Asa and I have decided to sign Mom and Dad up for summer school!  Oh sure for the most part they respond well to our commands.  However, after the long winter of being stuck inside, we noticed they could use a bit of a tune up.  This especially holds true when walking them on a leash.  Mom and Dad refuse to run fast enough when we see something that needs investigating, and we end up dragging them along behind us.  So we decided to send them back to school for more training.

The key though was finding the perfect trainer for our needs.  I found one who offers clicker training.  However not having thumbs, I thought this could be difficult, and knowing Asa he’d use the clicker to write a song.  Another place guaranteed we’d be certified canine good citizens when we graduate.  Well that’s nice and all, but Asa and I are already good citizens giving back to our community.  In fact we’re all about lending a helping paw!  Besides we’re not the problem, Mom and Dad need the training NOT us!  When I was about to give up hope, I found the perfect trainer!  Here’s what their write-up says, “We don’t train dogs. We help dogs with human problems.”  That’s us!  Finally someone who understands me!  So we leashed up Mom and Dad and took them down for the initial evaluation.

Asa and I agreed we wanted to show this trainer the exact problem we are having with Mom and Dad right from the get-go.  So we came charging in, dragging Dad, to show how he doesn’t walk well on a leash.  The trainer smiled and said, “I see why you’re here.”  Awesome!  He understands!  But since we were there, he wanted to ask a few more questions.  Excellent, because now that he mentioned it, Mom and Dad have a few other shortcomings.

First up, Asa.  The trainer had Dad tell Asa to sit, which is a no brainer for Dad.  So Asa happily sat.  But then the trainer dropped his pen.  Asa immediately ran across the room to see if he could help.  Oddly enough the trainer didn’t seem pleased with this reaction and made Asa go back to his original spot to sit.  Well that was rude!  But some humans like to be independent, and we can’t fault him for that.  Asa and I would like to be independent too, but we have helicopter dog parents always hovering.

Then it was my turn, and would you believe he dropped his pen again?  Man this guy is clumsy!  Well since he didn’t appreciate Asa’s offer for help, I ignored him.  Instead I focused my attention on a new person that entered the room.  I immediately leaped up to greet my new best friend.  But again, Dad rudely told me to come and sit, which I reluctantly obeyed despite the fact this person wasn’t allowed to pet me.  Ok, I get it.  This was a good exercise to show the trainer how rude Mom and Dad have been in the past and don’t let us greet everyone we see.  I hope the man who entered the room understands and won’t see it as a reflection on me.  I’m really quite friendly.

After confirming my suspicions that we needed help training Mom and Dad, our new best friend signed them up for private lessons.  Everything seemed to be going as planned, except for one little detail that troubled me.  I overheard him telling them that they need to hit the “reset” button, and not do our regular schedule.  He even said no adventures in the coming weeks!  Well I suppose it’s all for a good cause.  But I have the feeling I may be missing something here.  Especially, when he said he’ll “rock our world.”  He was referring to Mom and Dad’s world, right?

Oh well, I’m sure Mom and Dad will understand this is for their own good.  So in the meantime, we’ll be taking a break from posting our adventures on Tuesdays.  Instead I’ll be giving you updates on Mom and Dad’s progress in summer school.  But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of places (99 to be exact) on our Dog Friendly Places page for you to enjoy this summer.