We get to Smithtown and Barb tells us the trainers.are going to take us in groups. The poodle on class, another black lab, and I are going out in the second group. Boomer and I hang out on the bus for a bit and I listened some to some more of the book, Eragon, that I've been reading. Then decided to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather we were having and take in the sights. While it was really nice out, a dark cloud was making its way towards us as well as the wind picked up a little bit too.
Before long, Barb comes back and gets the three of us to break our dogs before we walk. We take off and did this in a rotation format where the first person takes off and everyone works their way to the next down curb. Then the 2nd person to arrive is the first person to take off, the 3rd person is the 2nd person to take off. thus it strategically gives all of us practice at steadying our dogs and following other people too, as some dogs REALLY do not like following and like to be in the lead.
It was very quickly established that Boomer and I were the fastest walkers of the group and we hadn't gotten far when Boomer was wanting to pass the next team in front of us and so I had a little bit of work to get him to slow down and steady instead of blowing past everyone as he wanted to do. LOL! We also didn't get too far into the walk when it started to drizzle and then turned outright into a heavy downpour. I thankfully had my jacket on and pulled up the hood and was in good shape. I felt so bad for my classmates, as neither of them had jackets on since it was so nice and warm out, so they and all three dogs were SOAKED. We continued on our way walking, and the dogs did well other than the occasional shake to shake off the water. Boomer didn't seem to mind the water much at all, which as I learn later, he LOVES water and the mud. Hee Hee!
So we work our way around the Backwards "P" route and back to the Smithtown Town Hall parking lot, where the bus was parked with the rest of the group. I was sure glad I had the raincoat on and they piled those of us that were soaked into a van and took us on back to get changed and into some dry clothes and to dry off the dogs!
We had lunch and it was Celebration Sunday, in which the sponsors and puppy raisers can come to meet the graduate and many times see their pups for one last time. Unfortunately, Boomer's puppy raisers were all unable to make it this weekend, he had not one, not two, but three puppy raisers from Athens GA. He also had a sponsor who was unable to make it as well. So we got on the phone and gave each them a call to speak with them to thank them for their work in preparing the dogs and continuing on.
This is blurry because it is a picture of a print out of a picture but it is our individual graduation picture.
Kacie sitting in a chair with a dark red top on and Boomer sitting elegantly in harness next to her left knee and both looking at the camera. Behind them are flags.
Kacie sitting in a chair with a dark red top on and Boomer sitting elegantly in harness next to her left knee and both looking at the camera. Behind them are flags.
After things wound down there, we came back for dinner- NY style pizza and then came back to the room to chill until time to take the dogs out to break for one last time before settling down and heading to bed with all the excitement for the day.
