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I was asked to tell you about my training.
Now that's a difficult thing. Not so easy to remember how it
all happened, day by day. Wait a second... I know. The actual
training started at the dogs' kindergarten. Before we come to
that, though, I will say what had happened before.
As soon as my quarantine was over I became a full-time employee
at my master's company. Every day they would drive me to an
office block where I would meet quite a few nice people sitting
at their desks. The worst problem was peeing. I had to make
clear soon enough that I wanted to go out to the grass but sometimes
I would pee right in front of the building, on the pavement;
in such cases my owners always showed perfect understanding.
I always wanted to play around with everybody and while doing
that I liked to gently bite them - maser and mistress said playing
was OK but without biting. I then grew especially fond of my
owners' car, the boot was all mine (that is, until they started
putting this huge pram into MY boot). The worst thing at work
was that large red car in the square nearby and a man in a blue
uniform who would always come with a bag full of papers - all
the smells he gave off kept making me dizzy. The best thing
was everybody loving me, stroking, scratching my back and giving
me affectionate hugs. It all ended when my mistress got a big
belly and stopped going to work - so did I.
Dog
kindergarten
I was barely six
months old when my master and mistress took me to that big
me ...
There were many dogs out there, most of them a little older
than me, but I met my brother, too, and I felt safer at once.
Luckily they all thought about playing mostly, some of them
eagerly landed themselves up in a ditch at the edge of the
meadow. It was great fun when their owners couldn't take them
out of there! Personally I never liked that ditch - it was
dirty, wet and stinking. In this kindergarten we were taught
how to get on with our owners and understand what they wanted
from us. Most of all, however, we learned to have good fun
in our own company, without any rows. We had a great time
there..
I liked it, too, that it was always the whole family who went
to these trainings and we took our exercises together, too.
I was going to the kindergarten for two months. Then we went
away for holidays and when we returned master and mistress
said: 'The party's over. Time to go to school!'
At first I thought
it was just blah. The same meadow, the same lady in front of
us, usually the old friends from kindergarten.

But
soon it turned out that there were other things that had
changed. No more lingering over the heel command. 'Down' meant
now I had to lie straight and right at the leg, not on the back
for instance; and when
the lady said 'stay' there could be no more sniffing at the
flowers nor checking out whether Hoover's mistress had the same
delicious snacks as ever.

Then
a strange short stick appeared, thinner in the middle,
quite thick at the ends. They called it 'apport'and said it
was not a new toy so we had to bring it to the owners as quickly
as we could and give it back right
away. Now what fun is that? Everybody knows tugging is the best
fun in the world. To make things worse, we started getting homework.
From now on
learning obedience became a major part of our everyday walks.

When
autumn came my owners wished for me to confirm my skills
with a PT exam (Companion Dog). We went to another meadow, near
the airport, and there were many more dogs there than in a usual
training. Almost as
many as on my first exhibition. There was this man, too, who
looked very grim; he was supposed to assess my skills. As the
exam had started I first had an
opportunity to look at other dogs' efforts. It wasn't until
then that I had realised how stressful such a test could be.
My master and mistress looked strangely
serious, they didn't smile as often as usual. When our turn
had come it turned out I would be passing the exam along with
a very good-looking Weimaraner.
I was the first to go so he had to stay on the side, all on
his own, and patiently wait. In the meantime my owner and I
started going along the track, first on the
leash, then without it..

I
don't think I did really well as my master's leg would sometimes
go
too far on the turns. Then my master called me to him - for
some reason he showed it instead of calling out loud as he would
usually do. I was surprised so
only when he repeated the command I quickly ran to him. Fetching
went great as my master wore a broad smile all the time. I had
earlier overheard that they
worried quite a lot about how I would do in this part. I couldn't
let them down! I followed the down, sit and stand commands perfectly.
I have no idea why
the judge was picky about that one little step after 'stand'.
I don't understand what the condition of my teeth had to do
with the obedience exam, either,
but he looked in there as well. At last I finished my part and
changed places with the Weimaraner.

Now I had to sit on my own, far away from my master,
while the other dog showed off his qualities. There were so many flowers around me and they smelled so good but I had to be tough and stay still.
After some time my master told me to change my position to down. All of a sudden the handsome Weimaraner ran up to me instead of retrieving as
he was expected to and he tried to talk me into playing. I saw how terrified my master was and I knew I could not do it to him. I remained down and waited until they took the cutie away from me.
At the end I got a beautiful diplomma and they told me I was the best! I had these five points taken off but I passed the exam with a perfect score
nevertheless.
I
am happy to say that once the exam was over there was no
more homework and we started doing really cool things. My
owners would take me to a variety of new places where I learned
to track lost objects and
hidden people. Unfortunately it did not last longer than a
few weeks. A new occupant turned up; they called him Blazej
and he turned our world upside down.
My master and mistress devoted most of the time to him and
we were unable to go tracking so often anymore.

One
day we all went to that old familiar meadow again.
There were neither so many dogs nor the nice lady there, however,
I met my brother and my grandpa as well as a man, unknown
to me, with a
handful of cool things to gnaw. I liked the gnawing a lot
and when the summer started my owners enrolled me to a new
school. This was really serious business.

Twice a week, three hours of labour. To begin with, tracking
the objects dropped by my master in the grass, then an obedience
training, finally my favourite gnawing. In the course of training
I learned I would now be preparing for the working dog's IPO
I trial. The homeworks were back as if those three hours were
not enough. Hopefully it is about to finish soon now but I
have already heard that after I pass that test a new training
is about to come.
Actually, I am glad; I love any work with my dear master and
mistress.