Day #5

N slept through the night and this morning went really well. Before we left the hotel I took her for a walk around the premises. N decided to test me this morning while I was toileting her. The command for the dog to toilet itself is HURRY. As we are walked along, she peed a few times but hadn't pooped yet. So I tried to extend the walk a little. N waited until we got to the front of the hotel, where 2 hotel managers were standing and watching. She proceeded to crawl under an oleander and pooped. Soooo guess what I had to do? Tell her she did a good job (for pooping) and than crawl under the oleander to pick it up!!!

Our second adventure of the day was taking our first field trip. We brought the dogs out to Fresh Choice for lunch. This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. She followed all commands and did not fall for any of the distractions. After we walked around the buffet and we were heading for the tables there was a 5 year old boy that was just beside him self. He was standing in the middle of the walk way, waving his hands around and saying really loudly to his parents "look at all of these dogs, mom dogs!!!!" He was very excited and for a second I thought our instructors planted a distraction for us to see how we would do, although they swear they didn't. N was great though, she didn't fall for any of the distraction and did exactly as she was told. She was given A LOT of praise when we got back to campus.

By the end of today everyone was exhausted. By everyone I mean dogs, handlers and instructors. It was a hot day and everyone is exhausted both physically and emotionally. They have successfully trained me with 30 commands. Hurry, Sit, Down, Heel, Side, Stay, Fetch, Lap, Retrieve, Car, Get, Give, Hold, Jump, Kennel, Let’s Go, Name, No/Don’t, Off, Ok, Out, Wait, Push, Release, Roll, Speak (can’t do this one), Stand, Stay, Under, and Fix It. N knows about 10-15 more and we will learn these over the next couple days while practicing for the public access test. Plus trying to master the first 30. So much to learn. Anyways the instructors let us go a little early which was very nice of them. I took N back to the hotel and we took a much needed 2 hour nap together.

Tomorrow will be our big trip to Target where we get to shop or do a scavenger hunt with our dogs. I am sure I will have lots of fun stories tomorrow. Final placements will be made tomorrow as well. This means that I will know which dog is ours by the end of tomorrow and I can release her name once the puppy raisers have been called.

Time to go do homework and get ready for tomorrows day of doggy training. I hope everyone has a great weekend and pictures will be coming soon.