So here's the short of it, 
Sophie and I are training again!

And here's the long.

It appears our winter is gone. The weather today was really nice. This morning was a little damp, but pleasant.  I was out and about in schools today and the weather made it really nice for that.

By the time I got home, Sophie was ready for her walk - and I was sure ready to be walking her too!  We are working on the command "Sit".  She is really good about sitting for me in the house unless she's just super excited.  We are working on her sitting if she's outside, off leash, and some distance from me.  She's making progress!  I'm very excited about this.  We have a leash law here in Chattanooga, but here on the Circle, most of the dogs play with one another in a very social fashion and are not leashed.  We do have lots of people who walk with their dogs in the neighborhood and sometimes they come into the Circle and let their dogs off leash.  Or sometimes the dogs in the circle go up to the "visitor" and there's a bit of commotion.  So I want to be able to tell Sophie to sit and then go leash her up for her own safety and for the comfort of those who walk on the Circle and don't really know her.

We had an incident a week or so ago with a dog in another part of the neighborhood who burst out of his house and attacked a man and his 8 month old lab puppy who were walking (with the dog on leash).  So many of the folks in the neighborhood are on high alert about dogs, and I want to be very respectful of those feelings.  So we are going to work on sit and then getting leashed up and continuing our walk.