Mikita's First Day of Puppy Preschool

Being a dog mom, means training my precious pooch to not be a nightmare in public. Much like demon children, my little baby does not know that she can't scream in the middle of class....We're working on it okay? Don't give me those judgmental looks cuz Mikita feels like she needs to bark at every dog that is near her...She's trying to make friends damn it!

But seriously, I am already seeing TREMENDOUS change in Mikita when it comes to behavior. We've known she was such a smart puppy since the day we first got her, and I knew that she would pick up on things really quickly. But that doesn't mean it's been easy...

Please Stop Barking

Of course I was prepared for Mikita to react to being in a new place and with lots of unfamiliar dogs, but when we showed up she would NOT STOP barking. I was honestly a little embarrassed...like why is my dog the only one being crazy right now? I know that its normal for her to be stressed and react to all this new stuff but I just didn't know how to handle it. It became very clear that these puppy classes were not only for her, but for me as well.

One Smart Cookie

Like I said, Mikita has always been smart and after day one of puppy preschool, I could see that we weren't going to have a problem with her learning new commands. I have been training her since the day we got her a 9 weeks old, but the hardest thing ever to get her to do was "down". On the first day of class they showed me a new way to try teaching her and in 1 session she was doing it by being lured with a treat, and after 2 more days of training, she is doing it on command. Honestly the $85 I spent on the class has already been worth it in my opinion.

We have moved on to a new command that has been challenging, which is "stand". It's not that she won't do the command, but when I lure her with a treat she lunges and bites me to get the treat...so this one has been a bit frustrating for me. We will continue to work on it, but I think we also now need to work on taking treats nicely.

Puppy Play Time

The biggest thing that I was looking forward to is the fact that Mikita would be around other puppies. She's been very vocal around other puppies and to be honest I don't really know what is appropriate for when puppies meet each other. There hasn't been a ton of time for them to play together yet, but she is sniffing and warming up to a lot of dogs in class. She still barks at them before getting up to them, so I don't know if I should be correcting that or not...guess I still have a lot to learn too.

Mikita did just recently meet 2 new neighbor dogs and did better than shes ever done before, so that gives me hope!

I will 100% keep you guys updated on how her puppy classes go and how she grows and learns :)