Making Progress

Timber is really making progress and I couldn’t be more pleased. I took him with Trooper and me to our agility practice yesterday. He stayed in the truck and when we were done I worked with him on leash. It took a little less time than last Sunday - only 15 minutes as opposed to 25 minutes. *grin*

The choke chain is working well - hubby and I are learning better how to use it effectively. We had an official hour long training on Thursday. It’s clear that hubby is a big ol’ softy and Timber knows it. Hubby has a very hard time getting Timber’s attention.

On our walk today I had Trooper and hubby had Timber but only a few minutes into it hubby asked me to take Timber. He is clearly getting frustrated by his lack of control … he would let Timber pull for a few seconds and wouldn’t correct him until I said something. But I don’t know that he’s totally doing it correctly. So I think he may need to go back and work with the trainer more.

When I took him we only had to walk for a few minutes before he was heeling!!! I was SO excited. This really is HUGE progress for our boy. The first time I took him out on a leash he threw himself down to the ground because he’d never been on a leash before. That was when? September? October? Not that long ago.

But I still feel bad for hubby. He’s not a weak person but he lets these dogs walk all over him. Considering his line of duty it’s almost funny. But I don’t like it when he tries to tell the dogs to do something and they just sort of look at him. *sigh*

We’ve already established that Trooper is “my” dog (who will do almost anything I say) and it upsets hubby.

Any advice? How do you help someone who has no “hand” (random Seinfeld reference!) to get “hand” when it comes to dogs?