Fozzie's first dance routine

Over the past two weeks, Fozzie's started to put together a little choreography in his dance class and he's continued to make huge progress with tricks I never thought he'd be so good at. 

Last week, we worked on some of the tricks he's learned already and added in a couple of new skills.

We started again with putting my arm out as a target and support, using "Paws up!" to ask him to balance on it. 












Now that he's used to this exercise, it's gotten much easier for him to start to support his own weight and even to start going up on his hind legs!

I love watching the dog dance move where the dog puts his arms on his human--either from the front or the back--and moves forward and back.  One of the students in class has gotten to where her dog will put his paws on her back and walk with her. This is the first time Fozzie's done anything like that!

We worked a little bit on some new skills like backing up and moving laterally with the dog. And we showed off the little choreography we're working on! 

It consists of a bit of weaving between my legs as I walk, then a spin, a sit, high five with right paw then left paw, then a rather dramatic Down--because most things Fozzie does are dramatic--and a crawl forward. 
 
And this particular version includes Fozzie grabbing the bandana I use to wipe icky dog treats off my hands. Carolynn suggests I put that trick on cue and do it every time--that will take some doing to get Fozzie to do in any sort of controlled way, but would be worth it!

We are using the mbira song Vazimuto by Linos Magaya, probably my favorite song in the world. If anyone can tell me how to put a song in my post, I'll add it in so you can listen to it!

Fozzie seems to love the routine and does it with a lot of energy and joy. We're not really moving in time with the music yet, and I'm not sure if the choreography makes any sense--if its a good sequence of moves. 

We'll have to ask the expert.

And for Fozzie, really the most impressive trick of all is that he's able to do all this stuff, and be relatively focused, in a room with all these other dogs dancing around. Hard to believe my little high maintenance death row inmate has blossomed into such a talented young man. Fozzie, I believe we have found our calling!