School Days

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been a number of posts here and on fb by parents about their child’s first day of school.  For a parent, this can be a traumatic day – a sense of time passing too quickly and anxiety about whether their fledgling can handle the classroom.  Of course, there’s also a feeling of pride seeing your little one move on to the next level.

Off To Class

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And so it was at The Aerie this morning as Penny began taking her first class – Family Dog I.  She had never taken  “Puppy Kindergarten” because of her age when we got her and when she finished getting her shots.  Now, she’s done pretty good around the house and on walks, but we wondered how she’d do in a more formalized setting.

We stopped off at the dog park on our way over to class to let her burn off some steam.  It was a foggy early morning and we certainly appreciated how quickly one can lose a white dog in a fog bank.

Fog Chase

Soon we were at our class (held at a great local pet-store) with about seven other really nice seeming dogs, aged a few months to a couple of years.  Penny seemed to be right in the middle age-wise.

Paying Attention

The early lessons – including “sit”, which she’d already gotten pretty early in her stay here  -- were pretty easy and Penny did pretty well.  She was pretty easily distracted by the other dogs and passersby, but could usually be called back to attention.  After some time, she began to whine a bit – being on a short leash and not being able to play with her new friends seemed to be the issue.  Oh, the drama of growing up!

This Is No Longer Amusing

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Afterwards, we were off to dog-beach so she could really run out some of her excitement/frustration.  And someone even got a Texas Toothpick treat after her big first day of school.

Texas Toothpick Treat

Good job, Penny!