More proud moments

At training we are all practicing very hard for The Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme, Silver level (not that Tommy and I have passed bronze…).
For the first time this week we tried the ‘down and leave the room’ exercise. Quite a toughy as dogs are loyal and to leave them in the down when they can’t see you is not a natural thing for them to do. Anyway, the training class all had their dogs in a steady down and one by one we were told to go to the cupboard at the end of the hall. The first 4 dogs all broke their down and then it was my turn. Luckily, Tommy had been playing with Duncan that morning and was quite tired; he was almost asleep on his mat when I told him to stay. Off I went. While I was in the cupboard, I could hear Pam saying how far Tommy had come. Alan said ‘considering I couldn’t even go near him when he first arrived he’s come a very long way’, and then Pam said about his coat and how good it was now when there wasn’t a hair on him when she first met him (a slight exaggeration) and what a wonderful job I’d done. I was beaming. I was then told to come out of the cupboard. Holding Tommy on a hand signal, with no eye contact, I made my way back to the mat. I told him good boy and he still stayed down!
The remaining dogs all broke the down when their owners left them. Some just to a sit, some trotted after their owners. Some excited on their owners return.
Tommy was the only one in the class that held his down stay. A very proud moment indeed.
By the end of the lesson he had spoilt it all obviously by getting bored and not wanting to do any more down stays, sits or waiting at gates but it was the best indoor lesson I’d ever had.