GRADUATION

Scout graduated puppy school today!!! It was an exciting evening for all of us! To the untrained observer, Caos peeing 4 times during the hour, Tulip and Marmalade laying down under chairs to hide from thier handlers, Bear running away from Scout and Scout sitting at the very end of her leash, it may appear that none of these puppies has learned a thing. However, I sat in the middle of my chair smiling at the fact that Scout was actually happy to be sitting still at the end of her leash. I giggled at Bear as she ran, even if it was away from Scout. This was progress, there was a time when she refused to move faster than a walk and she only did that if she was required to for a treat! The fact that Tulip and Marmalade were brave enough to hide under a chair that thier handlers were not sitting in was as huge as the lion in the Wizard of Oz, getting courage and Caos, well Caos had learned to pee standing up! The fact that he did it four times in the hour was proof that he had become very good at it!! Bravo puppies!!!!

We had 2 "recall challenges" for fun. They were timed events. The first time we had to call our puppies and make them sit before the time would stop and the second one required us to call our puppies, have them spin in a circle and lie down before the time stopped. I sit here proud as can be as I annouce that Scout WON both challenges!!!! The trainer pulled out a tunnel and we played with that for a while. It was a super fun night and as frustrated as I was at times, I amglad we spent the past six weeks at Dogma! :)

They had us put t-shirts on the puppies as a handling exercise....adorable!