Category Archives: GDA events

Jethro seeks direction in the brick courtyard of the new GDA graduation area.

GDA holds a puppy obedience class on campus one Saturday each month. The classes are broken down into puppy age groups so that everyone will get the most out of the offered instruction. Not only is it a good opportunity for the puppy department and training staff to get an in-person look at how your dog is progressing, it’s a good time for the raisers as well. It’s also a good opportunity to take home a very tired puppy.

The instructors always come up with something fun; whether it’s an obedience relay race, a dog-swap exercise or a puppy raiser challenge (like trying to relieve your dog while you’re blindfolded — that’s a good one), something silly or creative is usually happening alongside the learning. Today, there was a whole sensory playground set up under the shade structure that covers our beautiful new graduation area (thanks, donors!). For as far as the puppy eye could see, new experiences awaited: noisy battery-operated toys, wobbly trash can lids to investigate, various surfaces to walk across and climb on.

Because our class was the youngest of the day, the emphasis was on investigating rather than conquering. Some of the objects made strange noises or moved unexpectedly, so this was a good way to see how the puppies would react. Jethro typically has no problem investigating; he’s a confident little guy who doesn’t flinch at much, so he was pretty happy to jump right up onto things and play. And I don’t think there was a single battery-operated noisemaker he didn’t want to carry off with him.

Of course, he was probably even more interested in whatever leaves and wind-blown tree parts were scattered on the ground between the intended distractions.

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Our first South Bay Puppy Raisers meeting with Jethro was the October meeting — where there is traditionally a Halloween costume contest. We didn’t win this time (I’m 2 for 3!), but his “Julius Pee-sar” costume was hand-made and pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself. You’ll see that a few posts down the road….

The first part of the meeting is the obedience class, and for tiny puppies, puppy kindergarten. Since there were only a few super-newbies, we just practiced some cradling and talked about basic “It’s adorable and it’s home with me, but now what do I do with this thing” principles. It’s apparently the Great Puppy Glut of 2010 up at GDA; there are lots of new puppies are coming to our group over the next few months, so there were more people without dogs than with. Good instruction beforehand goes a long way, and our area group leaders and co-leaders are terrific about  encouraging new puppy raisers.

Because I’ve done this before, I made sure Wolf got some time on the floor with our boy so he could learn the proper technique as well. Fortunately, Jethro’s at the age where he’s sleepy much of the time. Another bonus is that GDA has started bringing in volunteers to help socialize the puppies in the puppy nursery before they go home with their raisers. This seems to have done wonders for the little ones; Jethro was ready and willing to cradle from day one. Whoever spent time with his litter, THANK YOU!