Training Day

January 27, 2007. It is another bright and sunny morning. It has warmed up to the point that Tom can leave the back door open for me and I can play in the yard again, like yesterday. Unfortunately, the warm dry weather, means I can’t go to the park today, as it is being set up and lined for either a kids soccer team or a lacrosse team to play a game later.

Tom and Renee went for breakfast and coffee and then we went to a new park, called New Brighton, unfortunately the park was full of people and dogs, and since I haven’t quite gotten my commands down pat, we decided not to go there. Instead we came home and played a rousing game of fetch in the yard. I fooled Renee several times by dropping the ball, so it rolled under the gate and down the lane, and then she had to fetch it for me.

This afternoon, we will be heading to Canine Spirit for my very first class in obedience training. I’m hoping that all of the advance training that Tom and Renee have given me will pay off and that I will be the star pupil in the class. I’ll let you know later how it went.

Well, the first training session was a really big adventure. We got there about 40 minutes early and had to walk around the block several times. I got to see all sorts of strange things and people. There were people coming out of an archery class and they were carrying bows and arrows. Then there was a guy on a bicycle carrying big bags of cans and they rattled and scared the heck out of me. So I barked at the man.

Then while we were waiting a bunch more dogs showed up with their masters. These would all become my classmates. We all wandered around and introduced ourselves. Barks were exchanged, butts were sniffed. Then the puppies came out of their class and we had 12 or more dogs in the lane. One young whipper-snapper came up to me and flipped immediately onto his back. I guess he knows who is boss. I sure showed him.

Once inside the class, our trainer Pamela, immediately got me to respond to a command and even fed me a treat. Wow, is it ever good pepperoni. I must have a little Italian blood in me. It’s even more amazing, since I don’t even eat my food normally, and here I am eating treats. I learned my “emergency recall command”, but it will take a lot of practice before I get that right. I learned a couple of other commands and it was a little bit stressful with all those dogs and people watching me. After class, we stayed behind. No, it wasn’t because I had detention for misbehaving. Tom and Renee were just having so much fun talking to Pamela, that I just laid down on the floor and almost went to sleep.

All in all, it was a very good day. After Tom and Renee had dinner, we came home and rested at the house. Caitlin phoned from South America and is having just a wonderful time there. We sure do miss her.