when we first got gypsy, saxy was going to be her primary trainer. at the time, this worked. he wasn't working and wanted a way to be involved with taz (well, okay, so he also wanted a dog and this was the closest he'd ever come), so being the primary trainer seemed a good idea. since then, circumstances have changed. he's gotten a job and is now working all day (something that has gypsy very angry with him - she doesn't growl or anything, but she doesn't listen to him much any more either) so now i am the primary trainer - which she has adjusted to nicely.

yesterday, after a rather long day of teaching an online class then doing a major grocery trip, we had our first training session with an actual class rather than at home in private. i never imagined a dog training class could hurt, but man do i ache! i know it's got to be the recent lack of anything active that got me, but i also know miss gypsy herself is part of the blame.

one of the reasons we're in the public class now is to get her socialized. she has to be able to meet other dogs and not growl or get out of hand, especially other service dogs. she has to be able to ignore dogs she doesn't know when working. while we had a few problems since yesterday was her first introduction to a bunch of strange dogs, she did fairly well. except when we were walking. i swear, if taz had been holding her, she would have dragged that boy to kingdom come. we had to walk several blocks and the whole way she was trying to rush and i was trying to get her to walk with me. with me, not dragging me. now my body aches, particularly my left shoulder.

after we got a nice approval from the instructor, we were told that we are going to be in a parade in april. me. gypsy. parade? we were supposed to go to a meeting after class about it but someone wasn't listening to the instructions and didn't bother to ask to get them clarified. having done this before with this particular someone more than once before, i wasn't about to spend half the night wandering around aimlessly while he "looked for something" to cue him in on where we were supposed to be. since she's ordered gypsy and i to the saturday morning classes as well, we'll get whatever info we nee then, more then likely.

great. i get to ache twice during the week.