Thursday, December 22, 2005

Joe's Graduation

Joe graduated from level one obedience & agility training on Monday night. Not sure he should have graduated, as he spent the entire class trying to find Snoopy. Ron thought it would be fun for Snoopy to have a night out and to watch Joe. Not a good idea. Joe was frantic looking for him. He whimpered & whined the whole time and kept focusing on that instead of me! But he had fun, and he did graduate to level two.

He is now happily going over obstacles, over jumps (only low ones for now,) through the tire, through any tunnel (YEA! That was a tough one!) through the weave poles (begrudgingly!) and even over the teeter, though he is not happy about that one at all. As far as obedience goes, without Snoopy around he will sit stay for about a minute, sit, down, stand & shake on command, and come most of the time. He is still completely unmanageable on the leash, but we're working on it. He's got so much energy he doesn't want to walk on the leash. It's a challenge.

Snoopy was originally in training, but when he needed surgery, we switched to Joe. Snoopy will sit out the next session as well, and will start basic training in the spring. He's easier anyway, as Joe outweighs him by at least 5 pounds and tons of strength.

Snoopy can shake, sit, stand, down and come on command already anyway. But I think that since Noo had surgery, Joey will be the agility dog. He seems to have taken to it pretty quickly and loves the running. He bounds over those obstacles like nothing. It's quite fun to watch - and participate. Though he's in much better shape than I am.

I'll try to get some pictures of him when we start back up in January.

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