We've got a Puppy Graduate!

Echo finished puppy classes last night. Even though she Hoovered up the treats on the toy aisle instead of obeying our "Leave It!" command, the instructor graded on a curve and she passed. (None of the other puppies left it, either.)
She wasn't nervous before the test. Just concentrating on guarding her baseball against the fearsome Army o' Dave.After class, we took a group picture of those of us who were there. (Kabot and his people didn't come to the last two classes for some unknown reason.) From left to right, the dogs are Charlie (he won Most Improved), Holly and Echo. I don't know the names of the people. We're proud of how much she's learned and hope it doesn't all fall out of her head in the four weeks until we start the Intermediate classes.

(I think there must have been a dog in another aisle.
The puppies are all fascinated by something.)

I was going to get our instructor a little gift for putting up with us all those weeks, but couldn't think of anything. If anyone has an idea, let me know. We'll see her around PetsMart when we visit.

I don't know if I can handle another class

Dave and I were late for Puppy Class last night because of a wreck on I-40 right at our exit. By taking an alternate route we managed to arrive at 7:15 pm, only 15 minutes late. As we rushed towards the door, I saw a little boy kicking, screaming, yelling and crying as his mom carried him to their car and struggled to get him in his car seat. I don't remember what his mom was saying to him, but I got the impression it was not a typical "I'm not ready to leave" kind of tantrum. I wondered if he had been knocked over or bitten by someone's animal inside the store. During class, we learned that the boy's Italian greyhound had slipped it's leash as they left the store and had been hit by a car.
Man oh man. Fortunately PetsMart has a vet clinic inside, so the dog had immediate care, but we don't know if it lived or died.
This is making me want to just hunker down in my little house and not let Echo out! The second week in a row that we've heard about a dog getting hit by a car. I'm glad next week is the last week.

Sad

Echo's buddy, Tanner, from class was run over by a car and killed last night. :( We missed him in class tonight.

Our dog is NOT smarter than us

When we first got Echo, we planned to potty train her outside. We picked out a spot for her to use and a command phrase ("Go potty"). An eight-week old puppy needs to go about every two hours. And October in Tennessee at four in the morning is not warm. She would just sit, shivering, for the 20 minutes I could stand being out there and then promptly pee in her crate once we came back inside. I am not the most patient person at four in the afternoon, let alone four in the morning after having the same thing happen at midnight and 2 am. After two nights of this, we decided to start the potty training in the garage. Just get her so she's not going in the house. We bought the pee pads and set up an area in the middle of the garage for her to use.
Once she was peeing on the mats nearly every time, we added a new challenge. We hung a bell from the door in the kitchen that goes out to the garage. Each time we took her out, we used her paw to ring the bell. It didn't take long for her to figure out that she should ring the bell when she needs to go potty. If she rings the bell and goes to the bathroom on a pee pad, she gets a treat when she comes back inside.
It has begun backfiring on us. Now, whenever she's hungry, she rings the bell, goes out and pees just a little, and comes back in for her treat. Wait two minutes. And repeat. Again. And again. And again.
Dave decided the other night not to let her get the best of us, though. So, after each little pee, he gave her a treat--he treated her with love. He petted her and told her what a good dog she is. We'll see how long it takes to break her of that bad habit.

Sit.

We had puppy class again last night. Echo did very well. She responds to her name much faster than the yippy, white dogs. We are so busy during class there's no time to take pictures. I'll probably stop bringing my camera. Maybe to the last class.
We played "Pass the Puppy" in class. It took some convincing (read: feeding of treats) for Echo to go to the other people in the class, but she visited everyone and did not pee on the floor once!!!! We have noticed that as long as one of us has ahold of her leash, Echo is all about tail-wagging, cutsey meeting people. The minute someone else takes hold of the leash, her ears flatten, her tail drops and she tries to hide behind us. She knows who her people are!
Here's the view off our deck at 7:26 am this morning. I need to get out there about 4 minutes earlier ... before the yellow starts showing and the sky is all brilliant pink and orange.
And here is the view from our living room at 7:32 am. Echo waits seated beside me and watches as David walks out and closes the door on his way to work. Then she runs over to the window to watch him walk down the sidewalk and drive away.

She'll be top dog for sure!

Echo started Puppy Education classes at PetsMart this Thursday. There were four other dogs in the class and one couple with puppy that were observing. Most of the pups were younger and all were smaller than Echo. She wasn't at all keen on meeting the puppies, but kept trying to figure out how to meet the dog owners. Only problem: all the stupid four-legged critters in the way! The minute a puppy was distracted, Echo scooted up to the owner with her tail wagging waiting to be petted. We laughed at her alot.
On one side, we had a 10-week old golden lab pup named Holly. Holly liked to bite, and Echo ignored her for most of the class. To our left was a family with their four month old puggle named Tanner. A puggle is a mix between a pug and a beagle. Too cute. Echo and Tanner spent most of the class sniffing noses which is a huge step on our dog's part. When Tanner tried to sniff Echo's rear end, the friendliness ended. Near the end of class, Echo even batted her paw at Tanner's nose. Such a brave puppy.
There were two little yippy white dogs in class. I don't know what kind. I didn't really pay attention to breed or names. I can't stand yippy dogs.
The puppy whose family was observing the class was a 9 week old Catahoula mix named Romeo. He was a cutie. His mom was a Katrina survivor. One of the unfixed dogs running around New Orleans making puppies.
We didn't take any pictures at class since we spent the whole time just listening to the instructor. It was more of an introductory class. Next week we get to work on "Sit!" and play "Pass the Puppy." Hopefully there will be photo opportunities then.
Here's Echo yesterday hanging out near the fireplace: