Saturday

Toby graduated from Advanced training today. This was his third attempt. He did everything that was asked of him.

His graduation picture 

He did 13 commands not counting heeling without a single treat. 

We are so proud of him.

He got to use his mat for the down commands. 

He was able to stay in a down for three minutes in the front of the store where there are many distractions. He never popped up until he was told. He struggled a little bit being petted by a stranger. He will tolerate it for a moment, and then he gets antsy. He will either pull away or bark. We will keep working on this one too. You would think with strangers giving him bacon and pepperoni that he would be walking up to everyone. It’s just his personality. He shied away from us when we first met him. 

He can’t move on to super advanced until he learns to control his excitement around other dogs. He loves dogs more than people. He wants to play, but it can come off as aggressive to some dogs. We’ve made progress with him on this, but we need more. Bottom line: we’ll be taking the advanced class again. 

Tyrus never relaxed; he whined and yelped the entire class, but he did well for his first time. I told his mom that Toby never sat until his third class, not his third lesson; his third class.

We’ve been to Stirling Park twice today, before and after class. We added some fetching before class to help burn off a little energy.

Moments after John took this picture, the first bird took flight and then like dominoes, the others followed suit flying in formation to the other side of the pond.

Apparently, we have a tangerine tree in our back yard. I picked these two yesterday. I’ve never noticed them before.

Our last walk of the day was at Lake Saundra via the golf cart in a light rain. We had no free hands to take a picture.

Miles walked: 4

Miles biked: 0