All This Effort

Two days ago, we brought home an eight month old Black Labrador Retriever. He was originally named "Jake," but this caused much confusion in the home. In order to train him, we changed his name to "Drake." He doesn't look like a "Drake" to me, but he immediately responded to it. He wouldn't respond to anything else, like Quigly or Marly; and, Drake is certainly better than Bake, Cake, Lake, Rake, and so forth. Infact, while we were trying to come up with a name, Mercedes would yell "Froggy Frogly Beach Lake Quigly Marly Quigly" and then exclaim "and his middle name is 'Speed Racer!'" Try saying that five times fast! Oh boy!!!

Training is quite involved and we only get to work a little here and there. I need a bigger rope for him 'cause all we have is a leash - and what is that, maybe six feet? Not to humanize him, because I'm reading that's bad for dogs, but I think I'd go stir crazy if my world consisted of a 12' diameter. You guys ever hear of Cesar Millan Dog Whisperer? He runs, every morning, with a pack of about 35 dogs off leash! Look at that Alpha go!

I'm learning all sorts of things! Did you know you should never let your dog go through any door or up and down stairs in front of you? And you can teach them to pee on command! Seriously! Well, we'll give this a shot. Most people miss opportunity because it's dressed in coveralls and looks like work. This is definitely work. But I'm sure it will be a good opportunity as well.