Obedience Classes: Being "those" people.

As earlier posted, Kyle and I have adopted a four legged baby from the Edmonton Humane Society. She (Onyx) has been with us just shy of a month and has been doing fantastic at home.

*Prewarning, I completely believe I have the best dog ever and this post is basically just me bragging/sharing my embarrassment in obedience class... If you don't want to read all about the best dog ever, just move on. 

Reasons why we have the best dog ever:

1) She has not had one accident since bringing her home, beat that.
2) She is SO smart, literally learning tricks in a day and being ridiculously cute while doing them.
3) She loves, loves, LOVES to cuddle. And I mean totally snuggle with you, give you kisses when you are sad, lay right beside/on top of you. She is the sweetest little girl.

Now, let's talk about some not so cute attributes. She honestly doesn't have that many "bad" habits, I would seriously love to know why someone abandoned her. Yes, she is high energy (read: typical border collie) and a tad bit territorial... but she is honestly so loving and loyal. Ok, here are the things that aren't so cute:

1) her excessive jumping
2) her excessive (and painful) play biting.
3) her lack of leash skills. She will drag you along the whole walk, and seems to think that all the robins (100ft) away want to be chased.
4) her fear/aggression towards other dogs. (Not sure if some unhealthy animal abuse went on before she came to us, because she is unusually afraid of other dogs).

So we did what we were recommended to do and signed her up for obedience. The vision in my head went like this: my sweet Onyx is so smart, she is going to be top of her class, listening to all the commands and in no time we will be on to agility.

The reality: What your obedience class should not look like:

1) Your dog being the ONLY one barking, going ballistic, growling and running all over the place
2) You and your husband being the only ones having barricades put around you, due to your dog being "so excited"
3) Your dog getting so overwhelmed/anxious he/she is not following any commands and not interested in treats
4) Your husband taking the dog outside several times throughout the class to calm them down.
5) Leaving the class early due to the fact that it wasn't helping at ALL.

Oh mercy. This was a total disaster. I thought, "yep I am that woman" I'm going to be her with "that dog". But the thing was it wasn't really Onyx's fault- she was set up I swear! We didn't realize how aggresive she is towards other dogs/how overwhelmed she gets if she isn't introduced slowly. We also didn't realize ALL the other dogs in the class would be so well behaved, able to listen while the lady lectured for 10-15 mins at a time... clearly not for Onyx.

So moral of the story: If you have a dog like Onyx, save yourself the embarrassment and sign up for private lessons (which we were sweetly suggested to do as we snuck out early). 

How can you not love this sweet face.

Seriously, could she be any cuter? I don't think so!