I took Snowy to her first training day last night. Personally I think it is quite a small room for that many dogs (15 in the class +10 waiting for the next one) but I guess they want to give lots of people the opportunity to train their dogs. I could not quite hear half of what Pat (the instructor) was saying in class as there was just lots of noise, especially with the big dogs barking, and Pat was talking to one side of the class only. Snowy wasn't really paying attention at me last night. She must have been so excited to see all the dogs.

I must really do my homework and start training Snowy to sit when she is on my side, not only when she is in front of me. Snowy walks a bit fast so the only way she walks on heel is when I walk fast. I know this is wrong because the dog should follow the handler's pace, not the other way around. When I asked the other trainer (I forgot her name) she said put treats on your left hand and she will just follow the smell. Well.. easy if you have a 30" border collie like she does, not so easy when you have a 10" jack russell like I do. Snowy's head is no where near my hand and the only way she can sniff the treats is when I bend over or when she jumps. She said it may be better to use toys with smaller breed and they are going to show it next week.

I am afraid I do not 100% agree with what they say on the guide sheet like not putting toys on the floor and encouraging the dog to play by herself... I am not going to remove snowy's toys at all because I in fact do not mind that she plays by herself sometimes. I am however quite pleased to learn new techniques to train the dogs. I appreciate there are different techniques and if you know them you can chose what works for you.

The training can only get better from now - that is me being optimistic. Once Snowy is used to seeing so many dogs in one room hopefully she will pay more attention at me. I really hope that by the end of the training Snowy will become an obediant dog.