Teddy Gets Certified!

The Graduate

It has been some months now since we have done an update.  We have been busy with the garden, jeeps shows and summer time festivities.  Rather than wait until we have time to do a complete summer update, we will just report on Teddy.

As you can tell by the picture, he has really grown and has just graduated from Puppy Nanny Kindergarten!  That means he is a certified AKC Canine Good Citizen.  He passed his exams in 10 commands and knows how to behave in public places.  Least you be concerned, while he can behave like a well trained dog, he is still very much a Lab puppy.  But he can tell you the story.

A note from Teddy

Dear Friends,

As you have heard, I’ve been released from school.  Don’t get me wrong, I miss all my play buddies.  But Nanny was a bit of a problem for me.  I do love her and Kelly too, but they put a lot of knots in my tail.

Early on I ended up being kept after school a couple of times so my people could get some training.  So while all the other puppies got to leave, I’d set in my pen (and I had to be quiet) waiting for Nanny to show her tactics for handling me.  Why should a poor pup have homework?  Was I expected to “behave” there too?

All my buddies got to wear their collars and did their tricks with a training leash.  I already knew how guide my people with a leash.  You just pull.  And pull harder if you don’t get the proper response.  That didn’t work for Nanny.  OK, I got the game and it was pretty easy to please her.  Besides she was pretty generous with treats.

But my people are a problem.  Now I don’t ask much of them, but they haven’t been very trainable.  Anyway, the next thing I know is that I have to wear a special collar sarcastically named a “gentle leader.”  There isn’t one gentle thing about this torture device!  I mean people can make you go where they want and you have to follow.

Well, I was pretty sad.  Luckily the other puppies didn’t laugh, but I’m telling you I hate this thing.  I couldn’t do what comes naturally whenever I pleased.  Now I’m not saying I’m the brightest puppy in the world (although I think my writing has improved with schooling), I am smart enough to see how this leader thing works.  So I developed a two-front-paw system to extract my snout from the torture device rendering it useless.  Free to pull again.

Then it happened.  Actually it made me sort of proud that I was only the second puppy in school history to get a “training” collar.  Let’s be perfectly clear.  It is a Teddy Tazer.  I mean this thing is shocking!  Boy did that take the fun out of my escape trick.   It does send a message I guess.

While all this is going on, Nanny tells my people that I’m high energy and they are going to add extra exercises for me.  It seems that at play time, I was the last puppy standing.  My buddies are great fun, but after a while they would just want to nap, while I was not even close to being tired.

I got the treadmill treatment.  My people gave me one for home too.  I really don’t mind, but it is pretty silly at how pleased they are that I’m running and they are standing there cheering me on.  I don’t know why they don’t jump on too.  I’ll have to say I do sleep well at night.

So, after having my graduation date got pushed back a couple times, I figured I’d show them that it wasn’t that I don’t know this stuff.  I just didn’t need to do all the studying.  A dog just wants to have fun.

I decided to do everything Nanny ask of me.  I became a star student.  Although I looked pretty strange wearing three collars( my wear all the time collar, the tazer and a training loop collar), I went shopping and roamed around stores – some even had treats within inches of my nose!  But I knew I could pass the final exam.

So here I am, a graduate at 7 months.  My people already have me in graduate school on Tuesday morning.  Just me and Nanny.  I’ll try to remember how I’m supposed to behave when we meet.  But don’t count on it.

Teddy

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