Slice of Life #3 Letter from the Puppies

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                                                                                           March 3, 2015

Dear Cousin Roxie,

Today was the our first day of Puppy Obedience school.  Our mom tells us that you were never able to go to obedience school, so we thought we would write you a letter and tell you what our parents learned.  (Mom says that sometimes you don't behave very well.  We think Mom is probably not telling the truth about that.  You know her.  She has very high expectations when it comes to doggie behavior.  To tell the truth, we're wondering if maybe it's Aunt Linda who isn't trained very well.)

As soon as Mom put our collars and leashes on, we knew something was up.  We really don't like walking on the leash or wearing our collars.  Jem tried to hide in the crate and wouldn't budge even with the promise of treats.  Dad told us we needed to hurry as he scooped us up and carried us to the car.

Don't even get us started on the car.  It is SCARY!!  Who ever thought it was a good idea to put puppies in a vehicle that goes 55 mph was crazy.  We whined and shook the whole way.  Mom's sweatshirt looked like she'd been rolling around in dog hair.  (Maybe that'll teach them to make us go in the car).

We were a little nervous going into the school.  The good thing, we met some new friends.  We don't remember their names, but they were nice dogs...a German Shepherd and a black and white friend who, like us, doesn't really know her heritage either.  GS (German Shepherd for short) was extremely noisy.  He whined like a grown puppy.  We're not sure why.  He was the biggest and oldest one there.  Marlo, our teacher had some good treats.  We're hoping Mom and Dad buy some of those Pupperoni things instead of the boring sweet potato bites they give us now.

Anyway...we are off track.  We were able to teach Mom and Dad quite a few things.  We taught them how to give us treats when we waited quietly.  We taught them how to walk beside us.  They sounded hilarious, saying, "Heel," in their fake confident voices.  They weren't fooling us.  We knew they were comparing their skills with the other dogs' people, worrying that they might not be doing as good of a job.  We also had to work on helping them stay with us.  If they got too far behind, we'd stop and wait for them to catch up.  And then we'd take a treat every time they did a good job of walking next to us.  It took them awhile to get the hang of it, but eventually they learned.  We then taught them how to stop when walking us on the leash and give us a treat as we sat down next to them.

All in all, they did a pretty good job tonight.  The best part?  We trained them to buy us special treats after class.  We're just going to lay back for the rest of the evening and enjoy our rawhides.

If you want more tips on how to get Aunt Linda trained, let us know.  We are going back to class next week.  We'll be sure to pay close attention so that we can be as much help to you as possible.

                                                                                           Love,

                                                                                           Scout and Jem