[Soundy]

Well, we had a great time at the first class! Of course, the first thing, everyone was amazed at how small Groucho is - lots of "Awwwww, so cute!" when I brought him in for his first round. He did pretty good, although he was a little jumpy when Ann (the instructor) scratched and scooted the obstacle boxes, but he managed to find the hides without much trouble.

After his second time around, I noted that unlike most of the other dogs that were coming in and immediately sniffing around for the target, Groucho almost seemed unsure as to what he was supposed to do, and it almost seemed like he was wandering aimlessly and just "stumbled upon" the treats. She said no, he wasn't just stumbling across them, but locked on when he got within "cone" of the target. I noted that this was similar to what happens when he loses track of his ball at the park - if I walk toward it, he'll follow along, sniffing around, until he suddenly locks in, anywhere from 6 to 12 feet away, and bolts right for the ball.

On the third round, the dogs all went off-leash, and Groucho seemed to have a lot better idea of what his mission was, and found tracked the hidden treat down with very little hunting around. All in all, Ann said he did really well, and she seemed quite impressed with his progress over just the three tries.

We have next weekend off as Ann is off to a seminar, then it's back to it the following Saturday! Meantime, we have lots of homework to do!