If you’ve been following the journey of Bandit and Tula who came to Peace & Paws in September from the Fulton County Shelter in Atlanta, Georgia, then you’ll want to know about a major milestone we marked recently. After months of physical recovery (for Bandit, who had a broken leg) and emotional recovery (for Tula, who did seem to have any bonding experience with humans) these two dogs have made it through their first training session.

Bandit: Bandit acts like a 12 week old pup but he’s in a 60lbs body so it’s not that cute. He has no fear and while his manners have improved significantly at our adoption center and on leash, this is a whole new set of distractions for him. He’s a lot to handle but true to Bandit form, is endearing and sweet and just needs direction. He is in a class with a lot of really nice dogs and distractions at every turn so we couldn’t have asked for a better group or place to train him. Having him around all the other dogs is a great opportunity because that is when his manners are at their ALL TIME worst. This gives up plenty of chances to teach him to walk past dogs and be in the company of other dogs in a calm manner and not be in everyones faces. He’s an amazing dog and I can’t wait to see him at his full potential. He’s just a typical young adult dog that was never given any direction in real life circumstances and has developed some annoying behaviors. He will be another canine good citizen soon we assure you.

Tula: Tula doesn’t need obedience training in the same way as Bandit. Their needs are completely different as is their temperaments. Tula is there for the socialization and just experiencing things outside of the adoption center and her comfort zones. She needs to learn more basic commands and things along those lines but needs the different sights and sounds of life in general so she can become more comfortable. Her first class took a lot out of her and she has only just now begun to make eye contact with Bo again. Today was just about treats and the good stuff but she didn’t want any part of it. So we’ll see what the next weeks bring. She just really needs someone that will give her a chance. That’s all any of them really need.

The day after class, we caught Tula on video initiating play with Bandit and wagging her tail. While I felt as if taking to Tula to training class yesterday may have set us back some with her, I stand corrected. After almost 4 months of her rescue……this evening…..finally………(1) She initiated play with Bandit (2) Engaged in play with Bandit (3) Barked to engage in play (on other video) (4) WAGGED HER TAIL!

Dog training for the win!

If you want to keep up with Tula and Bandit as they progress through their training, follow Peace & Paws on Facebook.