Animal Insting

Mom enrolled me in an obedience class, even though I am a perfectly well-behaved dog, at least most of the time.  Mom has some idea about making me into a therapy dog, so that's why she signed me up for the class.  Also the class is all greyhounds, and that makes it a very special class.

Anyway, last night, Mom and I went to the third class session.  Mom was embarrassed to go to class because we had not done our homework, not even once all week.  But nobody found out that we hadn't done our homework because in this class, you don't have to get up and perform the stuff you were supposed to learn.  Mom says she will be better about making us do our homework next week, but I'm not holding my breath.

What we learned last night was "stand" and "stay."  We practiced these commands a few times in class, and I must say I did them quite well.  So I don't think we'll have any trouble with them.  Mom would like me to learn "sit," but we greyhounds don't much like to sit because our bodies aren't designed to be very comfortable sitting.  Mom thinks she will try to teach me "sit," though, and also "down," because that one would be easier for a greyhound to do.

Our homework last week was supposed to be about me coming to Mom when she calls me.  Mom thinks this would be an excellent thing for me to learn, but I don't see it as all that big a deal.  Frankly, there are a lot of times when I would prefer to stay out in the yard and watch for squirrels rather than coming in the house just because Mom wants me to.

Also Mom would like me to stop digging in the yard.  She already filled up my favorite hole with a bunch of bricks, so I had to start doing further excavation on the other holes I've got started.  When I get a bunch of nice, soft dirt loosened up, then what I like to do is lie down and stick my head in the hole and eat some of the dirt.  Yum!

Mom doesn't understand why I like to do this, just like she doesn't understand why Mel and Barry and Piper like to eat poop.  But my philosophy is that a dog just needs to get some pleasure out of life, and if Mom could look at it this way, too, maybe she wouldn't get so uptight about all the stuff we dogs enjoy doing.

Oh, and guess what Mom found in the yard yesterday while she was picking up poop:  a dead mouse!  Mom could tell that one of us dogs or maybe a cat had killed it, but she didn't know which one of us did it.  I know exactly what happened to the mouse, but my lips are sealed.  There are some things that we dogs just don't talk about!

Okay, well, I kind of got off the topic of my obedience class.  Mom doesn't like the instructors all that much, and she doesn't agree with some of their methods, so that's one reason she doesn't feel motivated to make me do my homework.  But she thinks that part of the stuff that's taught in class is useful.  Also the class wasn't cheap, so if we're going to get our money's worth out of it, I guess we'd better get busy and learn something!