Puppy Kindergarten, Take 3

Thought I should also report on last week's class. It was raining so hard that only three pups made it to Sarah's place: ours, Stella, and Duke. And Whoopsie made four. We learned how to use treats to train them to sit, stand, come, get down, follow a pointing finger. Elizabeth has done a lot of work with Josie on this since, to great effect. One method is to teach her to lie down by sitting on the floor with your legs bent in an inverted V and getting her to crawl through the V on her belly. Very fun. She's also teaching her to wipe her paws by following the treat around in a tight circle.

We also learned that we need two walking commands--one, Let's Go, to tell her to come along, but not right beside us; the other, Heel, to keep her in tight formation with us. She's learning, and learning fast.

At home the other night we were outside, a lovely balmy evening, sitting on the hammock with Peter. The kids were catching lightning bugs, Michael numbering them George 72, George 73, George 74. Suddenly Josie hurt herself, impossible in the dusk to see how. She yelped and yelped, then raced for the hammock with her tail tucked and curled up on the canvas beside Peter, whom she clearly expected to protect her. It was very sweet: he nearly melted.