After over 20 years of working with dogs and humans, leave it to Asa to do something Mom and Dad’s trainer has never seen before. Well actually, let me rephrase that, leave it to Asa to NOT do something. For the past few weeks we have been fine tuning our off-leash heel. Surprisingly Asa is doing really well at it, and for the most part hasn’t added his own twist to the lesson like he has done in the past. So to make it more interesting for us, Mom and Dad’s trainer thought he’d add a new agility skill to it. Asa clearly didn’t agree.

Mom and Dad’s trainer set up an agility jump for this week’s class. The goal was for Mom to be standing on one side, say the heel command, and Asa would run, jump over the obstacle, and sit by Mom’s side. Easy, right? Well for some reason Asa got it into his head that he wasn’t going to jump. The exercise was set up in the following manner: Mom would say the command, and Asa would come running with the trainer’s assistant at his side to guide him over the obstacle. But as they approached the jump, which was about mid-chest on Asa, he would abruptly put on the brakes, sending the helper jumping over the obstacle without him! Try as they might, Asa would either put on the brakes and refuse to jump, or try to run around the obstacle on either side.

Soon the point of the lesson, practicing off-leash heel with a new distraction, was put to the wayside. Mom and Dad’s trainer was determined to teach Asa to jump. He and his assistants tried lowering it, so it was just a matter of stepping over the obstacle. Nope, not going to do it. They even used treats to entice him over. As much as he wanted the treats, Asa desired even more not to jump. In one last desperate attempt the trainer shared his leftover McDonald’s french fries from his lunch. We’ve never had french fries before! After giving Asa one bite to show him how wonderful it would be on the other side, he came running. We all thought this would be Asa’s big moment. And yet he put on the brakes again…followed by a happy dance!

So while I crossed Olympic high jumper and agility champion off the list of possible life goals for Asa, the trainer laughed and said after 20 years of working with dogs he is the first to absolutely refuse to jump. Good job Asa making yourself memorable! He’s never going to forget you! Oh and in case you’re wondering about me, on the first try I flew over that jump with ease and sat right at Dad’s side. I even flashed him my best Golden grin, and that was all done without the bribe of a McDonald’s french fry!