Tommy goes to obedience school

Last night was Tommy's first night in obedience school. There's only one other puppy in the class, Aman, a 10-week-old golden lab. Tommy started learning to sit and to walk on a leash without pulling. I like practicing the sit command since Tommy gets treats and praise for getting it right. I hate practicing the walking on a leash because he gets punished instead of praised. Well, he gets praised when he's doing it right but he gets punished when he starts pulling. Whenever he starts pulling on the leash we do an "about face" and go the other way so that Tommy gets yanked on his collar. This apparently teaches him to pay attention to the leash and to stay with Mommy or Daddy so that he doesn't get yanked. Poor Tommy is so small that he whirls through the air when we do an about face. I'm hoping that he learns to walk with us quickly so we don't have to keep up the "about face" routine for very long. I feel cruel and mean when I do it.


Tommy's other command last night was "down," which gets him to lay down. We've already trained Tommy to do this as neither he nor the kitties get their meals until they lay down. This keeps them from getting under our feet when we're getting their food ready and it keeps the kitties from meowing for their food. The trick, however, is to get him to do puppy push-ups which is to get him to go from the down position to the sit position and back again over and over :)


As for house-breaking, today I started leaving Tommy in his crate while I go to work so that he won't pee or poo in the kitchen. I feel mean doing this. But I guess part of training is being strict or else the training won't work. And, really, it's about time a 4 month old puppy stopped going to the bathroom in the house.