First we drove to our vets for a Bordetella shot. Since we start our Canine Good Citizen class next week we have to be current on all vaccines. I guess they never gave it to Louie because he's never been boarded, to a class or to a groomer. They need the certificate of all his vaccines faxed over before we can go in and check the place out. I'm pretty excited to see how Louie handles all the dog smells when we get there. I plan to arrive about a half hour early so he can get a lot of sniffs out of our system before we start the class.
I was hoping to take Louie to Tails-a-Wagging, where the class is being held, sometime this week so we could get used to the place a bit, but my car broke down and it just didn't work out with a 45 hour work week in there, and living a half hour drive from work and where the class is and home. So now it's Friday night and tomorrow is the class, so going early will have to do. Hopefully they're open, if not we can sniff around outside for a bit.
Louie maps a place out pretty quickly.
Having one walk around the building before we start will be great. I can ask some questions, Louie can say Hi to some employees and maybe sniff some dog butts too.
After the vets we went to Farmers Co-op.
We needed dog food. Also, on the instructions for the CGC class, it said we're supposed to bring '40 plus semi-soft dog treats, Your dogs favorite toy...'. First off. We don't have dog treats around here. Am I now an evil dog owner? Will I be UN-friended by hundreds of fans? Well really the reason is, Louie's reward is always pets and loves. He likes it so much and we've never really used treats so he doesn't know he's missing anything. The other thing is Louie has a really sensitive tummy. When he was younger, I would let him stay a day with my dad while I was working sometimes. My dad cannot stop himself from feeding doggie's table scraps. He is the 'bad dog enabling grandpa' as I lovingly call him. Louie almost always came home with raging diarrhea, and no one likes that!
The other thing on the list was 'favorite toy'.
Historically, Louie's favorite toy has always been a tennis ball. Nothing else really lasts that long. Louie is a power chewer. No toy is left in one piece. Even tennis balls will eventually be scalps and left bald with tiny blankets of green fur strewn about the house. However since Louie because step dog brothers with Snorp, everything changed.
Snorp is a really good dog, but he's a real dog.
While Louie is our loving pet, Snorp is such a real dog. Snorp doesn't really like toys, but if Louie has one he wants it. Snorp will wait and watch Louie just loving joyfully tearing apart a stuffed animal. He will wait close by. Patiently. Silently.
Louie has great move, when he's playing with a toy he'll stop chewing for a second to grab it and shake it. Really hard. Sometimes he knocks stuff around if he's laying closer to furniture than he realizes. Sometimes he will accidentally let go mid-shake and let the toy go sailing through the air. Even if it's just a foot away, it gives Snorp enough time, quick ninja stealth mode - fast as lightning he snatches the toy and moves away, undetected. Louie, sniff sniff sniffs around 'looking' for his toy. He knows it was just right there one second ago! Sometimes it will take ten minutes, but Louie will always then realize that he has been duped, and cool dude Whoopie Snorp stole his toy right out from under his nose.
...and then the crying. Oh, the crying. The whining, the sobbing, the quivering bottom lip. Louie will not, under any circumstances take a toy from Snorp. He will sit a few feet away, 'staring' in Snorp's general direction and cry. His cry is so pathetic. So sad like a little kid's. If I can catch it on tape, I will post it I promise. He even sticks his bottom lip out and it quivers. Snorp will guard the toy until I come over and take it and hand it to Louie and give Snorp some pets.
Louie won't just go and try to take the toy, he's not sure enough of himself and another dog to approach them like that on purpose. If he bumps into a growling dog that's staring him down, that's another story. Whoops! Louie knows Snorp has the toy but can't look to his eyes to see if he's staring at him or if the toy is just laying next to Snorp as he sleeps. Sometimes I'll hear the crying in the other room and go to find Snorp sleeping on the dog bed with the toy laying a foot away from the dog bed and Louie will be crying because he wasn't sure if he could take it. What a sad sight, and adorable, and smart. Louie knows his boundaries. I just wish Snorp could be trained to give him a toy, and Louie to stop crying like that, it's heartbreaking.
Anyway... back to the toy thing.
Both toys we chose came with the promise of being 'built tough' and 'for power chewers'. One package even had a big Rottweiler modeling the toy on the package. It took about 2 hours before Louie had methodically chewed through and removed all three of the tiny squeakers out of each corners of the toy in the pictures. The other one he pulled out one part and I took the rest away to save for another day. He's been happy to carry around and fling about the chewed up squeakless toy anyway. So now we get to bring a stinky old ripped up chew toy that is supposed to be his favorite toy, and currently it is. Snorp is always good about letting me take the toy and give it back to Louie. I think he is bothered by his crying too. Also, I think Snorp's favorite part of the toy is watching and waiting and snatching it away from little Blind Louie.
So we're off! Like a herd of turtles in a rain storm!
So me, my blind dog with the 'rull weird looking eyes', our chewed up stinky toy and our bag of diarrhea inducing dog treats will dive into town in a borrowed car and take a class to be better citizens. Both of us will learn today and I am excited.
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