A+ for the First Day

This weekend was Toby's first day at school! There were 9 puppies in the class, most of which were pretty large mixed breed dogs! There were two other smaller dogs there: a Minature Schnauzer and a Westie - and they were both quite high-strung! Toby was so calm when he "met" all the other puppies. He almost seemed a little scared, but he was still interested. He's met lots of other dogs, large and small, around the neighborhood, but he's only met them one or two at a time. Meeting 8 other puppies at once was maybe a little intimidating. He was so well behaved! Here's a picture of him "meeting" some of the other puppies. The beginning of the class was spent just letting the dogs get to know each other. What a bunch of cuties!

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Toby got an A+ from the instructor for a couple things! He was one of the calmer dogs in the class, and surprisingly, he wasn't easily distracted by all the other puppies. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of other very smart dogs there, but I'm biased! Craig and I were so proud of him. He did a perfect "Sit" and "Down" for the instructor, and at any time I asked him to by himself. Craig said he looked really cute when we were practicing the "Heel" command - he said Toby looked like a little show dog prancing next to me and looking up at me for his treat! :) He does the "Stay" command really well, but we were teaching him a little ahead of what they wanted us to. We were jumping right into "Come" after he says, but they want him to just be able to say and have us walk around him and see if he stays on his own without waiting for the "Come" command. So, we have to work on that.

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The clicker training is REALLY working for Toby! It's amazing! He really understands that CLICK = TREAT and because of that we can make him learn almost anything! We'll keep you posted on his progress. We're just so proud of him right now. He slept good last night after all that hard work! :)