Fascinating.

That is what my new trainer called Jax during our very first session (twice!).  I have been meaning to post about our lesson for a while now, as it was two weeks ago, but I have been so focused on Callie's updates, that I am just now getting around to it. 

Basic obedience was put on the back burner with Jax, for a couple of reasons.  Mainly, it was because he had such fear issues that we focused solely on gaining his trust and building his confidence.   You can't successfully train a dog that is afraid of you anyway (I know many disagree, but I firmly believe that intimidation has no place in dog training), so we focused on making him comfortable with people and situations instead.  The other reason is pretty simple.  I just didn't know how to train him.  Although I have trained many dogs, none of them have been deaf and what a difference it makes.  After almost six months, I couldn't even get him to "sit."   

I didn't think that we could get enough personal attention in a group class.  Having participated in dozens of different dog "classes" at different levels, at several different "schools" over the years, I already know everything that they would teach us.  I take the dogs for socialization reasons...and because it's fun:-)  I needed personal guidance this time, someone to teach me to teach him. 

It wasn't easy to find someone willing to help me with him and I honestly grew very discouraged. It hurt my feelings that people didn't feel like he was worthy of training.  I actually had one "professional", whom I was quite excited about, tell me that she would give us 30 minutes (her regular sessions are 60) and if we made no progress by then, it wasn't worth it.  I have been in classes with people who made no progress after 8 weeks!  All dogs, hearing or deaf, learn at different paces. 30 minutes is ridiculous.  Oh, and If I'm not mistaken, this was the same person who asked me "well, are you SURE he's deaf?"  (I felt like saying that I've lived with the dog for the last 5 months and either he's deaf or I'm a frickin moron!)  She told me that maybe he just couldn't hear my voice and recommended that I tried using a clicker!  Needless to say, I kept looking.

I finally found someone, totally by chance, and she is great.  She runs the pet store in our neighborhood and her center is in the basement of the store!  I had actually talked to her many times before.  I had no idea that she was a trainer.  Her name is Colleen. She has over 30 years training experience and has studied under some of the top trainers in the world-people who I have read about in books!  She was born in Alaska, into a family who trained and ran sled dog teams.  She has trained police dogs, Search And Rescue dogs, therapy dogs, specialized aggressive cases, agility, and of course, obedience.  She has pretty much done it all.  Now that she is (in her words) "getting older" she focuses on training family pets.  She also has ten dogs of her own!

She if full of knowledge and I hang on her every word. She thinks that Jax is fascinating (did I mention that?)! I knew Jax was extremely sensitive.  She agreed and told me that we don't ever want to overwhelm him or stress him out with training.  "Sit" seemed to be the thing that made him the most nervous.  We will move at a very slow pace with him while overcoming his obstacles.  She gave me a few things to work on, and when I think we are ready, we will go back for another session.  No pressure. No time constraints.

We had been working on sit, exactly the way she showed me, once a day, everyday.  Last week, I was eating a sandwich and he came up, looked me in the eyes, and sat.  He had figured out that it was the behavior that I desired and he always got rewarded for it.  His big success came when we weren't even trying.  I was so proud of him.  That was my first short-term goal for him and he didn't disappoint. 

He is a very smart dog and I have high hopes for him long-term.  I would love for him to become a certified therapy dog.  Can you imagine how great it would be to bring him to visit with deaf children?   Dogs need to pass a series of tests to become certified, and they are not easy, even for dogs without disabilities.  I won't be disappointed if we never get to that point, but it is something to reach for.