Elka and I are show-offs.

I mentioned to my trainer at PetSmart today, before our obedience class, that I had brought Elka to the K9 Training class at Pup-a-razzi. She was going to teach the class how to have the dog "shake", so asked me to demonstrate some of the tricks we learned.

Elka and I had actually worked on all of the tricks throughout the day, so I was super confident that she'd perform. And boy did she! I have to lure, of course - one day does not set a trick; but she performed brilliantly, without a hiccup, and even let me do the tricks a few time to demonstrate how to train them. We did spin, twist, circle, beg, "bang, you're dead", and target.

The trainer said I did so well I could teach classes.

Ultimately, I know Elka is smart. She gets bored far too easily, and it's not just hyperactivity. By switching up her training and learning a lot of tricks, I keep her brain working. In fact, today when she got bored - instead of a walk we did training, and she was so mentally exhausted from that she'd sleep. We still did walks, of course, and a trip to the park where we worked in a separate area on tricks during distraction before getting to play. She has focus problems, but we made some real progress.

She was like a different dog today - confident, proud, focused, and calm. This one, she has real potential. We're going to do all of the training I can find, including agility, harness pulling (as in sleds/wagons), Canine Good Citizen; and, if I can swing it, companion dog certification.

Good times; I can not believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful companion.