You CAN teach an old dog new tricks

When we got each of our dogs we enrolled them (and us) in "Basic Pawsibilities" at Anything is Pawsible. In that class we (and Lola, then Franklin) learned the basics of being not only good dogs, but good dog owners. We learned to sit, stay, walk nicely on a leash and recall. Our dogs completed the class with varying levels of prowess. (no judgement. we love them both. One of them may have finished first in the skills test at the end of her class, and one may have finished last in his class. Not naming names...).

We quickly discovered that Lola LOVES working and learning. We started taking "Advanced Pawsibilites" shortly after finishing basic. Then life got in the way. We both had to travel for work, and couldn't get Lola to class. Lola became a dropout. A year or so later we tried to erase the pain by attending a Tricks class. Lola perfected her rollover (watch the video from the Super Levi walk for a demo) among other tricks. Yet the failure to complete the advanced skills class gnawed at her like she gnaws at her favorite nylabone.

So we tried again, starting Advanced class in January. I'm proud to announce that Lola not only completed the class this week, but won the 'stay-off', a true test of canine will where dogs were put in a sit-stay and asked to hold it while tennis balls were tossed around, squeeky toys were squeeked, names were called and general chaos unfolded.

She has also mastered the 'finish', the stand stay, dabbles in heeling, and can do a field down when she feels like it.

It was interesting watching Lola in this class. Most of the other students were quite young or newly adopted, while Lola is almost 5 and has been with us for 4 of those years. She's definitely more mature. She can focus for much longer than the young ones. And just has a different way about her. But she can still learn. And looks really cute while she does.