March 22, 2007

Someone asked if I was home-schooled to learn all my commands. Nope, I go to class with my Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) pals two or three times each month, and then have lots of homework. We have a special CCI trainer named Amy who teaches our puppy raisers (PRs) how to teach us the commands, and then we practice over and over and over until the next class. Good thing I work for treats!

We'd rather take off our capes and play, but Amy makes us work instead. Still, she makes it fun. This week we had to lie down in two lines facing each other. One at a time we waited at the top of the line until our PR called "HERE!" The tricky part was walking or running straight to our PR without stopping to sniff hello. We all did it perfectly, much to the amazement of the humans. Oh ye of little faith!

We also practiced commands at different stations around the room. I liked doing puppy push-ups in front of the blowing fan, but some of the other dogs didn't like getting their hair mussed. Girls!

Maintaining a "sit stay" while Marianne vacuumed around me was a little uncomfortable, but I did my best. I try to remember that vacuums are not monsters that are going to eat my tail.

Later I practiced "down stay" on a dog bed. It was full of wonderful doggy smells but I wasn't allowed to sniff it -- humans are so weird sometimes. Then Marianne dropped carrots on the floor on purpose! We're not allowed to eat any food off the floor, no matter how yummy it is. I love carrots, so this was hard. She even dropped one ON MY PAW (Oh, the temptation!), but I left it alone. She told me I was a Very Good Boy.

If you have questions for me, send them to Call7forHelp@TheDenverChannel.com.

Chow for now!

Hudson

www.cci.org