Happy Saturday

I wish I had not been so impressed with our CCI Puppy and had gotten up from the couch to snap a photo of a moment last night.

My brother and his family came over for dinner last night, and while Haddie has met them in the past she has not spent a lot of time with them, nor necessarily "hung out" with them. The times she has seen them she has been on leash, at my parent's house, controlling her manners and learning about being social, without being social.

Last night while at our house and sitting in the family room, I let Haddie out on her long leash and made her sit/down next to me, while her bum wiggled and pleaded to see my brother and his wife on the opposite couch. They were awesome and ignored her.

It took about fifteen minutes of us all talking and ignoring Haddie, minus the times I needed to correct her for breaking her sit/down commands. She eventually chilled out.

I gave her the release and she calmly walked over to my brother and his wife and got all the love and attention she had been waiting for. Then, I suggested she get her "pink toy" (a rubber doughnut looking-thing that she has yet to destroy) and to see my brother. She did.

Then the awe struck me and I couldn't move. It was so fun to watch the two play together. At first it was the common, throw-retrieve approach, and then my brother, having fun, tried to place the doughnut on her nose. It worked, but she was squirmy. I told him the command would be Wait to get her to stop moving (not sure if it this is technically true because it wasn't until she was about 7 months old did we get the Wait command clarified in class. Apparently a lot of us had been using the Wait command like a Stay command and all of our pups were rocking it!). She did, he placed it, she didn't move, he laughed, Game On!

I proceeded to spell-out the series of commands he could give her, not really sure if she would obey as she technically has never seen him in an authority role over her. It was not like our weekly Trainer from class was visiting our home and giving her commands.

She obeyed every! single! one! I was enjoying the "awe moment" as much as my brother and sister-in-law were. My favorite was the list of commands: Sit. Wait. tossed doughnut. Haddie didn't move. Okay! and she was off. Or this one was impressive too: Down. Roll ... because for the longest time she would not do this command for anyone! Loved it that she was listening and took direction from my brother.

The rest of the night was all about her wandering and chilling out. She had passed the test ~ what a Happy Saturday!!!