Dog Whisperer de Grenoble

There exists one. Here in Grenoble. He works for the City of Grenoble and he offers free obedience classes. How cool is that? So we went. Chana and I, together with our doggie buddy. We humans were not completely happy-go-lucky though, and could almost see each other's brain going: Geez. Hope he won't use a harsh correction on my dog!

We arrived at the designated meeting point, and there waited 6 other participants for the class. He is not a smiley, joyful, I-love-everyone type of person, but it took very short amount of time for him to include us into the group. He asked us some questions, our training background, our problems, etc, and after that it was quick. We just followed his orders, like a good dog.

One of the questions I addressed to him was Chana's pulling on the leash. As soon as we started group walking, he took the leash from my hand. My heart raced and thought to myself, "Please do not kick Chana!" Thankfully, it was not as bad as I expected. He did pop on Chana's leash quite a bit, but I have seen worse in Canada. And the technique he uses is probably the most common one: Turn around when dog is ahead of you, and make the dog pay attention to where you are going next. We have tried this technique, but we get tired after a while or when we are in a hurry we ignore the rule. As he did not suggest that we use a prong collar or choke chain, it is clear that the problem lies on our side for not guiding the dog "crisp and clear" (Barton 2009). However, one question remains, which I should ask him next time; Do you want the dog to do the "loose leash walking" or "attentive heeling"?

After the heeling exercise, we did many sit-stays, down-stays, and recalls. Of course Chana's recall was miserable, but in return, I attracted another dog a few times. For the recall, he told us to be excited and to praise the dog a lot for coming. He actually pointed out that we two foreigners were doing good job for being cheerful, so it looks like we added some positive feature to the class today.

There was a 4 months old Shiba cross, and the trainer kept saying that the owner had to be more gentle to the dog. He pointed out that the dog was afraid, and corrected the owner for being too harsh on the dog. He said that we had to understand the temperament of the dog and use the appropriate method. He also added that dogs are opportunist, and if we let them, they would assume what they can get. For Chana, I know for sure that the harsh correction does not work (Chana belonged to the dark side in 2008), but I do know that Chana pushes her limit. She only responds to my yells these days when told not to do stuff. There is a big different between being harsh and being firm. So I need to firm up! No more free melon for you Chana!

It was another sunny and hot day in Grenoble agains the odds. We are experiencing a bad drought over here. The dusty dog had a nice bath and is having a sweet dream.