Three Of A Kind

April 28, 2007. Today was a day of surprises. Not only was it a training day, which brings its own forms of entertainment and tasks to do, but it was a day of meeting as well. When we first arrived at our now familiar training location, we had arrived early. This means we were in time for the off-leash hours.
As we bailed out of the truck and headed for the trails, what did I see coming towards me? Do my eyes deceive me? No, it really is what I see. There is another Old English Sheep Dog coming towards me. It was like looking in a mirror. Wow, I was so excited to finally meet one of my own kind again. I was busy introducing myself, when what do my eyes now see? Another Old English Sheep Dog, only this one was a puppy, only 4 months old. What a cutie.

The bigger sheepie is a female named Annie and the puppy, I can’t remember his name. After a lot of introductions and some frolicking and play, it was time to get a move on. We started out into the park and as soon as we got to our usual meeting spot, Tom let me off the leash.

Oh, wow, freedom to run. I love this, but, I better not get too far in front of Renee and Tom. There are all sorts of other dogs for me to meet, greet and sniff. This is so much fun. Better yet, there is mud to run through, puddles to walk in and little streams to wade in and get a drink. This is so much fun before class.

The only sour note to the day was some idiot who was running through an off-leash dog park during off-leash hours. I was standing in the center of the path and Joe Dummy runs right into me. Like I’m not big enough to see? The guy must have been running with his head up his butt. Then I tried to move out of his way and he bumps into me again. Then has the nerve to start screaming at Tom about keeping me under control, or he will kick me.

Some other people who were walking their dogs saw the whole thing and yelled at him, telling him he was an idiot for running during off-leash hours. This guy looked like a real wimp and I’m sure Tom could have taken him if he wanted to get even stupider.

After that short interval, it was on to training. Pam arrived and so did all the other students. We went off and did our tracking and area search exercises and some more obedience commands. I got lots of wieners and lots of praise. All in all it was a really great training day.

There’s more to come though. Tom and Renee say that I’m going for a bath later on. I hope they are just fooling about that though. I just got myself nicely dirty and smelly and don’t need the hassles of getting dirty all over again.

Of all the dirty, rotten, no-good tricks. Yes I know they warned me that I might get a bath today, but, I didn’t think they would actually do it. Holy wet dog, Batman. First they fooled me by taking me on a “car ride”. Then we arrived at my favourite Petcetera. We went inside and then the next thing I know, they are trying to convince me to walk up the stairs to the sink.

Nothing doing you guys, it feels like taking the last steps up to the gallows before execution. You want me up there? You’re gonna have to lift me and put me in the sink. If you think I’m going to make that easy too, you’ve got another think coming. So I sat down in the middle of the floor and made Tom pick me up.

Unfortunately, he can do it, and did. Now I’m in the sink and they are hosing me down. Well, ok, it doesn’t feel that bad. The water is nice and warm. I’m not too sure about that nice smelling shampoo though. What will it do to my tough guy image to smell like this? All the rubbing feels good too; I could start to enjoy this. Hey wait a minute, you’re fooling me, and I don’t like having this done.

Now I’m all rinsed off and Tom got out the air hose. Another thing I’m not sure about, especially when it blows against my “winky”. I do like when it blows in my face though. It feels like sticking my head out the car window. Finally it was over, but now the other lady is sticking cotton balls in my ears. She was very gentle though and it was over.

Here comes another dog. I better warn him what’s coming for him. Naw, to heck with it. He’ll learn soon enough. Just like I did. Good luck buddy, you’re going to need it. HA HA HA.