Monday, April 14, 2008

The Graduate

This past Saturday Theo graduated from his puppy kindergarten class. Yay! Congrats to Theo! I would say that his last day of class displayed his mastery of sits, downs, walking loosely on the leash, and that sort of thing, but we didn't actually end up doing much obedience this class. The trainer called it "a lazy day" and we spent most of the hour just letting the puppies play. I will say that his last day of class he showed his vast improvement in playing with other puppies! He never ran and hid from the other dogs, and he spent a good portion of the time jumping on heads and gnawing on ears. The trainer even noted that he had come a long way and she thought he was ready for puppy elementary. I have to agree!

I've said in the past that I can't recommend obedience classes enough, and here's another reason. The trainer spent some time at the end of class to recommend some dog-friendly places to eat in the area. She said it was a beautiful day and we should sit outside with our pups and eat some lunch. Well that sounded like a wonderful idea to me, so I tried one of the places she recommended. This place had outside seating with lots of nice shade, and very friendly service. They even brought out a bowl of ice water for Theo! The food was delicious, and I ended up having a nice relaxing hour, reading my book and petting my dog in between bites of delicious food. I always like finding new places with good food (I eat out so much I tend to get tired of the places I know), so I'd say Saturday was a success!

For finishing his training Theo got a certificate of completion, a notice saying that we get $10 off the next obedience class, and a new leash!

6 comments:

Manda Girl said...

Sounds like a perfect day! Congrats to Theo!

eikoleigh said...

Congratulations on the graduation! Yay, Theo!

Jenna Z said...

Hooray and corgi congrats! You are so lucky to have dog-friendly eateries! We take Sully everywhere with us and it is SO hard to find places, even if they have an outdoor seating area, that will allow dogs. If the eating area is outdoors but it has a boundary like a fence, we've found that they are not allowed in since it is still considered "inside" the restaurant. On vacation last year, we ended up eating subs at a park because no sidewalk restaurant would let Sully sit in the shade, everyone said he had to sit outside the gated table area in the sun. Ha! No way! And just as you are wrapping up classes, ours are just beginning for the year. (Not Sully, not sure if we'll do any classes this year or not) We have 4-H obedience orientation tonight and we have a new instructor this year who I haven't even met yet! And we're putting on our orientation night presentation! Gah!

JuLo said...

Thanks everyone!

Jenna, I definitely consider myself lucky on that front! The place I went this weekend has a separate patio area that's actually outside the front of the restaurant. It's kinda weird because the waiters have to leave the restaurant to wait on you, but they seem to have it down because the service was great.

Also, they just opened a new shopping center about 2 miles from my house that has tons of open patio seating (in the shade, of course!). Everyone in the neighborhood brings their dogs and sits outside to eat lunch on the weekends. It actually gets pretty busy! I can't believe there aren't more places that do it. I mean, think of all the business you could bring in advertising a dog-friendly restaurant! Of course, maybe it's different for California in terms of laws and weather.

Spectater said...

most of the restaurants in my neighborhood have dog-friendly sidewalk seating, and one even has dog biscuits on the dessert menu. read: bring my puppy-nephew for a visit! :)

JuLo said...

Yay! We want to visit! Too bad Theo's now so big we would have to ship him in the cargo hold. :(