Graduation Day

This evening marks another milestone in the life and times of Bellatrix. She has officially graduated Puppy Class. The six week program has come to an end and I believe she finished at the top of her class. Of course there were only two graduating students. We found out that the other students had switched classes for various reasons and that they would all graduate as well, which makes me feel better, but I am slightly disappointed that Bella didn't get to socialize with other puppies. Unfortunately, as Chassie put it earlier, the only thing holding back the Corgi is an unsure owner. That owner was timid in allowing the dogs to play. He constantly said that his dog was scared around Bella. I would have just let them go at it. They'll figure it out. When blood is shed, that's when we can put a stop to it. Just kidding, that's probably a little extreme, but you can see my point. How will you ever know if you don't let them play it out for at least a few minutes?

I digress though. Back to the class itself. I thought it was informative and practical. It was nice to have an outlet that we could go and practice training. I will be the first to admit that Chassie does a much better job of the "homework." For example, last week we touched upon the "shake" command at the very end of class. I believe Chassie asked one question and the answer was something to the effect of "her paw will basically come up by itself." The trainer may well have said, "She's just going to give you her paw when she sits down from now on." Three days after the end of class, sure enough when Bella sits, she's lifting her paw without me asking. Chassie's doing. Not mine. So if I have learned anything from this graduation day, it's that I need to take an extra minute or two and work on her training.

The good news is we have a slight "spring break" before heading back to the Intermediate class. It's a short two week break, which really only equates to one Saturday that we will not have to journey out to PetSmart. So in that time I have some time to work a little harder on the training with Bella. It seems that the intermediate class will consist of a longer "Sit-Stay" command where you have to get you dog to sit and not move as you walk away from her. I have a feeling this may be a little bit complicated. All in all though, I am looking forward to this next step in her evolution.

As we closed our class, we found out that one of our classmates for the next class was an energetic Shepard mix. This excites me a little bit. You may or may not know this, but Chassie specifically asked for a class at the same time on Saturday afternoons. We were granted our request. We get to not only continue our education at the time we requested, but we also get to experience another energetic dog. Maybe a few more dogs will join us, too.  If none of this happens and we're left with the same situation we experienced with the puppy class, I've got anther option... an ace in the hole, if you will. It's called Jeff and Krista's house. Four dogs that are more than willing to play with Bella and put her in her place.