I Don't Want To Go To The Vet's!

Jake didn't want to go to the vet's today to get his Bordatella vaccine and he certainly didn't want me to put his seatbelt on for the ride over there. Wearing the seatbelt to agility class is one thing but the indignity of having to sport it for a trip for a nasty little shot is just too much. Oh, the drama! The vet staff at the office suitably made a huge fuss over "Superstar Jake". He rewarded them by not using his "I'm being killed" screech when he got the shot. He wasn't happy but did listen to the command to sit and wait on the scale. My little man still only weighs 29 pounds. I think I can safely say that he's done growing since he's maintained that weight for the last six months or so.

Don't pity poor Jake because he got to go to Round 3 of his Agility class last night! Two weeks was too long in his humble canine opinion and he was not alone this class. All of the dogs were feeling pretty creative. Some took detours, some took creative license, and some went exploring. We opted to take Jake through the obstacles backwards to conquer his ADHD -- show Jake one obstacle at a time and then add one so he had the whole set in mind as he raced for that yummy piece of cheese at the end. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of racing to the other end to pounce on Jake to avoid the zoomies, I get instructions to RELAX. In theory, if I am calm, Jake will be calm. Not only was I striving to RELAX (have I mentioned this word does not come easily into my mind), I was also doing my best to give Jake a reward from my hand. Jake was still lured to the target, someone else held his collar and his breathless mommy gave him another treat. After a threat to remove the offending hand, I tried even harder to get the correct hand to do its job (the correct hand is the hand on the same side as your dog). There was a moments confusion for Jake when he headed into a curved tunnel and didn't find a target at the other end so he ran back inside. He found both ends blocked by humans so he ran back and forth inside for a while until he noticed the treat extended in my hand. The most amusing part of Jake's performance for the night was the chute. He would head into the chute, barreling out the other end. Because Jake couldn't see in the chute, he would veer sharply to the right and directly into my path to the other end. Did I mention I was running as fast as I could? I had no idea that I would need to add aerial acrobatics to my end of the bargain. Fortunately, none of my crazy leaps into the air landed me on my rear end or on my face. While Jake was wide open and crazy in between waiting for his turn with the other impatient classmates, he did rather well on all of the obstacles and no yard zooming.