Puppy Camp may be over but the work has just begun

Wow - it was quite a couple of days!  If you ever - and I mean ever - have the opportunity to go to a class from Susan Garrett take it!  At least audit it!  You will learn so much.

When I first got Cinder (almost 7 years ago) I knew nothing about dog training - and even less about agility training.  His training was less than stellar - and his foundation training was almost non-existant (something which I pay for every time we step on an agility course).  We learned many lessons together - and for the record, I wouldn't change Cinder for the world.  He is my once in a lifetime dog and although I will never go to World's with him, he is the dog that got me to World's.

When I started thinking about getting another puppy, I decided that I really wanted to fix all of the mistakes  I made with Cinder.  I read all the books and studied the videos.  For the last year I have been surrounded by World  Team dogs and I was determined that my new pup was going to be trained with excellence in mind.

Then dear Mr Mav come into my life and I was trying to implement everything I had learned.  And then I got lazy.  I rested on Mr Mav's success and didn't push any further.

This weekend was a great eye opener for me.  I came into it thinking that I had well trained puppy with maybe the odd hole in his training.  Well - I do have a great puppy - Mr Mav is wonderful!  But my training is not living up to his potential.

Yes - Mr Mav is wonderful at so many things at home... in my hallway... with no distractions.  But how much have I tested him outside that situation?  How many times has Mr Mav done something wonderfully at home and I just pat my self on the back thinking that I am such a wonderful dog trainer and not pushed him any further?

Well - this weekend sure put things into perspective for me.  Those amazing things that my baby dog could do at home so brilliantly (remember - because I am such a brilliant dog trainer - little scarcasm) weren't so easy for the Mavster in a new environment with lost of distractions.  Instead of getting lazy at home, I should have been pushing my dog - upping the ante for that next cookie - making us both better.

Please don't think that Mr Mav hasn't been trained.  He is house broken - knows his sit and down - and has been crate trained.  Many would think he was a very well trained dog. But I want more for Mr Mav.

I learned many things this weekend, but a big one is - dogs don't lie.  Don't come to class saying you trained something  - because your dog will give it away pretty quickly if you haven't...lol!  I thought I had lots of things trained - but Mr Mav showed me that I was missing a lot of things.  He also showed the instructors what I lacked in his training.  Drat - I was hoping he would keep our little secret...lol!  I was sooo busted!

There were some very hard moments for me over the past couple of days - heck - no one wants to hear they are doing it wrong.  But I am very grateful for those moments and the time my instructors took teaching me in those moments.

So I am leaving puppy camp a better dog trainer and with a list of things to do differently.  Most importantly I am leaving inspired to be better - to learn and grow.

Mr Mav did everything just the way I taught him to do - he wasn't naughty - my training was.  Susan always says that our dogs are a reflection of our abilities as a dog trainer.  It is very, very true.

It would be easy for me to post on my blog how wonderful everything went and how great we are - most of you wouldn't know any different.  But I just couldn't do that.  They say that admitting you have a problem is the first stage of recovery - guess I consider this my first step...lol.