Graduation!

Kima did her sit-down-sit-stand-down-stand test perfectly today at our last class! She got a diploma and a stuffed squirrel and big "great job" from Allie the trainer. Of course she wasn't at all interested in the toy until tonight when she started shaking it like the vermin it represents :)

Then we went down to K9 Koncepts today and it was a bit of a mess - I think that they're so used to aggressive dogs that the language they used about 'you gotta correct', 'gotta break her down first' just really turned me off. Eventually they clued in to my reluctance to dive right into prong collars and were explaining they would focus more on food rewards with us, but within five minutes of us getting there Roland wanted to test Kima with another feisty german shepherd and asked my permission to use corrections with her. I wasn't ok with that and said no, and so then they did a demo with one of their dogs and then sat me down in front of a Cesar Milan video. I'm sure their methods work great and might even work with Kima, but if I'm not comfortable with the approach I won't be able to implement it.

We have another appointment for an evaluation with a certified behavioralist who used to study fetal hemoglobin and malaria before going to vet school. I liked her approach a lot more...so thanks Mr President, your stimulus package will go directly into dog training, one way or the other.