School days

Not allowed to be next to cousin Tessa. Disruptive. Harrumph.

Dieter went to school when he was a puppy. He took a puppy Kindergarten class, a Manners class, Nose Works, and Obedience. The Obedience class was probably the most fun because his cousin Tessa was also in the class. Only thing is, they weren't good influences on the other.

We'd be doing a stay and one of them--usually Dieter--would decide this staying business was dull and boring. He'd make a dash toward Tessa and Oh, boy. Fun times--run around and have the zoomies! The instructor soon caught on to their shenanigans and said "We've got to separate those two shepherds."

It's the same with human kids--there always seem to be a couple who love to cause mischief when they're sitting next to each other.

Are you kidding me? Don't move?

Tessa has continued her schooling. She must have a PhD by now. She is an Assisted Dog Therapy graduate, she's taken part in and passed Noseworks trials, and she passed her  Rally Novice B obedience test. She got 99 out of 100 points.

I have permission to use the following picture. It's Tessa doing what has to be a very difficult thing indeed. Sitting with a bunny right in front of her. A bunny...those things that just cry out to be chased when they show up in her yard. That is one brave rabbit. And if Tessa had a thought balloon over her head, it would probably say: you expect me to just sit here and pretend that rabbit isn't there?

So Dieter hasn't been to any classes lately. But we do keep him up to speed on commands we learned in class. We're home schooling him.

Dieter's not allowed to be a slacker. He has gotten very good at stays, sits, and downs. Sometimes though he seems to just want to run through the commands he knows. You want me to give paw? You want me to down? Oh, you said sit? Well how about a down instead? He still has some brain fart moments, but he's much improved.

And on a whim, I started teaching him a few commands in French. Like ou est la baton rouge? Donnez moi la baton rouge. He knows the words in French and he carries out the commands. And he knows that Setzen sie means sit. So I guess he's at least a trilingual dog. Today he was barking at the painters on the front porch, and I told him: no mas. He shut up. So I guess he understands Spanish now, too. That must make him quadrilingual.