Teaching a new dog old tricks

Tekila may not have needed too much training.

The golden retriever’s owner Delia Valenzuela of Odessa said he already was sitting and doing what he and five other puppies were being trained to do Tuesday evening at Odessa College’s Puppy Obedience Kindergarten.

Not necessarily on com-mand though. Also, it was Valenzuela’s first puppy that she was raising from birth.

“He’s my baby,” she said.

So the half-dozen dog owners brought out the choker collars, lugged around the doggy treats and took their dogs for training.

Instructor Sandy Burdylo, who is with the Oil Patch Agility Club, said the college invited them to lead the classes for the puppies as well as a separate set of classes for dogs older than four months.
The puppy classes go over basic house training stuff, teaching the puppies to sit and to walk with their owners, how to socialize with other dogs and how to keep their attention on their owners. The owners go over grooming and bathing their puppies and over how to use their chew toys with them.

Odessa College community services director Lisa Cline said the classes are open to all breeds, though the dogs are either placed in a 8- to 16-week puppy kindergarten or a more intense 4-month and older dog obedience class. They accept dogs of all purposes as well.

“Some people are just there; they’re pets and they want their pets to have a better, healthy life,” Cline said. “Some are on their way to a new career as agility or therapy dogs.”

Royce Gladson’s Australian shepherd Neba was part of that latter group in the puppy class. Glad-son has two basenjis that he competes in lure coursing, a sport where dogs chase a mechanically operated lure as if it was prey in an open field.

“She will help the basenjis in their racing,” Gladson said.

TO ENROLL

>> The next dog obedience and puppy kindergarten classes will open Sept. 15.

>> Cost: $60 for six-week dog obedience course, $40 for four-week puppy kindergarten.

>> Call: Odessa College Continuing Education Office at 335-6580.

>> Have: Current shot records for your dog.