Always wow-ing me

Marge has had a good past couple of days. Friday (when this picture was taken) she went to the park . There weren't many people around but it's still an accomplishment that none of them scared her. Yesterday, I took her on multiple walks around the neighborhood. She stayed at heel most of the time, with attention, and barely batted an eye at the screaming kids across the street.

Today, Beginner 2 started. It's a small class with just two other dogs, which is going to be great. One of them is from the last class - the dog who beat Marge on the back up. Another is a big bumbly chocolate lab, really cute guy. Marge voiced her displeasure at his bumbly-ness. But I think it was a hidden gesture of friendship, because if they were offleash I bet she'd just chase after him like she does with the other silly big dogs at the park.

We have the same teacher. We practiced a lot of old stuff today - stays, walking, recalls, some clicker basics - and started a couple of new things, like fronts and finishes. We need to work on finishing most of all.

We also continued sit/stand for exam stuff. Marge was GREAT. She broke position, as usual, but it was to APPROACH Susan, rather than move away from her. She constantly targeted with her nose, which was also good. I let her nibble on one of her treats while Susan actually managed to pet Marge on the head a couple of times.

We also did some of the beginnings of the supervised separation stuff. We basically did a round robin of dogs, where everyone switched dogs until they wound up back with their owner. Marge really wasn't all that agitated; she was fine with Susan, maybe mildly uncomfortable with the other people.

Best of all, my dad was there to see all of it.