I started back to school last year in the pursuit of my BA.  It's not been the easiest journey.  I found algebra exhausting and I took my C grade for both classes and felt like I had conquered Mt. Everest.  Right now I'm at the tail end of a philosophy course.  Art Appreciation comes around in May, I'm so sick of the general ed requirements, I want to get into the things that interest me, like accounting and business management.  On the plus side, I have 3 more classes to complete before I can move on, so things are definately looking up.

The dogs are back in class as well.  For the last year or so I've been training on my own and it's worked fine.  God Bless Petco and Petsmart for allowing pets in their stores.  It's where most of my distraction training has been done the past year.  But, it's time to get a bit more focused and serious, so back into classes we go.  Agility started last week with Dora.  I had been taking classes with Connie Apling in Waterloo and loved her training methods, but with gas at $3.00 plus a gallon, my own classes and that second job, it's just not feasible.  Once again the big guy dropped another wonderful set of agility instructors into my lap and I was so tickled last week to see that they use similar methods to Connie's for agility training.  Dora did a nice job except she was not too keen on the little moving plank, something about not being on her agenda.  Dora is big on HER agenda. 

Tonight I've gone over the edge and have entered both pups in classes.  Spice the new rough Collie pup is in basic obedience.  She's 5 months old and is a fetching fool, has caught onto sit and down, but has real issues with the whole leash thing.  Apparently she has been speaking with Dora and is developing a Spice Agenda.  Ha!  Not going to happen, Spice is NOT an evil tri girl like Dora, she is a sweet fluffy sable girl, and dang it, she is going to cooperate.  Think furry mule and that pretty much sums up Spice's leash antics.  I can work with that because she is a fetching fool and I'm totally in love with that aspect of her personality.  She fetches toys, balls, anything plastic, my socks, sticks and that one time unfortunate poopsicle--ugh. 

We are doing puppy class too with the newest addition to the house.  Trace is a 4 month old Cardigan Welsh corgi pup who even though he is the wrong color (my fav is brindle) he's so much fun!  He too has the whole sit and down thing going well, and this one actually walks on a leash despite Spice's attempts to corrupt him.  He likes to fetch and play tug too.   Oh and he has the absolutely cutest thing right now--he picks up toys or bones in his mouth and then tries to bark or yodel.  Jean tells me that his daddy Flash does the same thing.  Trace's favorite toy right now is the kong.  I'm not sure who dug it up from the back yard this winter, but it's now HIS.  More on Trace later, I have 2 rolls of film due back from developing and there are a few, haha, of him on it.  Trace and Spice are best friends too. 

I'll give an update on class antics tomorrow.  Oh yea and Jam gets to do some rally workouts after classes.  I have to find a way to stop the vibration he emits that makes him travel across the floor on the long sits.  I asked his breeders where the off button for that was--seems they don't make an off button for vibrating dog butts...

Until next time...