Monday, July 14, 2008

Doggy Obedience

Yep that's right....Bear and I are taking Doggy obedience classes. It has been quite an adventure....
Week 1
First of all there are about 30 dogs at the class (not exaggerating) and when you get 30 dogs together of course all they want to do is sniff each other, pee on trees, and play. The first week I made the mistake of getting there right before the class started so Bear didn't really have a chance to get to know all his new dog friends before the class began.....BIG MISTAKE. The class begins, the lady who teaches it is a Yankee-Nazi all rolled into one (I will get to her later), and so everyone is standing there with their dogs and she starts to talk. Well Bear was not interested in sitting there quietly, like all the other dogs, while she talked....he began howling and I mean HOWLING at the top of his lungs. I suddenly felt like a parent who's kids yells out something embarrassing in the grocery store line. I bent down as nonchalantly as I could and said "Bear, shut up". Didn't help. So I thought well maybe he is just freaked out, so I bent down and patted him and said, "It's ok Bear." All of the sudden the Yankee-Nazi teacher yells from across the field, "DON'T PET YOUR DOG WHEN HE IS DOING THAT!" Everyone was staring at me by this point...it startled me and so I quickly stood up scared I might get kicked out. Bear finally stopped, after what felt like an hour. We finished out the class.....

Week 2
I made a point to get there alot earlier so Bear would have time to get to know all his fellow classmates. By the time the class started he was already pretty worn out so, I figured getting him to sit for a while for her to talk would be no prob. And it was, he actually laid down and fell asleep while we were all standing listening to her. Then we start to do some exercises she taught us. Bear was doing great. We were learning how to properly walk on the leash...It was Bear's turn to go so we started walking and doing our exercise....well all of the sudden Bear decides he needed to go #2. I tired to make him stop, but I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go. Nazi Yankee immediately comes over and says, " Well go get your bag and clean it up." " My bag?" "Yes, your dog bag. You should have brought bags to clean up after your dog, it was on your supply sheet." "Oh yeah right, the supply list I forgot to read." So there I was stuck next to a smelly pile with no poop bag. Thankfully a really sweet lady had a special belt she was wearing with a roll of poop bags and a pooper scooper attached (No joke) to it that she let me borrow. So thus ended another eventful night of dog obedience.


Week 3
Went off without a hitch! Bear was great and I can really tell that he is learning.....5 more weeks of classes to go so I am sure there are bound to be a few more eventful stories......