My dog is smarter than a 5th grader
Today was Rocket's second day of school. He was so well behaved that I only had to squirt him in the face with water three times!
In an effort to keep them from being suspended for misbehaving, Rocket and Riley met at the park before class. Riley is the 10,000-pound German shepherd puppy I've written about before. They're pals.
But it was a little too early and Rocket wasn't in the mood to play. Riley grabbed Rocket's neck in his mouth several times, but Rocket was only mildly interested.
But it was good that we went to the park because I realized that I had forgotten to bring treats for class, so Riley's owner, Kathy Jo gave me a bag filled with gold fish crackers and little bits of beef jerky. I'd eat that.
The first thing we saw at class was my sister and her new dog, a 4-month-old samoyed named Sherman. It was the first time Rocket and Sherman were in class together. When Sherman saw my dog, he peed.
We worked on all things good dogs are supposed to know: We worked on the sitting and the laying down and the coming. Rocket actually managed to do them a couple of times.
Barbara, our teacher, said that in all her years of teaching dogs, she has never met a dog as wonderful as Rocket.
Actually, Barbara told me that she has been reading this blog, so it's probably not a good idea to lie. She never said anything about my dog being so great. But she DID say that all the dogs were doing really well.
Yay dogs!
We still have three weeks to go, but I'm already thinking about prolonging Rocket's education.
Maybe I'll enroll him in some sort of trade school.
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About the Bloggers
Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn has shared her homes with a succession of wonderful, funny, and occasionally difficult canines -- Muffin, Fritz, Ellie, Mercy, Pilgrim and now Cowboy, an Australian shepherd-border collie, and Tess, a border collie. From strong-willed terriers to weirdly obsessed Australian shepherds, they've invaded her world with boundless energy, wet noses, muddy paws and soggy tennis balls. But they've really brought so much more than that -- like laughter and joy, some unexpected life lessons, and more than a few tears along the way.
E-mail Donna at donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com.
Josh Grossberg grew up with the usual array of animals: goldfish, dogs, hamsters, parakeets and turtles. He now owns the loudest dog in the South Bay(Video: Rocket the Dog) and is the least popular person on his block. He spends his free time in dog parks, pet shops and always has an extra plastic bag in his pocket just in case. He also has a cat.
E-mail Josh at josh.grossberg@dailybreeze.com.
Go Rocket!
I was cleaning out a drawer today and came across Pilgrim's beginning obedience certificate from 2001 -- signed by Barbara. It says he passed. But I think we had to take the class twice anyway.