Snowy Goes To College (Part 2)

Today we continue the Snowy Goes To College Series which I originally posted on  Smithellaneous Classic over two years ago.   I love this whole series so much I just had feature it again.  My only regret is that my photo skills were not quite as good back then so the pictures are a bit wobbly.  But it’s still fun to follow the story.

Let’s pick up where we left off.

January, 2012
The College Series 

Snowy has four more weeks of obedience school (aka college) to go.  I would love to say that he is going to graduate Magma Cum Laude (or at least Magma Cum Doggie) but I am afraid that this is not the sort of lofty achievement our furry friend is destined for.

Case in point: The following pictures depict Snowy “learning” to heel. The goal of this particular exercise is for the dog to stay close to the person walking him and ignore the little pile of treats on the floor.

Ha.  That’s what Snowy said to himself.  Just, ha.

As in, You think I am going to stay by my instructor when there is a  succulent pile of treats within sniffing distance? Surely you jest!

After the instructor got done with Snowy, he told Sarah to give it a try.

Snowy said, I really wanted to do good for Sister but how do they expect a fella to learn all this highfalutin’ college nonesense when they keep on stickin’  stinkin’ treats right under my nose?

He especially didn’t enjoy it when he had to do his “heeling thing” in front of his encircled canine cronies. The pressure was just too much.

He ran over to Sarah.  “Hide me, Sister. Hide me!”

Fortunately though, he recovered his equanimity and equilibrium quickly and was back to his usual charming self.

Hello, sir! May I interest you in a set of encyclopedias?

Yup, a born salesman.

A born obey-er? Not so much.

The next thing on the agenda was to learn to sit. 

However, there was precious little sitting in sight.

In fact, instead of sitting, he started begging his sister to please take him away from this terrible, awful (and also horrible) place.

Eventually though, our Recalcitrant Sitter/Scholar was able to get a teeny bit of sitting accomplished, as long as his furry behiney got a little encouragement from the trainer.

Snowy brags to his audience, Look, guys!  I’m doin’ it! I’m really doin’ it!

What he really wanted to do was stop messing around with all that heeling/sitting mess and just spend time with his esteemed canine college cronies.

Hello over there!   Wanna hang out? Wanna go throw a frisbee? Wanna chase parked cars?   (No one never said he was the sharpest knife in the drawer.)

Since he had obviously deduced that the Magma Cum Doggie Award was out of reach, he decided to work on achieving the Gets Along Well With Others Award instead.

Any dog who has set himself to earn a reward with that much prestige has got to show himself to be emphatically cheery and determinedly amiable and Snowy milked it for all he was worth.

Look, Teacher, at how happy I am!  I know I am not obedient! But I am happy!   

Is there any reward for happy?”

At long last,  it was time for our busy, happy, non-sitting, non-heeling, non-obedient dog to go home.

New friends had been made. New rules had been broken. New instructions had been ignored.

It was a good day.