Head of the Class

Forest graduated from obedience class last week! I wouldn’t classify Forest as “obedient” yet, but he did learn the sit and down commands. We need some more practice with come, wait/stay and loose leash walking (which isn’t as strict as heel, Forest should just stay relatively close to my side without pulling on the leash or stopping). And we definitely need to train Forest on how to properly greet someone. Jumping up on people is cute now, but I don’t want him to knock over a kid or keep this habit as an adult dog.

Everyone took lots of photos during this last class, especially the instructor. We had a couple group photos with all of the doggy graduates and their parents. Some people had trouble getting their dogs to sit still and look forward, most of the students just wanted to lick themselves or their neighbors. Forest was one of the smaller dogs in the class so luckily I could just pick him up and point him towards the camera. The instructor also had one mini graduation cap that she wanted each dog to wear for individual photos. I think there were like 9 dogs in the class, so it took awhile to get the cap strapped onto each dog and then calm him down enough to snap some photos.

Forest was especially antsy, so I only got one good photo.

Then I got a cute but blurry photo.

At first, Forest was a little confused on how to wear a hat. I think he was trying to stick his face in it.

The instructor for the class was a little kooky, but she was also really passionate about training and raising dogs. She didn’t teach us as many commands as I would have liked, but she did teach us helpful training methods, so I’m hoping Nick and I can continue training Forest to not be a hellion.

Speaking of training, I have like the ultimate command in mind for Forest. There’s this scene in the movie “Shooter” that’s totally unrelated to the plot but looks cool: the main character’s dog is trained to open the refrigerator by pulling on a towel tied to the door handle, then snag a beer in his mouth and carry it back to his owner. Yes I know dogs in movies and TV shows are trained to do all sorts of stunts, but this one seems actually possible :) Unfortunately I’ll have to wait until Forest grows up before I can verify that a can or bottle of beer will fit securely in his mouth. Until then, I’ll guess we’ll keep working on the basics.

Head of the Class