Friday, April 25, 2008

Part 1

We have resumed our weekly puppy classes. We seem to have lost the super cute golden lab puppy that joined us for week 1. This is not a bad thing for us as he was stiff competition for the cutest puppy award. So now our class is composed of only 4 puppies; a good number for individualized attention, a not so good number for hiding bad behaviour or unlearned tricks.

Naturally, after my initial disgust at the other dogs’ poor behaviour last week, Jetty turned out to be the bad dog this week. Obviously we’re not going to delve into that. So, since the pickings are slim on the canine front, let’s focus for a few minutes on our intrepid instructor. I like to call him Captain Hilarious because he makes me laugh. He appears to be in his early twenties, but has that indeterminate, single-young-man look, so he could be 17 or 27. The way he continually asks Graham if he remembers back to when he was a teenager makes me think he is younger (or stupider) than older.

He’s tall and skinny in that freakish super-metabolism kind of a way that we can only hope will come back and bite him on the ass when he’s older. He’s got longish, centre-parted hair which he is constantly pushing out of his face. Reminds me so much of my errant twin brother, yet I like him despite that. Perhaps next week I will hum the theme song from Dr Who or make some sort of Tardis reference just to test him (ok, who’s kidding who - I couldn’t do that if my life depended on it).

Sadly, we didn’t actually do anything constructive with the dogs tonight; we just had another hour-long q and a session. His prior “do you want fries with that” job experience seems deeply ingrained because as we were leaving he encouraged us to sign up in advance for the intermediate class. I pointed out that we hadn’t determined if we would/could successfully complete puppy classes. It might be prudent to wait at least until the end of class 3, when we have actually worked with the doggies instead of just talking, before we decide to purchase additional lessons.

So, as I finish writing this, Jetty the wonder dog lies beside me enjoying his stuffed Kong. Gotta be careful how you say that one; people without dogs always do a double take and ask you to repeat yourself. Now, don’t be jealous and think he’s a good boy or anything. He’s only sitting nicely because of the treat and the fact that his leash is tied to my belt loop, so he actually doesn’t have a choice. I’m sure once these puppy classes are complete he’ll sit calmly of his own volition - Ha!

Jet doesn’t really have much to add to my commentary. He made his own editorial comments perfectly clear in the car while we were on our way home last night. They involved much vomit. You can read what you like into that. I look forward to next week’s class. I’m sure we won’t learn much puppy stuff, but this single white male stuff is amusing enough to make it worthwhile. So, until next time - have a great week, and may all your Kongs be stuffed.