Our Little Graduate

Kyo is not the only dog making waves around here. Aria completed her last puppy class last night and passed her test "with flying colours." At least that is what her trainer said. :)
The trainer would call out things we had learned and we had to show him each cue. Aria learned about ten cue in total: sit, down, stay, come when called, shake, walking on a loose leash, drop it, leave it, puppy push-ups and hoop. She wasn't quizzed on "hoop" since that was just a trick to teach her to jump through a hoop and wasn't actually part of the basic obedience routine. She had to sit and stay for at least thirty seconds and down and stay for the same amount of time to pass. Her stays were great. The trainer's great dane was moving around in his crate when she was performing her first stay and she looked at him, but didn't lift her bum up off the floor. I was impressed.
She had to do a long recall where he took her out into Pet Smart and I had to call her from the training room. It takes her a wile to get there because her legs are so short, but she always came running.
I was mostly proud of her "leave it." He had me put her in a sit stay and then place a treat on the floor in front of her. She did fine and then she was put in a down stay and the cue was repeated. She was excellent. We did a few other cues and then came back to "leave it" in a sit stay and he told me to put two treats on the floor. I did and she didn't budge. I was floored! I don't think her nose ddid not dip down at all to even look at the treats lying on the floor at her paws. I think that is pretty awesome. She refused food when she was sitting two inches above it. (I told you she was short. lol).
The trainer that we had excellent and I would recommend him to anyone. His teaching manner is fantastic and he is great with the dogs. He even let us practice long distance recall with Glacier and Roscoe the week we learned it. He said that he would love to see her go on to advanced obedience, which is more loose leash walking and some other stuff. Loose leash walking is what she really needs work at, so we may enter her. Just because she is small and can't pull us over, does not mean she gets to be a crazy yoyo on the end of the leash. :) He said he was impressed we got her to go down and to come when called because usually her breed refuses to do both of these things. I think the difference though, is that we use the cues in real life all of the time.
I would do formal training sessions where I put ten minutes aside a day for practice, but her obedience was reinforced by getting her to do something and then giving her a life reward. For example, if she wants outside I have her sit and stay at the door, then give her the release cue to go out. For meals she must sit and stay as well and to spice it up, I'll get her to down or sit and shake a paw.
That said, I think we just lucked out and have a really good puppy. :)
Graduation pictures were taken with the puppies wearing hats. Aria had to wear her graduation hat like a turtle shell because they didn't have any small enough for her. Glacier and Roscoe got to wear hats too for the pictures. The trainer said they participated by behaving during class. I would agree with him-other puppies were getting attention and treats while they had to lie still and be on duty. So congratulations to all of my fuzzy children. You made me proud. :)