I’m happy to report that Mom and Dad’s first Canine Good Citizen class went very well. I admit though, I feel like the weird old guy. My classmates are all younger than me. Ok, they’re a lot younger than me. Also they’ve all been through the obedience classes with this trainer, so some of my ways of doing things are a bit different. But different isn’t always bad. As a nontraditional student at 8 years old, I bring with me a wealth of life experience and a more mature perspective. Yet I can’t help but feel like the other dogs are looking at me like, “who’s the old guy?”
Despite using a few different techniques, I have to say Mom and Dad performed quite well during their first class. Ok, I have another confession. I was a bit showy when we first arrived. I did a perfect down/stay while Mom and Dad stood several feet away to talk with their new trainer. I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, what with all those excited pups around chatting with their friends. So I may have embarrassed myself by letting my nerves get the better of me, and I started whimpering. Awkward!
But once I shook off my nerves, I got to work guiding Mom and Dad through their paces. We demonstrated the basics of sit, down, stay, and coming when called. All very easy tricks for Mom and Dad to perform. In fact their new trainer was so impressed with my sit/stay then recall, she asked Dad to try it farther and farther away from me. It only needs to be at 10 feet for the CGC certification, but Dad and I did it multiple times from almost the length of the entire room!
However, no one likes a showoff. So I was quite relieved when their trainer switched her attention to my classmates. It was then that I noticed a handsome and sophisticated Golden Retriever staring at me from across the classroom. I immediately stopped slouching and flashed that dog my best Golden grin, only to realize that dog was me reflected in a mirror! Way to go acting like the weird old guy again! Hopefully my classmates were too focused on the lesson to notice.
