The Letter

The Letter has come that every Puppy Raiser had warned me about; confirmation of Haddie's acceptance to Advanced Training.

No surprise, the ream of paperwork that was shipped to us shortly after Haddie's arrival stated a Turn-In Date of February 2013. Obviously, the date sounded so futuristic when reading in August of 2011. That date now is right before us.

Haddie will enter just shy of 20 months, which is on the older side, therefore, I am thankful that The Letter did not come in July for an earlier November Turn-In. That was a possibility. We would have adjusted, but I can imagine it would have made for a harder transition.

I took Haddie to her all-time-favorite outing this morning. The feed store. While it is her biggest thrill, she behaves horribly. Her one down-side. The only social outing that gets her in a tizzy. Her tail can not wag fast enough, her nose can not smell more quickly, her pulling could not get any stronger. It is a mess.

However, today I shook up the training and had her walk on my Side (right). Ah-ha! Just enough confusion for this little squirt to have to focus walking on a side she is not used to. (side note: my fault - it didn't dawn on me until last week that Heel (left) is most natural, but she needs to also know Side while walking, not just sitting or standing. We are now playing catch-up before February). It seemed to help control her desire to Pull. It forced her mind to be busy; she had to think. It was not awful. Yay!

I can't go into her favorite store without buying her favorite treats, so we did that too. Tillman Treats and Charlie Bears.

The next official stack of papers will arrive the first week of January. There it will spell out in detail all the logistics, schedules, and planning for February 15th. Let the next 16 weeks go by extremely s.l.o.w.l.y., please.