Puppy School Graduate

First things first (when would first things ever be second though?), I have to say thank you to Fufu for my lovely Chinese New Year card & Valentine's heart. I have to confess I did chew the loveheart notelet a bit (love nibbles), but I love them both, thank you!


Last night was Puppy Class night, so off me & mum trotted as usual, while dad stayed home & cooked the dinner. I love going so much & I'm always really impatient & twitchy on Wednesday evenings until mum finally puts my harness on & lets me into the car. As soon as we arrive & pull up into the car park I am always desperate to get out & go to see my friends & the trainers.

Last night after we'd all said hello to each other & had a bit of a play, we did a lot of our usual exercises; sit, down, recalls, sit-stays, down-stays, waits, & walking nicely past the other doggies (that means no bottom sniffing or trying to play, sooooooo hard). We normally do 30 minutes of group work, then spend 15 minutes working on our own on the exercises on our progress sheets for our awards, get tested on our skills & have them signed off by the trainers, & the hoomans have chance to talk to the trainers about any naughty things we're doing (who, moi?). Well last night Tracey, the lady who runs the club, came to talk to mum & asked if she would like to start bringing me to the "Big Boy" class from next week as she didn't think the "Puppy" class was challenging me any more. Mum was really pleased & was more than happy to agree. I was like "Whoa, hold your horses there Missy!". I mean, all my friends are in this class, plus what if we don't get treats in the Big Boy class? Mum promised that I'd definitely stil get treats & pointed out that I do make new friends very easily. Yes, I suppose I am super sociable, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Plus, I'll still get to see my old mates as they come out of their class & I'm waiting to go in to mine At 8 months, it seems like I'll be the baby of the class by quite a long way though, so I hope they cut me a little slack.

These are the secret of my success!

I've finished my Silver Award now. To gain it I had to:

Sit - Dog to sit in front & at each side of the handler & stay until told to move

Down - Do to go into a down position in front & at each side of handler & stay in that position until told to move

Walk on a loose lead - Dog to walk in a controlled manner in a circle & a figure of eight pattern

Come when called - Dog to come back to handler on command ignoring any distractions & have a lead attached

Leave it - Dog to walk past & around other dogs in a controlled manner

Calmness - Dog to wait patiently whilst owner has a conversation with another person

Fetch - Handler to throw an article. The dog must pick up the article, bring it back & allow the handler to take it from them

Car - Dog to enter & leave a car in a controlled manner

I've had a look at what I have to do for the Gold Award - yikes! I'm going to need a lots of practice & a LOT of treats!

I guess I'm getting to be a grown up puppy dog!

Licks

Oscar x