Obedience School, Week 8 -- Graduation

This could also be titled, "The World's Most Overdue Post"

As you may know, The Eliminator graduated from Obedience School in December. The actual evening was very snowy, so only Reese (Paris Hilton's Vizsla), the crazy dog (who in truth is much less crazy these days), and The Eliminator were there.

The FINAL EXAM!!!! consisted of the following:

• Watch me
  
• Sit
  
• Lay
  
• Leave it & Take it
  
• Stay
  
• Come when called
  
• Trick of your choice
  

The Eliminator went first, and succeeded at all of the tasks as Kirsten the Trainer called them out. Reese and Formerly Crazy also succeeded, and everyone got their diploma.

By far, the most noteworthy event of the night came at the very end. As a special graduation treat, Kirsten the Trainer brought in servings of safe-for-doggies ice cream (who knew?) for each graduate. Reese and The Eliminator quickly lapped theirs up, but Formerly Crazy dog simply wasn't interested. She gave the ice cream a brief sniff and walked away.

Her human unit suggested that one of the other canines might want it, and someone (Paris, perhaps) suggested that Reese and The Eliminator share it. I was a bit uncertain about having two dogs try to eat ice cream out of the same bowl, but they were both on leashes so we approached carefully.

The two dogs began lapping at the ice cream, seeming to ignore each other. Reese, who I may have mentioned is easily distracted, soon got distracted and turned away. The Eliminator promptly grabbed the edge of the bowl in her teeth and took several quick steps to the other side of the room. When she'd gotten far enough from Reese, she set the bowl down and began lapping her newly liberated ice cream. Reese turned back to find, well, nothing.

I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

Obedience school was a great experience. The fact that The Eliminator is only slightly more well behaved is due in large part to the fact that she was already very well behaved (which we cannot take any responsibility for -- she came that way). What we learned was how to reinforce and build on her good behavior.

I'm sure we'll take the next class, and I'm sure I'll write about it here.