My dog's got CLASS!!!

Well this weekend, Maddie & her friends completed their intermediate level class.  In case you missed her first graduation, I blogged about it here. 

This class was a bit different than the first.  The first class was very structured.  In order to learn "down" you had to first learn "sit."  In order to learn "stay" you had to first learn "down."  And so on, and so forth. 

In her intermediate class, the instructor was able to work more closely with each dog's "issues" and believe me, they all had "issues."  Maddie's problem is socialization.  She's a social butterfly, except she's not exactly sure what to do in order to be social.  She wants to play with dogs, but she doesn't know how.  She wants to love on people, but she ends up romping around on them. 

So throughout the 8 weeks, Maddie was challenged in class and at home with socialization.  She learned how to play, how to react to other dogs, when it's okay to play and when it's not, and many other things. 

However, better than socialization, I think all of the dogs learned patience.  To prove it, I have to show you this.  Each of the dogs sat patiently with their trainer, Auntie Nicole, and the parents were able to take their photograph.  I'm not talking about one-on-one photos (that's too easy) I'm talking about each pup in a line to get their photo taken...

From left to right, Maddie, Milan, Auntie Nicole, Dozer, Brady, and Harvey. 

I think Maddie's going to take some time off of school for a few months and see what her retention is like, but overall she's a great little pup!