Tonight Mr. Rupert Giles scored 38 out of 40 points in The Basic Obedience Challenge Course at A Click Above dog training school.  He’s graduated Basic Obedience!  He is proficient at sit, down, stay, come, kiss, speak, leave it, greeting behavior, walking on a loose leash, and offering me eye contact and attention.  Of course the clicker and the treats gain excellent behavior while at home it’s still a bit shaky.  Adam and I are very proud though!  Now a decision must be made as to what his next course will be.

Should we put him through the Canine Good Citizen Obedience:  Continuation of general obedience training, specifically geared towards obtaining the Canine Good Citizen/Therapy Dog Certification and pre-competition obedience. Skills taught will include: walking on lead, heeling footwork, recalls, stays, manners while being petted/groomed, impulse control; all with human and canine distractions. The Canine Good Citizen Test will be given at the conclusion of the session, free of charge to students taking this class. Therapy Dogs International testing offered bi-annually…?

Or should we take a differnt path with Foundation 1 Agility:  This class is the first introduction to agility.  Skills taught will include:  Targeting, Stays, Circle Work, Shadow Handling, Obstacles (Table, Tire, Tunnel), and Toy/Drive work…?

Giles is going to be 1 year old on December 3rd.  He’s a pretty energetic puppy, always chasing the reflected light from his collar and sometimes walking 4 miles a day with me and other dogs.  But at the same time he’s so floppy and lazy!  He won’t even pick his back paws up off the ground when we play tug and he’s “jumping” for the rope!

My dilemma:  Culture the lazy, floppy Giles in order to create an amazing volunteer therapy dog OR feed the energy and create a focused, playful, eager to please puppy?

When it comes to MY energy level I’m more of a mellow dog person.  My husband is more of an energetic dog person and he would love to see Giles doing agility.

I just had a thought.  I had offered Adam the chance to do the agility class with Giles instead of me, which he said sounds like fun.  What if we did both classes at the same time?  Adam can do agility with Giles on Mondays and I can do the CGC Obedience class with Giles on Wednesdays?  Hmmm…

As always, your thoughts are important to me.