The A Team

Well, Dreamer brought her A game to our obedience lesson today! Hurray! She was a wonderful little girl and held up well, considering it was already 90 degrees in the shade at the park where we have our lessons. My instructor said that she can tell we've been practicing, so I guess this blog has really paid off! We were moving fast on a lot of things, so I didn't get a chance to tell her about the blog, but I think it has certainly helped keep me accountable. Thanks for this great suggestion, Nancy!

We moved to the second step of the "around" finish as well as some new heeling tactics, so I'm excited about having new things to work on. We also did some sit-and-wait distractions that will be challenging for the baby's brain. Dreamer did really well right away with me walking to the left and to the right, but when I started jumping up and down in front her or clapping, she couldn't resist joining in the fun! I think my instructor gets a big kick out of her because she has so much energy, personality, and sass. She said she would be worried if Dreamer could hold a solid stay at this age because she's seen so many solid-staying puppies that become flat-as-a-pancake adults. I guess this should make us feel better when our pups are wild! Anyway, it was a good session, and we're determined to work hard all week because we'll have another lesson next Sunday. We usually have lessons every other week, but our instructor is going into a month of dog show weekends and therefore won't be available for class during most of July. So...time to focus every day on training! Thanks to this blog, I think we might be able to do it.