The dogs had to be a little patient this morning as I needed to catch up on some paperwork and pay bills and the like, so I gave the dogs some bully sticks for entertainment.
But after a while, Mocha wanted to do something else. So she decided to play with some toys. I never got a picture of her IN the basket, but first she moved the toy basket up against the rug, then she stepped in the basket with one paw and rummaged around, selected her toy, then RAN into the room with it and played with it for a few minutes on the bed...then ran over and started the process again! Funny thing was, she never offered to put them back!
We did have another short clicker training session in the morning, but I wanted Mocha to be fresh (and not too full) for puppy class at night, so we didn't do as much as before.
I was able to get permission to attend one night of puppy class (it helps that my roommate is one of the instructors). Mocha was older than many of the puppies, but she fit right in anyway. Some dogs can be intimidated in the warehouse type building, with the sounds echoing off the walls and all the hubub. So I arrived early with Mocha since she'd never been there before. She went right in and was immediately comfortable looking around and wanting to say hi to everyone.
She didn't really react to her reflection in the mirror and I gave up trying to get a really neat photo - it just wasn't going to happen. She enjoyed exploring in the building. I wasn't really able to take pictures during class. Too much going on, and I wanted to give her all my focus to make this a fun time for her!
When class got started, Mocha was willing to focus on me, accept food treats readily (nervous dogs don't), and even played with a toy! Once again, I was very impressed! She was willing and happy and interested, easy to handle. She sometimes liked to stop and watch things. I let her do so as I consider it a part of her education, though of course she was always rewarded for responding to her name if I called her during her observations.
At one point, the instructor saw her leap up in my arms, and asked me to show the others. (They all are encouraged to teach a trick to show off at the end of the class.) Unfortunately, Mocha didn't feel like jumping up at that point, so we couldn't show them again. I got her to do it one more time during class but no one saw it! She did get to go first during the "restrained recall" (instructor holds dogs collar while handler walks away and then calls the dog - there was a little fence line of baby gates to help distracted puppies). Mocha was a star - she didn't mind someone else holding her, but she came to me at a run and lured by a treat, sat in front of me. GOOD GIRL!
Time flew by and I realized I only looked at the clock when I started thinking that Mocha was looking a little tired. Lo and behold, 50 minutes had gone by! When class was over, she got in the crate in the van, got a drink and laid down. Back home we went where had the opportunity to go outside then it was time to go in her (Ethan's) crate with the big soft bed. She got to take a nap, while I had to go in to work!