I'm the student!

I have started teaching again on Thursday nights a puppy class. What a roudy bunch of pups! I haven't had to play referree that much during play time in a long time. The bonus to driving 1 1/2 hours is I get to work Scout in the 7pm class, the Canine Good Citizen class. We haven't gone through a class yet together, did I mention he's almost 4? He did so much better than I anticipated. I expected him to be stressed out and far more focused on the dogs and he did wonderfully. We practiced a lot of walking politely on a leash and recalls. It is nice to have the perspective of a student because I think sometimes as a teacher we lose sight of what that is like.

I had a very busy week and so training our "Car" game didn't happen often plus it was pouring all week. But I managed to sneak in a game of it yesterday. I think Scout is really starting to get it down. He waits for my cue and then goes to his target, he doesn't go any other time which is actually okay with me. I am hoping to avoid him going to it seeking out treats. Kind of like when a puppy knows he gets a treat for sitting and just comes up and sits in front of you all the time. So anyway we managed to be successful as far at 15+ feet away from the target. I would give him the verbal cue and he would run to his target and down!! Yay! I think we now need to really strengthen it. I am going to up my value on my treats and then start the distractions maybe....I think we need to practice probably playing first and then having us interupt play to run to his target. We'll see. I am kind of playing it by ear and I want to set him up for success so it will be a little trial and error the next few sessions!

Meanwhile, not dog related so much, I did a semi Trash the Dress session with my sister and myself. It was quite fun but I think photoshopping the pictures will be more fun! Here one of me that she took of me:

And here is one of my sister I took: