to go is the clicker that makes her flatten her ears and is guaranteed to make me insane if I have to hear it constantly. Number two is the trainer giving her unlimited treats… I will spare you the details, but it was a long night with a lot of number two.