Gracie’s Training – A Small Update

So, Gracie is back from doggie boot camp. And, while we need to wait until Monday or Tuesday to talk with the trainer who worked with her (he doesn’t work on Saturdays), we have a DVD of some of her training sessions to tide us over until then.

First of all, let me say that I completely and utterly teared up when I watched the shots of her running around in a room full of dogs, sniffing butts and not, yaknow, barking her little head off. I didn’t even know that our dog was capable of being around other dogs without doing her best Kujo impression. And here she was with like A MILLION dogs and she was all, “Enh, what’s up.”

That, my friends, was a proud mama moment. I was just beaming. Beaming. And crying, a little bit.

Let’s just say that, when Kristian and I finally get around to having kids, you all might want to go out and purchase stock in Kleenex. Because I’m fairly sure that I’m going to be crying non-stop from their first step to their first poop in the big kid toilet (such a magical moment) to their first day of college.

And my sensitive little nose needs that stuff with the aloe on it.

Anyways, the absolutely funniest part of the DVD comes when they’re doing leash work with Gracie. A room with like a million dogs in it? Pffft, peace of cake. A room with one other dog, but they’re both on leashes? OMG, BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK JUMP BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK JUMP BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK JUMP BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK JUMP BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK JUMP BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK JUMP BARK BARK BARK BARK SNARL BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK JUMP BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK LUNGE BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK JUMP BARK BARK BARK BARK.

Just like that, but louder. And lungier.

So, here Gracie is and they’ve gotten her graduated to two other dogs on leashes (Mama is so proud, quick someone get me a Kleenex) and Gracie is barking and the dogs are barking and everyone is barking and I think the trainers are practically barking and all of a sudden…

A cat walks into the room.

And you hear the person with the video camera say, “Just what we need, a cat.” And then Gracie stops barking, she walks all over to the cat and she’s all, “Hey cat, what’s up. I’m Gracie. I see that you’re a cat. How’s that working out for you? Anyways, nice weather we’re having, wouldn’t you say.”

And then the person with the video camera says, “Well, at least we know she’s good with cats.”

And scene.

Ok, questions about how a cat got into the room in the first place aside, I could not stop laughing. Gracie might be a complete and utter nut bag when it comes to other dogs, but let a cat walk up to her and suddenly she remembers her manners? The other dogs were still going crazy and Gracie was all “Be cool, be cool. This is my little cat friend here and you’re all showing your ignorance.”

At the very least, it makes us less nervous about our own cats.

I wonder if we could convince our neighbors to dress their dogs up as feisty felines…