TAMPA'S ONLY ALL PIT BULL OBEDIENCE CLASS GRADUATION

YESTERDAY was the graduation of Mid Florida APBTA's
First ALL APBT obedience class.

Looking back to the first class all the owners and dogs were kinda loosey goosey in their training and ownership and we had a few very dog aggressive /high prey dogs in the class that were charging each other, barking , growling, horting and snorting , some had dominance issues and others just plain out had bad manners.

Duane the Trainer told us on the first class that beginners obedience is more about the owner than the dog and promised us by the end of the 8 week class that all would be able to stand within inches of each other with out inappropriate behavior. I am sure many of us were skeptical.

Through the 8 week course we learned that: we the owners were responsible for our dogs behavior and the more time you spent with your dog and demanding more from yourself as well as your dog it would show and WHAMO he was right..
We had a few unsure, non confident owners ( one being me ) who stepped up to the plate and demanded more from ourselves and the proof is in our dogs.

During the last class ..Graduation day .. all the dogs and their owners had to go through their final exams..sitting and staying for 3 minutes , doing a non assistant down and staying for 3 minutes, stay and recall and sit. During this time 3 dogs together were being tested at a time and it was amazing to see these dogs within feet of each other sit, stay , down and stay for over the allotted time but the amazing part was that it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop ..all the dogs were sitting and actually paying attention to their owners and not the other dogs or any of the other distractions in the park that day.....
Before the class was over , the owners were instructed to stand in a circle and TO MOVE IN ..step by step each owner and dog moved toward the middle of the circle..within 4 or 5 steps all the dogs were inches from each other and were almost face to face , all were sitting on command and not one dog broke the command,..not one dog snarled or growled ..this lasted 15 minutes or more...

I was amazed At all the quietness and then I realized
..
DUANE DELIVERED ON HIS PROMISE TO US AND WE INTURNED DELIVERED OUR PROMISE WE MADE TO OURSELVES AND OUR DOGS....

MOVING FORWARD TO THE INTERMEDIATE CLASS !!!!