No... he's been better since we started crating him, but we thought, especially for his breed and his energy level... some training might be in order.
Sooo... We marched him over to the classy, upscale Batavia Boat Club which ended up being much more like a cross between a mildewy VFW hall and a dank church basement. Darlene was our leader,and HOLY COW she looks like Roseann Barr--- the feathered brown hair, the denim shirt, the Lee jeans circa 1982. The EXACT same body type. It was uncanny.
The class was made up of suburban types... either with small, expensive hybrid dogs or rescue/shelter dogs. There was even a shi-shon...( a shih-tzu/bichon mix...) which garnered a tiny *but so obvious* eye-roll from Darlene. There was a shy beagle mix, an overweight lab and her overweight handler, a skittish Dalmation with his over-serious handler... a family with a new puppy... (the puppy every bit as obnoxious as the kids who wouldn't stop climbing on everything and whispering through all of Darlene's preaching about dog care training.)
Then there was us. I don't want to be the over-confident parent at the parent-teacher-conference here, but I think Darby O'Gill represented us quite nicely. He sat calmy during the first 45 minute speech about not leaving your dog in a car in the summer or removing tempting, chewable electric cords from your dog (OMG). He fidgeted as much as I did, or less, which is saying something.
The final exercise, which took place form 8:45-9 (the class was from 7-9) had us out on the floor with the dog on a loose lead, walking in erratic patterns. The goal was to have the dog work to pay attention to us and our movements (rather than just wander off and sniff aimlessly.) Darby came out with his perfect circus-dog strut-- one ear flopped, one ear perked. He elicited some "oh isn't he cute" reactions from the bystanders. Darby did his fair share of sniffing and wandering but pretty quickly he looked up at Jed and caught his eye. This was GOOD! and we gave him plenty of praise for it. I think Darlene was pretty impressed 1.) at his adorable-ness and 2.) that he was a smart (and adorable) boy.
Granted, if Poppy were in the class, she would have her eyes locked on us the entire time with laser-like strength, non-stop, for 2 hours or more, with complete intent to...
a.sit
b.stay
c.lay
d.destroy the world
e. all of the above
To which we deduced that Poppy would *totally* be a straight-A student taking AP classes and working on perfecting every last centimeter of her college application, and Darby would TOTALLY be in the average (but fun-loving) class of jocks going to community college to be auto mechanics.
ahh I love it! Wonder how the pugs would do... uhh.. do they have to have a minimum IQ to enter the class? Crap.
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