Taylors Dog Obedience Class, Week 7...

Here we are... on our way to obedience training, without Dad!

He called and had to work late... I hate it when he has to work late on Thursday nights, this is a big night for our baby. Plus, with me being so sick lately, I have really needed him to step in and do the work with her.

She LOVES to work, we really need to come up with a new name for it... like "dogapaloosa" or something, she has allot of fun working and especially going to class (probably more fun than she should be having, as you will see in the videos... she squirms and plays with sticks a bunch).

We laugh at her allot, she sits on her behind like a bear with her back paws all sticking forward. Too funny!
Dad showed up in time to take over for me before class started, whew!

My Knight in Shining Armor to the rescue, again!!!

Morgan came to get a peek at what we make such a fuss about every week.

"whatever" she just enjoyed hanging in the cool shady grass and watching all the comotion.

This week we were off leash, just the 12ft nylon skinny cord dragging on the ground and not attached anymore!

Very scary for me, but Taylor did pretty good and never broke off in a full run across the park as she did in all my nightmares. We try not to compare her to the other dogs, and just remember what she was like the 1st day of class with my arms falling off from tugging and yanking on the leash.

Yep, leaps and bounds! This girl has come so far!!

Our emotions and feelings are so much like if she were our human child... you want her to do good in class and impress the coach. But you don't want to put too much pressure on her, because she has come so far, you want to reward her for her accomplishments and feel good about herself and know she is a daughter of God.... oh yeah, well it's just hard not to see her as human sometimes.

So here we have to put the dogs on a down stay and walk around in a complete circle around all the other dogs until we make it back around to our own dog without them breaking the down stay. Taylor made it! She was really tempted, but she did it!!

I was such a proud Mom, and you can see her Dad was pretty proud of her too!

Here is what Coach called the pyramid.

She put the dogs in a pyramid shape in order of the breed and size of dog... so all the bigger large breads made the base, on up to the tiny toy breeds at the top of the pyramid.

We put them in a down stay and walk out of the pyramid. Then if they pop up or break their down stay, we go pull our dog out, until the last dog is still staying.

Labrador retrievers are not on the top of the list of intellegence, they are down around 7... but Taylor being so young is still working on maturity etc. I know excuses, excuses! But I would have never ever thought she would make it this long off leash in a pile of dogs!!

So Proud of her!!!

These were the last 5 left in the pyramid... the border collie (#1 on intellegence list), the Labradoodle (Poodles are #2), the old brown lab, the Aus. cattle dog (#10), and the yellow lab.

They were cement, we threw frisbee's and balls through them and not one moved. The herding dogs were really aware of the frisbee and the ball, but they didn't budge. The labs were just so mellow, I think they couldn't have cared less, they were tired from working so hard all night.

It is really hard work, as with any kid. But so worth it!

We haven't worked with Morgan on any training yet, she was exhausted just watching!

We think she will pick it all up really fast, and do really well. We kind of always thought she was obedient enough, she minds pretty well, and knows commands. But it would even make a huge difference with her, to be able to give her a command from a distance and have her mind. And have confidence that she would mind even with the distraction of a kitty cat or a bird in the yard, or someone coming over to visit.