chewie's first day at school

out of 3 new students (should be 5, but 2 din turn up due to the bad weather), chewie is the A1 star student! i think this should be how parents feel when their kids' kindergarten's teachers tell them that their kids did great in school! hahaha...

turns out, chewie's penchant for food is every dog trainer's dream come true! she responds well since the very first task (recall with the 'come' command). well, actually a bit too well! she even responds to other dogs' names! *sigh*

the other 2 new enrollments were poodles. one was too shy and uptight, as if stoned. wouldn't do anything... the other poodle dun respond well to food inducement.

and it helps that chewie already has some ground work... she sits and comes easily. and is really a pleasure to train! and the trainers were all so keen for her to advance to higher levels, encouraging me to start getting her to love chasing balls and jumping. would be great for agility training later on. the main trainer even tried some of the moves in the pre-novice level with her and she did it beautifully! so proud! *beam*

but she's not very social with other dogs... or rather, she doesn't know how to play nicely with other dogs. maybe lack of interaction. hopefully by enrolling her in the obedience school, she'll be able to learn some social skills in the process.

too bad, i was too busy to remember to take any photos... will see if i'll have the chance to take during next week's lesson.

The Night of Musical Journey

Galaxy Chamber Orchestra
(of Soka Gakkai Malaysia)

presents

Time & Date:
24th November 2007, 8:00pm

Venue:
Ikeda Peace Auditorium, SGM Cultural Centre
(click here for map)

Admission:
Free
(get your tickets from me now!)

Repertoire:
"Le Nozze Di Figaro" - W. A. Mozart
"Perpetuum Mobile" - Johann Strauss
"Closing" from Final Fantasy 9 - Nobuo Uematsu
"Concerto Grosso Op. 3 No. 8" - Antonio Vivaldi
"Kabuki Dance"
Violin Solo
Selection from Pirates of the Carribean
"Morigasaki"
Selection from Lord of the Rings

Selection from Les Miserables

chewie at 4 months +

she's such a clever girl! i never cease to be amazed at how she understands the things i teach her after only a few times... like i've mentioned here before, she learnt to 'sit' pretty fast. that's the first and most basic command any dog should know, 'sit'.




next came 'down'. she did this fairly easily too... like a natural!



then out of a fit of fancy, i taught her to do 'hand-hand', coz it's just so cute! :P



then, from a book, i learnt that it's important to teach our dogs to leave something. say suddenly our pills or some poisonous things fell on the floor, then it'll be good for a dog to know that she is not to touch it. so i taught her to 'leave it'. here's she keeping a close eye on the cookie and waiting (im)patiently for me to give her the ok cue. cute hor?

but this needs more work, coz she's such a thief! whenever i take a step back, she'll grab the goodie and gobble it up in no time! *sigh*

next, i decided to make her 'sit' before i open the cage to let her out. this will teach her a bit of manners and not jump up and down excitedly waiting to come out... this is done easily coz she already knows the 'sit' command.


and then there's this habit of hers that i really want to break. since she found out where i keep her doggie biscuits, the store room has been her favourite room. whenever i open the store room door, she'll rush in excitedly and jump on all the savoury-smelling treats i keep in a plastic bag on the floor, tail wagging frantically. so i thot to myself, this just can't do. i don't want to have to keep fighting her off every time i go in to get her food or treats. so i decided to teach her to sit outside the room patiently while i go inside to get her food. here, she's 'cheating' by putting her front paws in... hehehe...
this needs working too... coz she can't stand to wait too long while i'm inside this heavenly place, with my back turned towards her, dunno doing what! so when she hears the first spoonful of dog biscuits hitting her bowl, she'll be a little wriggling machine, rushing in to join the fun! i'll have to chase her out a few times before i can finish ladling her food... *sigh*


and since she arrived, whenever i want her to go back to her cage, i'll wave some goodies at the top opening of her cage and say 'chewie, cage'. she'll rush in thru the side opening, i'll close the door and she gets her reward! now i don't need to hover the treat on top of her cage... i'll just point to her cage, say 'cage' and she'll jump in happily, waiting for me to close the door and dish out the reward!




and as an addition, i'll make her 'sit' first before getting any reward. so now after jumping in, she'll sit quietly for her reward without having to be told!



and here's her latest trick, which took me completely by surprise. i only taught it to her sporadically and only like on 2 occasions, coz she din seem to like it much. so i thot maybe she won't learn it. but that day, while going thru her drills, i thot to try this command, just to see if she knows it. and she did! she knows to 'roll'! i'm so proud of her!



so now, i've enrolled her into a puppy obedience school. hopefully she'll a good canine citizen and maybe pass her canine good citizen test later on!