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Friday, August 22, 2008

Taylors Dog Obedience Gradutation...

Last night was Taylors Graduation from Dog Obedience Training.
It has been such a long week already, and we were really tired, but so excited to finish up this course.
She has come so far and we were proud of her, but we knew she was still sloppy in some of her commands, so we weren't sure if she would get a diploma or not. But we were hopeful!
Warm up went well when we got to the park, she was sharp and clean with all her commands. My Strong Silent Mysterious Man and I were really feeling good, but the wind was blowing pretty strong, and the last time we did class with lots of wind... it threw her way off. As a matter of fact it threw lots of dogs way off in the class. Something about all the smells blowing around and the noise from the wind... it is very distracting!
We always tease about her free spirit being so "free spirited" that her head spins around, but I have never been able to get it on camera... well this is it... the head spin!
(it actually goes all the way around... too weird)

(it should have been a red flag that her wild hair was flaring up again, but I guess we have just gotten used to it, and didn't think twice about it)

So after all the dogs have done a couple of laps in the healing circle... the instructor decides to move class to a different area in the park. Its a huge park and she thought if we move out from under the trees, maybe the noise would be less distracting in the open area.

So I watch on as the entire class moves across the park, and I see Taylor and my man jogging over... then Taylor slowly starts to get farther and farther from her heal position by his side and he stops and she didn't!

He called her name, she looked back, and she realized... no rope, no chain, no chords... then she BOLTED AT FULL SPEED!! (going the other direction)!

This park is HUGE, and she ran and ran and ran and then went for a swim in the river than runs through the park and when she came up out of the side of the bank, he was there and snagged her. My heart was in my throat! I thought I would puke!

Once I knew she was safe, I had to laugh! Good Grief what had gotten into her!

He corrected her all the way back to the class... but I was not sure she was feeling the pain, so we decided to hook the leash up to her (just in case). But she was good the rest of the graduation.



She got her little graduation cap.

And her diploma... although there was a stipulation put out there before they were handed out.

If you had a star on the top of your diploma, stars were not good, and it meant she wants to see you back in her classes again. So Taylor earned a free entry into any of her classes for the rest of her lifetime! (yeah cool, a lifetime of free classes, sounds good huh... :( oh well)
Taylor wasn't the only dog who bolted and went nuts at graduation. Sasha the boxer sat out the last half of class after finally being caught... but she just circled the other dogs, she didn't actually go to the other side of the park and go swimming, Taylor held the record of the 4-5 dogs who bolted from their owners for distance and speed. It was a crazy night for uncharacteristic behavior, but like I said the wind does crazy things to dogs in obedience class.

Here they are (notice on leash) with her cap and diploma.

He finally found a way to forgiver her in his heart!

Doesn't she look sorry!

I couldn't resist... some of the dogs looked really cute in their caps and wore them well.


Others ate their hats...

This is Taylor and her friend Newbie who look like they could be sisters!

We are so proud of her and even though she still gives us grey hair, she is a totally different dog that we had 10 weeks ago. She will be so much more fun to take camping now!

But look out Lions and Tigers and Bears, and TROUT... oh my!

5 comments:

she'sonlyhappyinthesun said...

Congrats on Taylor finishing classes... those caps are so cute!

PaD said...

That was a fun blog to read. I'm glad you made made it thru it. We both laughed and laughed. You're a writer for sure.

Anonymous said...

When I think of all you comments about Taylor before going to class and the problems you have now...she has come a long way baby... go Taylor!

Oh yeah..handlers too

Johnna said...

I love the caps. Thank you for making my monday start with a smile....

Lindsey said...

I love the graduation caps.... so cute! I am gald Taylor finished... i should really look at getting Katey into something like that.

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