4H Obedience class graduation

If anyone remembers, about 2 months ago I posted with fears about the 4H Obedience Class in which we had enrolled our 11 yr old Julianna (human girl) and 7 month old Charlotte ( goldendoodle girl). The trainer seemed gruff and inaccustomed (sp?) to dealing with children/parents/4H and I was seriously considering dropping out of the class.

Well, Julianna and Charlotte did great - 4th place in the obedience, 2nd place in sit/stay (Charlotte finally lay down which broke the sit - but she never left the stay), and 1st place in the written exam (Charlotte didn't do the written exam - she hasn't learned to write neat enough for strangers to read). There were 30 kids total but 10-13 kids (varied some weeks) in Julianna's 5th grade group.

The trainer ended the evening by telling everyone that the first 2 weeks were absolute chaos (34 kids/dogs enrolled, 30 graduating) and that she was VERY impressed with the progress that had been made. She told the kids that she was so proud of all their work and couldn't believe how they had progressed in just 6 weeks training. The trainers were so proud that they wanted to get each child a medal but, since it was such a large class, they decided to get 4 mini trophies for the children and dogs who had most improved - this was not from 4H but from the trainers personally. So....the class began 7 weeks ago with the trainer throwing her arms and saying "WHAT are you all doing?!?!? You CAN'T all do your OWN thing?!?!?" and ended with her (and her 2 assistants) personally buying trophies for the kids.

Thank you DKers for preventing me from freaking out because of the pinch collar and other of the trainer's ideas. This was a win/win for all - I think the trainer even learned some things :-)