PUPPY OBEDIENCE & MANNERS – CLASS 1 OF 6 – 09.14.2010

Tonight was Orso’s first of six Puppy Obedience & Manners classes and it went spectacular!  We chose to do this class with a woman named Dee Hoult, a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT) who owns Applause Your Paws.  I believe she is only one of two dog trainers in the Miami area who has earned this certification.  Also, my veterinarian of many, many years, Dr. Robert Pane, highly recommended her – which is very important to me since I truly respect his opinion – and she runs the classes in the lobby of his animal clinic after the clinic has closed for the night.  Below is a photo of Orso, our vet and me!  Holding the class in our vet’s lobby was of particular importance since Orso has not had all of his shots yet and any group classes would have to take place in a fairly sterile environment.  Dee also administers the Canine Good Citizen exam, which will hopefully be Orso’s first set of letters that will follow his name! 

Our class was packed!  We had 6 puppies participating and plenty of human family onlookers.  We all resembled nervous parents on our kid’s first day of school.  Our class roster looks like this:

Linda & “Casey” the apricot colored Chinese Crested,
Yvonne & “Orso” the Cane Corso,
Rupert and Jaime, their son Patrick & “Barney” the black mix breed,
John and Jeanne & “Brinkley” the oreo colored cockapoo,
Sergio and his daugther Paloma with “Bongo” the mixed breed blonde/tan puppy and
Daniella & “Cupcake” the wheaten terrier.

Our class is very diverse, which I loved, and although all the pups are around the same age, Orso is not surprisingly the biggest one AND the most vocal!  It was wonderful to see him play with all these smaller puppies in a respectful manner.  The class is done off-leash so the pups truly are interacting without human interference for the entire hour.  All in all, we loved the experience and are looking forward to a great 2nd class!  Below are some of my favorite shots of the class.  I apologize if some of the photos are a bit blurry, but 6 fast-moving puppies are not always easy to capture with photographic grace!