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What an improvement! I couldn't believe the difference, she was like a completely different dog! She did get up and bark a couple of times, but it wasn't constant like it was last week. She did awesome at all the excercises and when we were sitting, listening to the instructors, she laid calmly and quietly at my feet. Even one of the other mommies commented after class about what a good girl she was! She's really responding to the clicker now and isn't so distracted anymore. We did one excercise that I thought she would be aweful at, but she did great! It's the beginnings of teaching them to be able to be let off leash, but for now, we're just working on getting them to check in on us every few seconds. You stand very still like a tree and have the dog on a leash and let them get distracted. Everytime they look back at you, you click and drop a treat at your feet and let them come to you to get it. When we first started, I thought no way is she going to look at Jason with all these distractions and the other dogs all on leash doing the same thing. But she did! She did great at it!
I think a big part of our success last night was that Jason and I were much more confident. We spoke loudly and walked briskly and weren't as nervous or wishy-washy as we were last week. But I think the other big part of it was her and being more farmiliar with the environment and us working on the homework with her cause you can see a big difference in her response to the clicker from last week.
We are such proud parents today!

Congratulations to Cookie and you both! I have no doubt she will just keep getting better and better and after all the love and hard work you have put in I think you will be very well rewarded with one happy well trained dog!

see? a slow start doesn't mean she can't learn to be just as good,or better than those other dogs!
it looks like she's responding very well to clicker training,and has finally figured out the fun of going along with this whole "sit,stay" buisness

I'm really glad that Cookie's doing so well Jessie The payoffs for all the hard work you put into her really are worth it, and it's really showing up clearly now Good job, congratulations to the three of you!

P.S. While I was offline for those weeks a bunch of my e-mails and such got deleted (long story) before I could read them.. Did you ever send me your favourite picture of Cookie?

Hey thanks!
No problem, I understand! I didn't send you a picture yet, I thought that would be selfish of me with everything you were going through, I wanted to let things cool down a bit. I will send it to you tonight or tomorrow! Thanks again!