Puppy Graduated

It's official. I'm super proud of my pup. After six weeks of training and learning the ropes, Dexter graduated from Dog Woods today. We had a test today, an evaluation of many of the key points we learned during the training.

Dexter had to HEEL with Kelly while walking fast, slow, and regular. He had to do an ABOUT TURN while heeling, and when Kelly stopped walking he had to SIT by him without being commanded to do so. After this individual test, all of the dogs had to get out on the mat together, stand by their owners and test on their SIT STAY and DOWN STAY. This part of the evaluation first consisted of doing the SIT STAY. Each dog was told by their owners (Kelly continued to work the test with Dexter while I cheered from the benches/audience) to sit, and then to stay. In order to pass this section, the dogs were required to stay for a total of one minute without getting up. The final bit of testing consisted of the DOWN STAY. The owners took their pup beside them, had them sit first, then lay down. You got two extra points if the owner did not have to make the dog lay down, but rather the dog laid down simply upon the verbal command. Once all the dogs were set in their down position, they had to stay in that position for three full minutes.

So how did Dexter do?

He passed with flying colors. He did great on the individual evaluation with the heeling and such, and did fabulous on the SIT STAY, but we did have a less than perfect performance on the DOWN STAY. Dexter got his two extra points for laying down on verbal command, rather than Kelly having to make him do it. And Dex stayed down for a full minute and a half, but my hubby's pride got the best of him. We saw Dexter get antsy, and I looked at Kelly to tell him no, but as Kelly put it in his own words, "his pride got the best of him, he wanted Dex to do like we knew he could do"... so Kelly did not give a proactive "NO" command, and Dexter found his way to his feet. No worries though, Kelly easily got Dex back in the correct position strictly by his verbal commands and Dex hung out in the stay as needed.

So, YES, he passed, AND he got the most points of all. He was even titled the BEST IN CLASS!!! That's why that plush squeaky star is in the picture. He won the prize!!! He was the STAR! Proud momma!

Now, as I'm typing about it all... I'm listening to both Dexter and Kodi go crazy about that exact toy. My hubby is egging it on... laughter and all. Ohhhh, my boys. All of them. I best go referee.