Mortie Goes to Puppy Kindergarten

Mortie visited Hunter’s Senior Kindergarten class once and continues to escort Hunter every morning so we expected great things when he attended kindergarten actually designed for dogs.

Not so. He did a number two on the store floor while we registered. He did number one in the actual classroom while waiting for the trainer: Merve.

He did not enjoy listening to Merve, in fact he yipped and yapped and yanked all the way through. I know he will enjoy it more next week as today he had a private lesson to catchup. Next week he’ll meet other dog friends to socialize with. His big lesson today was to focus. We tell him “Look” and hold a treat in front of our nose. When he does rivet his eyes on the treat, we give it to him and praise him a lot. “Good Look, Mortie”

Mortie caught onto this command immediately. So much so that when Merve just used the word look in one of his sentences, Mortie would rivet his puppy eyes in Merve’s direction. For no reason at all, I’d catch Mortie staring at me, hopefully.

Merve also made us buy Mortie some excellent treats, a new collar and leash. We’re going on a walk now to try them all out.

Worst Blogger in the World.

I want to catch up. I do. So many things have happened that I haven’t blogged to the world. First I spent a week in Sudbury and Manitoulin Island. With the students there, we created a story about my new dog Mortie.

By the end of the week, I read the new picture book at Alexander Public School, the same place that I set Slam Dunk Robot at. Back in Burlington, I told the story for Hunter’s birthday to his kindergarten class. Now my publisher has it and says she likes it: The Biggest Little Dog.

Also I’m closing in on the end of the fourth book in the Last Chance Pass Series. My main character Zanna is hunting through town with her wolf/dog Paris, her twin brother Martin and her ranger boyfriend Tyler for the kidnappers’ hideout and hopefully her father, if he’s still alive.

Soon she’ll hear the helicopter overhead. Is it just Skylon providing the escape chopper as demanded by the kidnappers? I think not. I think it’s the Mounties, more specifically the Emergency Response Team. They’ll drop down on a rope and surround the kidnapper’s hideout. Very exciting for me. You can understand how hard it is to pull away just to blog.