Monty’s Going to School

Monty has a private obedience lesson tonight after work! Or is that.. I have a private obedience lesson with Monty after work. hehe

I want to compete with Monty in a few things, like obedience trials for sure (remember that Winger was able to earn his CD (Companion Dog) title, but I couldn’t go further in obedience with him because he had hip displasia and couldn’t do the jumping that was required).

I hope that this 1hr+ private lesson will get us headed in the right direction. After we take this private lesson we’ll be allowed into this instructor’s classes when the next group starts in a few weeks. She’s been training for 20+ years and has many titles on her dogs. I hope her training style will jive with mine.

I think Monty is doing really well. He’s been out twice now to meet with the retriever club guys. He has the retrieving instinct, that is for sure!

I haven’t formally taught him “Stay” yet. I’m sure he’ll learn that later today! His sit and down and come are really good, unless he’s hyper outside and is trying to get me to chase him instead of being a good puppy and just coming inside when I call him.

He’s such a fun puppy (except when I’m in shoes with no socks and trying to get him to come back inside and it’s snowing and I have to chase him around his kennel run getting snow in my shoes). You’ll never believe how big he is when you see him next! He’s nice and slim too, unlike the other lab puppy in our retriever club who’s almost the same age and is sooo much wider.

J. is coming tonight too so he can learn how to train a pup too (and remember all the things I’m told so I don’t forget) (and listen to the lesson first hand so he doesn’t misbelieve me later). I also hope to start going to conformation classes so I can learn how to handle him in a dog show ring.