Training Class, Horse Poop, New Faucets, and Birthdays!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

 

Yesterday was our training class with the dogs. The class had been moved to a new location and this was our first time there. Again, our class consists of German Shepherds, Belgian (Malinois) Shepherds, and Fudge and Vern.  I should take a picture so everyone can see which dogs are not like the others. The trainer breeds these dogs and many of the class participants are his former puppies, and it is obvious he is partial to this breed.  He says comments from time to time about Doodles that I find slightly irritating, and this combined with his obvious favoritism to his Shepherds and my borderline (OCD) Obsessive Competitiveness Disorder, has motivated me like nothing else has in the past. Last week after class, I told my DH dog training was going to take precedence over all other activities on our agenda and we were going to eat, breathe and drink training until our Doodle’s skills could kick those Shepherd’s skills in their anal glands. After I gave my little pep talk, I asked my DH if he was in or out, and he said, “out” to any Rambo type training classes that involved me saying things like, “Drop and give me twenty,” but he would help if I could keep myself under control.

 

The class has been good for my two and I have noticed Vern is gaining more confidence with each class and is actually quite relaxed.  We had far less drool yesterday and at one point, while we were watching the others take a turn, he rolled over on his side to take a nap. I quickly explained to him that a down/stay was not the same as a sleep/stay. Fudge, too, seems more relaxed and although she is not as keen on the class as Vern, she is doing a super job.

 

Our trainer likes to have us demonstrate our skill with our dogs individually. On Saturday, Vern and I were in line to go last. The trainer was going to tell us the command he wanted us to do while we were walking our dog and then see if we could execute it. We waited patiently for all the others to go and since everything in life is a competition to me, I kept whispering to my husband that Vern and I were going to dazzle the audience and not to take it personally when I yelled “LOSERS” to all the others when Vern and I were done dazzling.  He kept whispering for me to pay attention. Fudge and my husband were right before us in line. Fudge made me so proud and I knew if Vern could do his part, we could ace this competition.  We were outside on the lawn doing these exercises and I swear, right before he told Vern and I to go, the heavens opened up and it began to pour. Some people might say this is someone’s idea of showing me that gloating about dazzling is bad, but to those people I say, “Vern and I would have won!”

 

Remember, this is our first time at this location, so the trainer told us to move inside to the training arena, which is, in reality, a horse barn and a small indoor riding area.  Two things that Vern loves best in the whole world are dirt and horse poop.  Horse poop is like caviar to Vern and dirt is his best friend.  The floor of this arena was dirt and it was obvious, some horses had been there shortly after breakfast. I knew that not only was I going to have to out-demonstrate the skills the other class participants had done in order to dazzle and win, but I was going to have to incorporate a ton of “Leave its” to Vern, as well.  This proved a daunting task and we had a couple of close calls, but overall Vern did very well. He held his down stay today perfectly and the trainer said he was impressed. What the trainer does not know, that anytime Vern can put his whole body down against dirt it is almost a given that he will not get up. At one point, I thought Vern might show the other dogs what a down stay/roll looks like, but that time the good angel on his shoulder won that round.  I declared us the winners on the car ride home and ignored my husband’s remarks that the competition I kept referring to was only in my head. All I am going to say on the matter, and at the risk of sounding paranoid, is Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, and who knows what Belgiani Shepherds and dog trainers that like them are capable of doing.

 

I did go to the movies with my daughter, but the rest of the day was spent following and preparing for the hurricane.  My husband installed a new faucet in our kitchen, while I was at the movie, and now when you want hot water you turn the nozzle to cold and vice versa.  I have also noticed that after the installation the water is just trickling out of the faucet, instead of the normal flow I have grown accustomed to over the years.  This has started a riveting conversation about water pressure and ended with me telling him that all the other faucets seem to be working exactly as I remembered and in time, I am sure I will get used to the sound of water dribbling out of the faucet.  I can just see Fudge and Vern in the morning getting tired of the wait as I go to fill their water dishes and running to the toilet bowl. I can’t say that I would blame them. Because I am skilled in wifely ways, I did mention that he might want to start going down to Starbucks, which is 10 miles away, for his first cup of Joe and by the time he got back to the house, I would have enough water for his second cup, and he agreed he has some tweaking to do soon.

 

Not much will get fixed today, though, because today is my husband’s birthday. Since we have been married and especially after we had kids, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and birthdays are our special days. When we both worked and had young kids, we took turns on the weekends getting up early with our kids. It did not matter if you had the Bubonic Plague, if it was your turn; you got up with the kids. Mother’s Day was my weekend and because we struggled financially in those days, he gave me the gift of time and took care of the kids all weekend. I still consider this my best present ever and I did the same for him on Father’s Day weekend. On birthdays, the birthday boy or girl gets to sleep in and pick what they want to do and the others go along quietly, if asked.  We did have a glitch one year in our system, on my birthday, when we were all together and I must have overloaded my husband with lots of things he did not like to do, because around 6 pm, he declared the day was over and went back to his study.  Up until that point, I did not know you could declare such a thing, but I have filed that information in my mind for later use.

 

I don’t know how my husband managed it this year, but somehow he was able to get his birthday to coincide with a Hurricane and so this morning as he slept in, I was out in the rain and high winds taking the dogs out to do their business.  Vern, not realizing the magnitude of this day, threw up twice this morning and luckily, since I was the only one up, I got to throw that present away. We are off to a good start and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the day brings.  This has surely been an interesting weekend.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Happy Birthday to your DH, Congratulations to Fudge & Vern on their impressive training class, and thanks for starting my day with another good laugh!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Lisa, LOL...I swear I do other things :) Thanks for agreeing with me.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

LOL - Happy Birthday to DH and good luck with his "day".

Oh and I wholeheartedly agree that you WON!

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Wasn't it you that said that you do other things aside from DoodleKisses?

I had to say that first, now I am going to read your blog.

:o)