he passed!
We went to our last puppy class last night, and I'm pleased to report that Rascal graduated. He got a certificate and eveything, along with--and this was of more interest to him--a squeaky toy. (It's a good thing not destroying toys wasn't part of the class, since the poor thing didn't even make it out of the classroom intact.) The teacher called the last class a review, but we know what it really was: a test! Now, I've been working hard with the puppy, so I was pretty confident on most of his tricks; and sure enough, he did fine on attention, sitting, down, stay, all those things. What I was worried about was the last skill: come. Not only is it something Rascal isn't particularly good at, generally, but--shh--we didn't do the homework for that lesson.
We played it right, though: Leah held the puppy and I went to the other side of the room to call him, and I made sure he saw that I was holding the bag of treats. So as soon as I got his attention, he was over in a shot. The only worry was saying come quick enough, before he started running. And since he sits down whenever he thinks he might get food, he did that part of the trick great too. In fact, he was the best in the class!
We enrolled him in the next level of dog school. We start next week.