Last night our little boy Bruno graduated from doggy school level 1 at Twin Cities Obedience Training Club. We couldn’t be prouder. It’s actually kind of amazing to think about what he’s all learned in the last 9 weeks. When we first brought Bruno home a mere 2 1/2 months ago, he sort of knew "sit", and he was pretty decent on walks. Now he sits, lays down, stays, stands, shakes, rolls over, heels, and more. Granted, not perfectly every time, but pretty darn close.

Last night’s big tests were weaving through cones by leading him with my hand, and heeling down to one side of the ring, doing a u-turn, sitting him, staying him, and then leaving him there, walking down to the other end of the ring, releasing him from the stay and calling him to come to me, and having him sit when he got there. Ohh, he made his parents proud.

He will miss his friends Boomer, Brandy, and especially Amelie the pug, but there will be more dog friends in his future. Level 2 will have to wait until after broomball season, but I think Bruno is already well on his way to being the best trained dog in the world that Nate dreams he will be. And speaking of Nate, I’d like to give a little shout-out to him for picking up the at-home training while I’ve been under the weather. Shaking, rolling over, and standing? All Nate. Well, and Bruno I guess.

The first picture is the certificate Bruno got for completing Level 1 (it only has Nate’s name on it because he’s the one who registered him for class). The next one was during one of our training classes a few weeks ago. And the last one is Bruno with the best trainer in the world, Dani, the Dog Whisperer.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.