She does pretty well: she usually heels well, she sits and stays, she can stand and down on command, but staying in a stand for inspection and staying in a down are challenges!
We have been held back in Level Two, and we anticipate staying here for some time. (No biggie! It's not just Cocoa, some of her mates haven't made the grade yet either.)
It's an intense hour at 8.45 every Sunday morning, and we try to take her to the adjacent dog park for at least a half hour before class to run around and have social time with her classmates. We don't feed her that morning, (our dog club recommends that it will keep her "ingestively keen"), and the session at the dog park wears her out a bit, and usually makes her more compliant in class.
Usually.
She's a social little thing, though --- and she gets distracted and distracts her classmates in the process.
So, our keys to learning alongside her on these mornings are:
1. Coffee before leaving the house ( and sometimes again at the coffee truck at the dog park!!)
2. Patience
3. Our sense of humour
4. Gumboots (it's winter here, and the field is a mud bath!)
At home, her list of achievements is a bit different. No ribbons. Just a list. Of destruction.
Countless holes dug.
3 missing Kongs
2 missing water bowls
(...probably all in the holes. We have tried excavating, and no luck!)
2 plastic garden pots
A rhubarb plant
This summer's basil crop
The strawberry patch
1 dog blanket
6 stuffed chew toys
3 plastic chew toys
2 ornamental grasses
The compost bin
A garden hose
I don't know how she got a hold of this plastic bowl... but it did not last long!
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