We have only one more week to go in Holmes’ Beginning Obedience class. He has been a star. If I worked him a couple of times a day (as I know I should), he’d be a superstar. He watches me all the time, he wants to understand what I’m asking. His heeling is excellent, his sits are still a bit sprawling, but much better than they were at the beginning of the class (and they will be better still). He does the sit stay and down stay reliably and in excess of the times required. He always comes when called though he tends to launch himself at me as he arrives at my knees. We are having some issues with the stand for exam. This has always been the bugaboo exercise for my Cardis. When they see someone walking up on them, the tail begins to wag and that wags the entire dog. Suddenly he isn’t standing precisely where he started. I know it will come though. His “Down” (I use the command “Drop”) isn’t as elegant as I want it to be — no Sphinx for my Holmes. He turns upside down. I ignore it, tell him to stay, and walk away. Then he rights himself and looks like a handsome statue. Today the dogs on both side of him were up. One walked over and sniffed him, but GOOD BOY, HOLMES, he stayed down. The Finish is a no-brainer and his Figure-8 is very acceptable.
Since I am looking for a forever home for him, I don’t know how much time I have, but we are going to keep working. If he’s ready and some trials come around, I’m going to enter him. I love this happy working dog. He makes me smile.
