Cooper in training

After Steve and I realized Cooper was going to be a keeper, I signed him up for a much needed obedience training class.

Steve worked a lot and did not have time in his schedule to go. He felt it would be best if a nursing assistant went with me anyway because they would need to learn which commands to give, etc.

On Cooper's first day, Mandy (my nursing assistant and I) loaded him up and took him to Petsmart. The trainer seemed nice, and I was eager to turn our ornery boy in to a star pupil. There were three other dogs in training, which were small and better behaved than my big black wild lab. Cooper wanted to play with them the whole time and kept lunging at them. He was so strong and almost too much for Mandy to handle. The trainer showed a dislike of his behavior and the owners of the other dogs were giving us dirty looks. It was insulting! We were there to get his bad habits remedied, not get judged. Grrr!

Little did I know that our first day was going to be our last day as a group. LOL Anybody who has seen the movie "Marley and Me" know Marley got kicked out of  training because of his shenanigans! I felt like Cooper was a Marley in disguise. :)

When we returned the second week, Cooper was the only dog in training. The trainer had moved her schedule around with the others because she felt like Cooper needed one on one. I appreciated her for recognizing this, as she probably didn't have to be so accommodating.

To be continued...