SHE DID IT!!!

Today Ludo passed her Bronze Good Citizen exam!

We have been going to training classes for the past four months and today was the exam. There were various parts including walking nicely through a door, weaving in and out of other dogs without pulling on the lead, having her collar removed and not running off etc, but the hardest part for Ludo was the 1 minute down-stay. I had to put her lead down and step five paces back.

In practice, Ludo had only been managing this about one in every three times, but we decided to have a crack at the exam anyway. I did a lot of extra practice with her this week, and got up early and took her for a walk in the hope that she would be calm.

However, seconds before the down stay, she started chasing her tail and biting her lead. NOT the sign of a calm dog. She had only been down for a few seconds when she got up and started biting her lead.

I said, "Ludo, I'm begging you, DOWN" and she lay down again. Then she rolled onto her side, and stuck her legs in the air as if to get a belly rub. I ignored her. The clock ticked. Eventually everyone else got to one minute, and they all held for an extra ten seconds or so until Ludo got there too. It was plain sailing after that!


Here she is posing with her certificate and rosette tonight. Sorry the photo isn't great - I still haven't sorted out getting pics off my camera so I took it with my phone.

We start the Silver Good Citizen classes in January. Wish us luck!