People who know me understand that I am so *not* in to competitive obedience. I had enough of competition on horseback in my youth. So, everything I do now is for the pure joy of training the behaviors, and for making other people happy during our therapy dog visits. Still, I have taught Sioux to do quite a few of the required behaviors, including heel on and off leash, and a regular and swing finish. Now that she's older, I rarely ask for the swing, as I don't want her to injure herself (she has a slipped hock which has not caused her any problem, but I don't want it to), and I rarely ask for the other finish either, mostly because there's really not much reason to. Time flies, so the last time she was asked to do it was easily more than two years ago, although I didn't really think of that yesterday when she came to class to do her famous "leave it" demo. Afterward, the class was also working on polite leash walking, and someone asked to see my dog demonstrate the heel. After explaining the difference between the loose leash walk and the heel, I did the demo. At the end, without a moment's hesitation, Sioux did a lovely finish right on cue. It got me thinking how important it is to really proof your behaviors, and how much power positive training has to reinforce in a dog's mind the joy of doing one's work and being paid for it! She remembered what "Around" meant, and she did it joyfully and with a perfect doggy "happy face" - which I think is always an inspiration to my students when they see it. This was just one simple thing, but it also got me thinking about what dogs remember, and for how long. I think they probably have a greater capacity for learning and remembering than we realize... Anyone else have any stories about your dogs remembering things months or years later?