A few of my favorite things: woods, snow and Kozmo

Kozmo had a great time hiking. He did very well off leash. How can you not love that sweet face?

Kozmo's Fith Class and a trip to PetCo

Yesterday was a big day, Kozmo got to go to PetCo, wait in the car while I had a doctor's appointment and then go to school. PetCo was first. He was perfect. No barking, no misbehaving. He did try to help himself to a treat from the treat bar, but he's a dog, we can't expect too much. He met other people and was in a strange environment and still listened and behaved. At the checkout counter he sat politely while the clerk gave him two treats. We were proud.

Next the other human had to run into Staples. Kozmo and I waited on the sidewalk outside. Cars went by, lots of people went by and Kozmo remained sitting. A little girl came up and asked if she could pet my dog. I told her mom he might jump. They both assured me they have a lab and this was ok. Kozmo loved this little girl, let her pet him and when she told him to sit and lay down he obeyed her. By the time our human came out of the store Kozmo was jumping up to to get a leaf for this little girl, as soon as he got the leaf he would lay down. We were proud even if the little angel forced me to be nice to a kid and talk to strangers.

Kozmo and Human waited for me while I was at the doctors. Both took a nap and didn't destroy anything in the car. We were off to class. Kozmo goes in and sits down without a single bark. Both trainers came around to tell us how much he as improved. The first exercise was recall. Only I had to hide where he couldn't see me and call him. He did this perfectly twice. Then we had to work on down without doing sit first. The trainer used Kozmo as a demonstration dog. In a happy voice she said "one, two, three, DOWN" and he went right to the ground. He even did it when we practiced.

The rest of class was a disaster. I received more corrections than Kozmo. I hold the treats too high, I let him get away with stuff, blah, blah, blah. I never liked school anyway. We had to walk off leash. Kozmo did everything you can imagine except walk next to me. We had to do down stay and walk in a circle behind our dogs. Every time Kozmo gets up to see where I am going.

When we got home I attempted to trim his nails. Front feet are done. Third nail of first back foot and I got it too short and he bled. Not sure which was worse, Kozmo crying and laying on the guilt or the other telling me how awful and mean I am. I went to bed thinking maybe Kozmo deserves a better human. Maybe I'm not as good of a dog mom as I try to be.

This morning I tried to take him out one last time before I left for work. Rather than pee or poop he wanted to play tug with his leash and jump. My white shirt has mud all over...not just the bottom...he jumped up and got his muddy paws on my shoulders. Then he slipped out of his collar. Luckily he was so focused on tugging his leash he didn't realize he wasn't in his collar. I took the liberty of using the scruff of his neck, got him inside, secured in his crate, changed my clothes and headed to work.

Kozmo gets neutered on Monday. Meanwhile he is going for the hike of his life tomorrow.

Looking forward to less challenging doggy days......

Off leash adventure

Kozmo has been testing me.

Last night in class our trainer told us that at 7 months Kozmo is just like having a teen age kid. All I can say is that I now have a better understanding of why certain species eat their young. Kozmo is lucky I am a vegetarian.

So Kozmo has been going for off leash hikes and making me very, very proud. Wednesday night we head to our regular trail through the park. We start off beautifully and I'm thinking to myself how much I love the smell of the woods and how happy I am that it is light out longer and we can enjoy more time in the woods on weeknights. My happy thoughts are interrupted by Kozmo going down a muddy bank to the stream. No problem, he often does this and gets a drink. In a flash the little bastard runs through the stream, up the other side of the muddy bank to the basketball court. It's a nice evening so there are kids playing basketball. I don't care that he went to see the kids as much as there is a road along the basketball court AND the human crossing of the stream has a bit to be desired in February.

Not so gracefully I make my way across the stream and up the muddy bank. At the same instant Kozmo and I both see a sandwich laying on the ground in the parking lot. Kozmo is faster so he gets there first. I have no idea how old this sandwich is, if the meat is spoiled, if there is something in the sub that could kill my sweet puppy. Before I can move my old feeble muddy feet over to him, in one motion he has the entire six inch sub in his mouth, is down the bank, across the flipping stream again and hiding under some bushes to finish his treat. (by the way, my trainer told me he just got a big reward for running away from me)

I'm muddy, my dog is muddy and I have no idea when he is going to get sick or die from this disgusting sub. We resume our walk. Because I am an idiot and I need my dog to run and get tired I try to let him off leash again. He does well and starts to regain my trust until we get to the part of the trail where he can see the sandy area for the volleyball court. Three times we let him run and play fetch in this area. So he runs as fast as he can to the sand. I call him. We have a stand off. Eventually he comes back, I reward him, and he's back on his leash. I am still waiting for him to get sick and am still pissed.

We resume walking on our leash and I stop to let him get a drink at another part of the stream. Rather than taking a drink he jumps into water up to his belly. The good news is that he's going to be a great water dog. The bad news is my white dog is now totally filthy and I'm pretty wet and muddy. We get home and both go straight to the bathtub. Kozmo's bath is first. He is gross. Now my tub and entire bathroom are muddy. Finally my dog, myself and my bathroom are clean. It's 9pm and I haven't had dinner. I love Kozmo.

Kozmo's Fourth Class

Kozmo was excited to go to his 4th class last night. I think he gets the routine and knows it will be fun. He has to work, but he generally goes through an entire bag of treats in one hour. So he loves class! We arrived, and he didn't even bark. We went right to our seats and Kozmo politely sat down next to us and watched the other dogs.

We had to pair up with another dog & human. Each of us went to opposite corners of the room and we had to walk towards each other, meet in the middle, make our dogs sit/stay, the humans shake hands, and the dogs cannot meet. Kozmo was paired with a stubborn Burmese Mountain Dog, Frank. It took Frank a long time to sit. Kozmo sat and patiently waited for the exercise to be over. Good job Kozmo!

Next we had to do recall. A trainer takes Kozmo to one end of the room and he has to ignore all the other dogs and people and come directly to me. I wasn't allowed to bend over, clap, or whistle. All I could do is say his name and "come". We practice this a lot. I was confident until they decided to add a distraction. Another trainer stood in the middle of the room shaking a stuffed bunny to distract the dogs. I was nervous. Finally, it's Kozmo's turn. I told the trainer with the stuffed bunny to watch her fingers. I was certain Kozmo would lose focus on me and try to kill that stuffed bunny. The little man proved me wrong. He ran as fast as he could right to me. Just to prove it wasn't a fluke we repeated the exercise.

Everyone was laughing at Kozmo's speed. The trainer said on the last day of class we can have races but she is pretty sure Kozmo is the fastest dog in class. He's not there to win a race. I was so proud he ignored the distractions and came right to me, giving me more confidence to continue our off leash hikes.

Just to keep me humble Kozmo screwed up the next exercise. He was to sit/stay while I removed his leash, sat the leash on the ground and made him wait. I had my hand on his collar, but in one quick move he got away and ran to the poodle next to us, Howie. Kozmo really wants to play with Howie.

The more he learns the less funny stories I have to share. I guess that's a good thing. This class is ending and we can't continue at the same place. So Kozmo is now registered for a class at a new facility starting in March. This class focuses on the Canine Good Citizen Exam. We are going to work really hard and hope that someday Kozmo can pass the exam and be a certified Canine Good Citizen!!

One last piece of good news. The shelter where we got Kozmo does a calendar to raise money and awareness. Kozmo was asked to be in the 2013 calendar. We are working hard to make him an ambassador for all shelter dogs!!

Kozmo's Third Class

Last night was Kozmo's third class. It is unbelievable how much he has learned in 2 weeks. We go to class and he saw the other dogs and started to bark. We made him sit and as long as he was sitting and not barking we kept giving him treats. It was amazing how different he was compared to two weeks ago when I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me because he wouldn't stop barking.

Last night we worked on impulse control. I had to make Kozmo sit then put a treat a few feet in front of him and tell him to wait. When he calmed down and stopped pulling on his collar he was allowed to get the treat. By next week they want him to wait a full minute. We have our work cut out for us.

The trainer wanted to see how we are doing walking on a leash. So each person had to walk the length of the room and back two times with their dog. Let me point out that the rest of the class is watching you do this. You can tell that some dogs have fenced in yards and their owners never walk them. The one thing Kozmo knows is walking. He goes for more walks than any dog I know. I was excited. I was confident my dog had this one in the bag. While we were waiting for our turn he calmly sat right beside me. He was doing so well that 2 trainers walked by and commented on how he is the most improved dog in 2 weeks. Finally it was our turn. Kozmo decided to humiliate me in public. Rather than demonstrating that the one thing he knows better than anything is how to walk nicely on a leash he decided it was play time. Kozmo decided to play tug with his leash and jump and generally act like a spaz in front of the entire class. I wanted to die. The trainers laughed and said he still has a LOT of puppy in him. I kept saying, "but he knows this."

The little beast did redeem himself with recall. I had to give Kozmo to the trainer and go to the other end of the room. Again, in front of the entire class. I called him and he ran right to me on the first call. This might not sound like a big deal, but with 20 other humans and 10 other dogs in the room I was very proud.

We also worked on stand, which is harder than it sounds. Yes, all dogs know how to stand but I've never worked with that command. He knows sit and when he wants to he knows down. I had to put him in a sit and then ask him to stand. He looked at me like, "dude I'm sitting nice, give me the treat, I don't really understand what you want"

We have a lot of work this week. He needs to learn to wait and down stay with me turning my back on him. Practice, practice, practice.

This morning he did something that I can't decide if it was really smart or really bad. Every morning I fill his kong bone with peanut butter and treats. I put it on a paper towel on the counter by the coffee pot so the other human can give it to him right before he leaves for work. This morning Kozmo saw me filling his bone. Then I went upstairs to get ready for work. I heard his ball rolling around and thought I had a few minutes to get dressed. Suddenly he was quiet. I looked downstairs and the little brat had his kong bone. So do I get mad that he clearly broke a big rule and helped himself to something from the counter or do I praise him for being so smart to only get what belonged to him and not destroy my rug, couch or kitty!?!?!?! I was running late so I pretended I didn't notice how the little monster obtained the bone.

Kozmo's Second Class

The good news is that Kozmo was amazing last night. The bad news is that I have no funny stories to relay.

It was like we took a different dog to class. He got a little excited and barked when we got there but then we told him to sit and he calmed down. He wasn't the idiot barking and disrupting class. He demonstrated that he did his homework and knows sit, down, and is learning his name. One of the trainers would walk up to distract him and I had to say his name and get him to look at me. He did really well. I'm still not sure if he knows his name or knows that I have cheese and treats in my pocket.

The big test was that all of the owners and their dogs had to sit along either side of the room and each person had to make their dog walk nicely on a leash the length of the room, no pulling or jumping. I wasn't sure how he would do with all the people and dogs to distract him. We were picked to go first and he did really well. I know this is mean, but I was really happy to watch the other dogs and see how terrible they are walking on a leash. In fact, it was so bad that the trainer kind of yelled at the class. She said if you want your dogs to walk on a leash then you have to take your dogs for walks, EVERY DAY! She said dogs don't learn to walk on a leash in class, it requires long walks every day. I guess our twice daily walks are paying off :)

Kozmo was not the worst dog in class. One collie barked so much the owner was asked to take the dog to the lobby area of the building because it was so distracting for the other dogs. Another dog had an accident on the floor and had to go outside 2 other times. Kozmo isn't perfect but he wasn't the idiot barking the most or the loudest and he did his business outside like a good dog. Kozmo also made a friend, Frank. Frank is a Bermese Mountain Dog who is the softest, cutest dog ever.

We worked on come and sit stay. Luckily we have been doing a lot of practicing with down stay at home so Kozmo looked like a star puppy! The trainer saw sit stay was easy for Kozmo and made us do it with me turning my back on Kozmo, he was perfect!!!

We were so happy and proud of our little man. He is going to require tons more work and daily practice, but he's starting to catch on to the commands and being around other dogs and people.

Now Kozmo's humans need some training. Last week we took his travel bowl and water, but we forgot to give him a drink. This week we forgot the bowl and water. On the way home we stopped at the store and got a gallon of iced tea. We stopped for gas and I noticed the tea was missing it's lid. Kozmo figured out how to open the gallon of tea and got himself a drink. Next week we will remember his water. Proof of a true dog daddy....human himself a glass of tea from that jug when we got home!

If I could just get Kozmo to leave poor Sparky alone......

We will do our homework for the week and are looking forward to class next week where the challenge is down stay.