Puppy School

Last night was Emme’s first day of puppy school and she did better than we predicted. We were sure that she would bark and carry on through out the class. She was surprisingly quiet and did things well. We bought some chicken hot dogs, sliced them up, microwaved them for two minutes, and patted them with paper towels. They smelled remarkably like dirty feet and Emme loved them. I cut them up into quarters and took them to class in a plastic bag. We worked on name recognition. We would say “Emme” once and she was supposed to look at us. If she didn’t respond, we were not to repeat her name but pester her: tapping her head, neck, back or blowing in her ear. When she got tired of being pestered and looked at us, we were to say “Yes” and give her a dog treat. Well, every time we said “Emme” she looked directly at our face and got her chicken hot dog. We never got to pester her.

There were six other dogs in the class, all much bigger than Emme. I don’t know their ages, but each one of them was many times larger than Emme. She was interested and attentive in everything they did. She kept her eyes on the trainer because he had treats that he gave to the dogs. She discovered that she liked pepperoni. I wonder if dogs get heartburn.

The class was only one hour long, but Emme was exhausted when we left. She fell asleep in the car in my arms and slept the whole way home. All in all, a good evening.