Never underestimate

Never underestimate the smarts of a Canine Companions Puppy in Program. They can certainly prove you wrong over and over and over again if you claim that they may not know a command as well as they should.

There is a group of Puppy Raisers for Canine Companions who use social media to it's highest with a private online chat conversation that is going on 14,000 messages between the six of us since December. That is a whole lot of chatter and I will admit it varies from soda pop to cute photos to deep personal stages in life to puppy training techniques to just LOL's in response. But nonetheless it is the most crazy, funniest, supportive, helpful chat in social media.

Recently, a few of us have been posting helpful training videos that we have taken of our Puppy in Program. I shared this Speak command of Kolby's, because this is his most recent achievement. Excuse the sideways video, I always forget which way to hold the phone while taking a video. It was too cute to disregard, so just flip your head to the side.
One of the videos shared was of Spunky - her Puppy Raiser was demonstrating the Stand command and Spunky was rocking it by standing perfectly still while the Puppy Raiser walked a full circle around her and just watched her. Spunky didn't move a muscle. Bravo!!

My response after the accolades was that this was a command that we were still perfecting with Kolby. He has a tendency to take a step forward and sometimes doesn't even hold the Stand before he chooses to Sit on the task. It has been a work in progress.

However, you never should underestimate the smarts of a Canine Companions Puppy because the same day that I made that statement (yesterday) Kolby and my son were assigned the task during Puppy Class last night. All the dogs were to go into a Stand position and hold it while the handler walked around the pup, returning in front of them with an extended leash, and just stay there until the Trainer gave the Release command.

Wouldn't ya' know ... Kolby stood, did not step forward, and remained standing the ENTIRE (which seemed like forever) timed exercise. I was so proud and so excited; and was a great reminder that Kolby knows more than I give him credit. We all have bad days, we all have good days, but it is the overall ability and consistency in training that counts.

Never give up - one day it will click and one day it will stick, and then you've got one very accomplished Puppy in Program, and one very proud Puppy Raiser!