New Blog

This is my first post on my newer Blog. From now on, I will use this as my public Blog. My other one ended up being a place for me to complain about everything that was bugging me, so I will keep that one secret.

Recent updates. I got a new dog on 9/8/2005 in case anyone hasn't heard yet. His name is Yoda and he is an American Staffordshire Terrier mix. The breed is closely related to the American Pitbull Terrier, but it has been bred as a companion dog and for the show ring for over a hundred years, so they are very obedient and friendly dogs. I've been training him after work, and he is improving at a very fast rate, faster than I expected. He had already been at a trainer for several months, but I'm not convinced she knows what she is doing because I have accomplished more this week than she did and I am a novice at dog training.
According to the trainer he understands sit, down(lay down), shake, and come. Shake is turning out to have been a horrible command to train him because now when he wants attention he uses his paw to try and get it. Unfortunately he uses a lot of strength when doing so, and he has cut several people with his paws. So I am working on unlearning that. So far, as long as I can keep him focused on me, he sits very well. I am finding he doesn't really understand the command down, but he knows to lay down when you drop your hand to the ground(he is expecting a treat to be in your hand). Come, which I use here, he has mastered, except as he is running to you he gets a little excited and has a tendency to run into you as he doesn't slow down.
Other commands I have been working on are heel, kennel and off. Off is by far the most important one, since he likes to jump up on people and furniture way too much. It is also the command he is making the least progress on. He is just playing, but he is a large dog, so his playing can hurt people when he is jumping on them. Heel, which is probably the second most important command, he seems to be making the most progress on.
He has also been getting better with my other dogs. He is much calmer around them then when we first got him, but he still tries to play with them occasionally. They aren't very happy when he does that because he is much bigger, and they are a little old for his kind of play. Yoda also ignores the cat, and she has been getting less scared of him. Now she doesn't leave the room when he comes in, and she even lets him get close enough to sniff her sometimes.