Pandora’s Training is Taking Shape

We had a happy moment in Pandora’s training this past week.

For those who are new here, Pandora is a two-year-old Australian Cattle Dog. We have been training her since we brought her home and, well, we’ll always be training her. Right now, our training still focuses on skills that are useful to keep her safe and to help her behave. Later on, we’ll need to keep training her to keep her mind busy. Mental activity tires a dog out. Some mental activities that are harder and worked on longer can poop a pup out almost as much as some physical exercise.

Our Training Struggle

We struggle to get Pandora to walk near roads. The thought of getting her to walk ON a road with vehicles, well, that’s all that is, a thought.

Another struggle we have in training is that Pandora still likes to jump on the cats when they come in from outside. She doesn’t try to attack them, she’s just aggressive in play. Very aggressive. And, since she’s a cattle dog, she doesn’t back down when they swipe her with their claws fully extended.

The last struggle in training is the barking. We’ve been working on this, and I have to admit, this is the first training area where she will act up solely to get a treat. We were doing well, telling her, “Quiet” and then giving a treat the instant, she stopped barking. Well, she took that the next level. And began barking more and then looking at us for the treat.

So, I switched gears and instead of giving her a treat, I now use a firm voice to tell her “Stop it.” And she does. But she only does so for me. For whatever reason (probably my husband being considered a playmate in her eyes), she has been worse at barking at my husband. She’ll just go down to him and bark incessantly. She won’t stop until I intervene. Which is not okay.

The Fun Side of Training

Now, let’s get to the good stuff. The stuff that makes all the training worth it. And that is when the training pays off.

I’ll start with the cats. While this is still a struggle, Pandora has made some tiny progress. She isn’t doing this consistently, but it’s becoming more frequent. when the cats come inside, they usually go for their food bowl. Which have set up on a hutch in our dining room. Pandora always rushes the hutch and nips at the cats’ tails or paws. Recently, however, as I tell her to “Leave It” she turns and grabs one of her stuffed toys. We didn’t train her to do that, I think she just discovered that she would prefer to have something to chew on to calm her down.

The Happy Moment

Actually, it’s two moments that make me really happy. One is that she is calming down on her jumping. She does fairly well, but there are still two people she feels the need to jump on. One is my husband. And I know why she does that to him, because he allows it. It makes him happy when he comes home from work. And the other is a friend of ours who also loves the greeting.

Last week on one of our trail visits she came across a few guys talking and she went up to them, but she didn’t charge, more of a trot, and she didn’t jump on them. She stuck her nose out to sniff and I called her back and she came back. This was near the end of our walk and Pandora was calmer. Just by her demeanor, I could tell this was not a big deal.

Yes, I usually put her on a leash when I see other people, however, we had just come into a clearing and the guys were right there. The majority of the time I see or hear people and get Pandora on a leash before we get near them.

BUT, we had an even BIGGER training success yesterday on the trail.

Pandora spotted a backpacker behind us. I redirected her attention because he was a about a good 1/3 of a mile back. We on the trail with my friend who has a little Chihuahua. This dog will happily out-hike many small breed dogs. She goes 3 to 5 miles without an issue. However, she is tiny and so we walk slower for her. Sweetest little pooch.

Anyway, the hiker started gaining on us pretty quick. And Pandora started to trot back to check the situation out. I called her and she slowed down, then I told her to “Sit” and she did. I had her “Wait” while I walked to her and then put the leash on.

Was it Perfect?

No. A superbly trained dog would have come to a full stop and recall. Pandora is not superbly trained. Clearly, I’m not a certified trainer or even someone with a ton of experience in the training department.

What it was though, was a huge success for us. And that made my day.

Keep training, the successes no matter how small are so worth it.