I think he's got it

Yesterday I took Parker into the bedroom to do some training. Not my first choice of venue, but we were having another day of pouring rain, so it was inside or nothing. He trotted in with me without hesitation (I had chicken!) and, as soon as I shut the door on a disappointed Emmy and turned around, Parker started throwing behaviors at me! He's never done that before, always waiting for me to ask for something. Yes, it can be frustrating when I want to work on fronts to have a dog doing rapid sits, downs, spins and whatever else he can think of, but it was a special moment to see that he finally understood that I wanted something and he was willing to try to second guess what that something was.

W00t!

Don't remember if I ever said that Parker and I have been attending a friend's rally classes. One of my teachers had recommended that that would be a good place to take him in my continuing efforts to get him socialized. Lots of other dogs and dog-people. From the first, the teachers in that class have been asking me if I wanted to take Parker through the course. Every time I've said I would after the class was over, if there were time, but there never was. But yesterday, due in part to my apparent inability to read a clock, we got there fifteen minutes early, and when I got the same question and gave the same answer, one teacher said, "No one else is here -- do it now!" So we did. Of the fifteen signs, there were two I couldn't figure out and, I was told after, several I did wrong. But *I* did them wrong. Parker did everything I asked! No, not properly or elegantly. His fronts were crooked, and each time he did a three-sixty first (he would be in a crooked front, I'd take one step back, he'd pop up, spin around and sit in a crooked front). When we came to a sign for a down, when I asked for one, instead of the beautiful elegance you'd expect from a Poodle, he threw himself onto his back and waved his legs in the air. But he did it!

But the best part was that he went through the entire course with his tail held up high and wagging with vigor. Bouncing. It was pretty damned cool.