An A for Effort???

Well, I made it through my first night of school. I'm glad I had a lot of well wishes, cause I needed it!!

Mom and dad took me to the building and when I got out of the car I was so excited and spazzy. They walked me around outside for a while, letting me sniff and see some other doggies. This helped me calm down so I wasn't pulling mom everywhere, but walking pretty nicely.

We got into the building and there were dogs everywhere! I sat by the door and watched them as they all came in. Then when it was time for my class I got to see my fellow classmates: three other GSDs, a retreiver, a whippet, a corgi, a husky (not as pretty as my blogger husky friends!), a shitzu, a poodle and two mixes. So 12 total including me.

There was also another class going on next to us, so it was pretty loud and there was A LOT going on. Dogs barking, squeakers, people talking, dogs moving. This was kinda a problem. I wanted to focus and watch everything else BUT mom. The only thing she could really get me to do was sit and a down.

When we worked on the focus/watch me! work, mom was finally getting me to watch her, then one of the little mix dogs came over and tried to steal my treats and then sniff MY BOOTY! Oh hell to the no fuzzball! Mom asked the little dog's owner to please keep control of her dog. See mom, I need to keep any eye out or those little dogs will steal my treats! Mom says she doesn't want to get grouped with that pair again, they were driving her crazy!

The trainers told mom she needed some high value treats. Mom said that there's nothing more high value than my Natural Balance Roll and hotdog pieces. I can do all this stuff at home, but I was just waaaay to into everything going on around me. The trainers said this was common with GSDs and on the first night of class.

When we left and I could hear mom talking to dad in the car:

Mom: "I'm just frustrated cause I KNOW she KNOWS all this stuff, she just won't focus"

Dad: "It'll get better, she's just too alert to everything"

Mom: "I know, it just frustrates me then I get frustrated at myself for being frustrated in the first place, she's still just a pup..."

Poor mom. I hope to do better next week. But mom did say I was the most well behaved dog in class. I just sat and watched and followed mom. I didn't get all up in other dogs' junk or bark or anything. She also said if it takes me five weeks to focus then it just takes us five weeks...she loves her spazzy girl no matter what!