Doggy High School

She will always be my little puppy, but yesterday Miss Roxy Ann started High School. Yep. She's a teenager. She'll be officially 1 year old on Saturday--Princess Party !!! And she has a spa day (er--groomer) scheduled for Tuesday! (LOL-I also convinced her that it was a tradition for doggies to get baths on Christmas morning before they got to unwrap their toys--shhh!)

Anyway, she's completed all of her training classes and is now in Advanced Obedience.

Yesterday was our first class and let me tell you, it was already serious business--we started off with sit stays and down stays at 20 feet. Graduation is going to be an official AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluation. And it is going to be hard. Some things she'll have to do:

Ignore a tray of food on the floor. (um--okay--but it better not be cat food)

Stay at 20 feet. (she rocks the stay!)

Recall (come) from 10 feet. (But with no treats--eek!)

Be alone with a stranger for 3 minutes. (That's like 30 years in dog time).

She'll have to ignore the evaluator's dog as we approach and shake hands. (Ignore a potential snuggle? Seriously?)

She'll have to go through a crowd of people. (Crowd of snugglers!)

Here's the whole test--but this sounds easier than when our instructor was describing it, using real examples that the evaluator has used. http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/training_testing.cfm

I'm feeling pretty positive about her chances, but anything can happen. Our class is at Petsmart on Sunday evenings--so lots of dogs coming and going, big time distractions. I'll keep you posted on her progress and get some updated photos--her back is almost level with the couch's back! She last weighed in at 75 lbs. It's unbelievable how quickly they grow up!