The good news is that Kozmo was amazing last night. The bad news is that I have no funny stories to relay.
It was like we took a different dog to class. He got a little excited and barked when we got there but then we told him to sit and he calmed down. He wasn't the idiot barking and disrupting class. He demonstrated that he did his homework and knows sit, down, and is learning his name. One of the trainers would walk up to distract him and I had to say his name and get him to look at me. He did really well. I'm still not sure if he knows his name or knows that I have cheese and treats in my pocket.
The big test was that all of the owners and their dogs had to sit along either side of the room and each person had to make their dog walk nicely on a leash the length of the room, no pulling or jumping. I wasn't sure how he would do with all the people and dogs to distract him. We were picked to go first and he did really well. I know this is mean, but I was really happy to watch the other dogs and see how terrible they are walking on a leash. In fact, it was so bad that the trainer kind of yelled at the class. She said if you want your dogs to walk on a leash then you have to take your dogs for walks, EVERY DAY! She said dogs don't learn to walk on a leash in class, it requires long walks every day. I guess our twice daily walks are paying off :)
Kozmo was not the worst dog in class. One collie barked so much the owner was asked to take the dog to the lobby area of the building because it was so distracting for the other dogs. Another dog had an accident on the floor and had to go outside 2 other times. Kozmo isn't perfect but he wasn't the idiot barking the most or the loudest and he did his business outside like a good dog. Kozmo also made a friend, Frank. Frank is a Bermese Mountain Dog who is the softest, cutest dog ever.
We worked on come and sit stay. Luckily we have been doing a lot of practicing with down stay at home so Kozmo looked like a star puppy! The trainer saw sit stay was easy for Kozmo and made us do it with me turning my back on Kozmo, he was perfect!!!
We were so happy and proud of our little man. He is going to require tons more work and daily practice, but he's starting to catch on to the commands and being around other dogs and people.
Now Kozmo's humans need some training. Last week we took his travel bowl and water, but we forgot to give him a drink. This week we forgot the bowl and water. On the way home we stopped at the store and got a gallon of iced tea. We stopped for gas and I noticed the tea was missing it's lid. Kozmo figured out how to open the gallon of tea and got himself a drink. Next week we will remember his water. Proof of a true dog daddy....human himself a glass of tea from that jug when we got home!
If I could just get Kozmo to leave poor Sparky alone......
We will do our homework for the week and are looking forward to class next week where the challenge is down stay.
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