NancyJean creative thoughts

our new graduate...

No, this post is not about our son...although i think he is getting very close to graduating!!  Don't break out the champagne just yet!

It is about our doddlebug, Jake.

Jake graduated from Advanced Puppy class on Wednesday evening.  

We now know how to sit, stay, down, heel, come around, back 360, turn 270, touch.

 He can go thru a tunnel and come out the other side, not sure why we need to learn this, unless he will become a firefighter one day!

He can jump over a small hurdle...again the firefighter career.

Our certificate...notice my name is on there also!

Now it is onto CGC training.  CGC stands for Canine Good Citizen...yes they have a good citizen award for dogs.  It involves 12 weeks of training.  My instructor tells me that Jake is ready for the class.  I have my doubts.  One important thing he needs to learn is to stand still when someone comes up to him to pet him.  Right now Jake is full of exuberance, that is a no no in this class.  Also he needs to have someone groom him while he stands still, very still.   Also no "happy tinkles" are allowed.  And the list goes on and on.

I think Jake and I will have our work cut out for us in the next several months.  But in the end hopefully he will become a good citizen!

Jake continues to add little bits of excitement to our life each day.  I took him on his usual walk to downtown Geneva.  On the way home he suddenly stopped walking and started crying.  Licking his paw the whole time.  I looked at it but could not find anything wrong.  He could not or would not walk home.  So i ended up carrying him all the way back.  He was still limping and whining when i got home.  Being the "good" mother that i am, i called the vet right away and got an appointment. 

When we got there, he jumped right out of the car and ran inside!  At that point i knew i had over reacted!  The vet looked him over and decided that he had stubbed his toe!  That was a a very expensive over reaction!  Next time i think i will wait at least one hour before calling!

"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog."

~ Edward Hoagland

Until next time~

NancyJean