rhapsodic.org is a weblog by Valette Keller

Puppy Kindergarten

I want you to imagine the most adorable thing you possibly could, then add puppy breath and butterflies and rainbows and unconditional love.

That's pretty close to the awesomeness of Alaska Dog Sports' Beginning Puppy I obedience class, aka Puppy Kindergarten, for ages 12 weeks to 6 months.

Last weekend was Mitzi's first day, and she was pretty distracted in the OMGOMGOMG kind of way. And then she piddled on the floor. And then they all piddled on the floor. Because PUPPIES OMG.

But we weren't there to play, we were there to work and to learn. Which is hard for Mitzi, but not impossible - especially when Olive isn't there to point and laugh and taunt her.

We rehearsed some of the commands we had practiced all week: Sit, Leave it, Look, and Come. And we pretty much kicked butt at all of those.

Then we learned some new commands, like Let's go and Wait. Which Mitzi got pretty much immediately, but our neighboring lab puppy had a lot of problems. Did you know it's very difficult to Wait behind a stick when you are chewing on the stick?

Mitzi didn't have any problems with any of the commands and in fact was showing everyone else up. I was so proud.

But we couldn't keep the puppies' attention for long, so we broke for recess. Mitzi played on the Small Dog side of the room with a shih tzu, schnauzer, and a fluffy husky while three 4-month-old labs wrestled on the Big Dog side.

Either this week or next we will introduce her to the Big Dogs and see how she handles herself. It will be good to be around bigger dogs that she can't just step on like she does Olive.