Poor Kozmo, he has to live with humans who are not always on top of things. Kozmo was out of treats and yesterday was his last Canine Good Citizen class. In an effort to be organized and multitask, I stopped to by treats while taking my mom to an appointment. I then left the bag with treats and a brand new collar in my mom's car. Once home, I thought I had enough time to cross off one more thing from my to do list. Suddenly I realize we have ten minutes to be at class and have to stop at the store to buy more treats. We were late to school. I felt bad for Kozmo, it's not his fault that his humans made him late to school. I told him to get used to it, he wasn't lucky enough to go to a highly organized home.
When we walked into class (late) our trainer said she thought Kozmo had grown since last week. After seeing his Easter photos lots of people have commented on his recent growth spurt. He is about 9 months old, if he continues to grow at this rate I might start to think he has some Great Dane in his blood lines!
The focus of our last Good Citizen class was to work on impulse control. Kozmo sat next to me and let the trainer approach him and pet him. He also remained in a sit stay while other humans and dogs walked by him. He has made tremendous progress in this 5 week class. We also worked on recall with distractions. Our trainer gave use several great exercises to keep practicing. Eventually the goal is for Kozmo to come to us when we call him even if he is off leash or found a more interesting toy or object of destruction.
By the end of class Kozmo's other human was walking him on a leash and carrying a nice big bone in his hand. Kozmo wanted the bone, but walked politely and wasn't jumping. It was a great class and we have a lot to do to keep up with everything we learned.
Once we were home and settled in after class and a late dinner, the humans were watching tv and Kozmo was happily laying in his bed working on a new bone. We keep a gate between the tv room and kitchen so that Kozmo doesn't chase the cat and the cat is free to move around his house. We heard the cat crying, but could see Kozmo in his bed being good. I got up and found Sparky on the other side of the gate meowing with some intensity. We had a HUGE breakthrough, Sparky wanted to be with us, even though Kozmo was in the room. I picked Sparky up and carried him to his bed. Sparky has his own bed on one end of the desk, off the floor and away from Kozmo and positioned directly under a window for backyard viewing. (Our pets are not spoiled) Sparky spent a few minutes going between his bed and the laps of both humans. Within a few minutes Sparky settled into his bed, Kozmo stayed in his bed with his bone and our entire family happily existed in one room with no drama. Kozmo might not be ready to pass his Good Citizen test, but he has certainly become a much better citizen in our household.
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