AKC Good Citizen

I got my AKC Canine Good Citizen Award on 10/22. For those who don't know, the CGC is a series of tests to prove I understand what words like sit or stay mean. It also proves that I respond to voice commands and can stand to be left alone for several minutes. The hardest test was walking by another dog without being interested in it. My testers used a Chihuahua. The easiest test was ignoring distractions like loud noises, a crowd of people and someone cutting me off while on a walk.

I almost didn't pass. Walking on a loose leash test took place in a room where obviously other dogs have marked. I kept getting distracted. In the end, though, I leaned to ignore it and passed the test.

Doggie Massages

My mom always gets a lot of mail. Most of it, she tosses it in the trash can; I promptly take it out and start chewing it. Sometimes, the mail gets gobbled by a little machine which makes a grinding noise. Once in a while, a package arrives and she pulls out these little circular things which look like small frisbees, except they have a tiny hole in the middle.

After viewing one of them on her computer, my mom leads me into the back room and starts petting me, except it didn't feel like a regular petting. It was a lot more intense, slower, more deliberate. I felt a little tingling along my spine and got a little confused. Every day, she did it, starting with five minutes then increasing until 20 minutes or so. After a couple of days, the tingling went away and I actually started to feel better. My favorite spots are the base of the ears, the base of my tail and my belly. Oh, this is quite different from a regular belly rub. I can actually feel my insides loosening up. The base of my ears relaxes my entire body and the base of my tail is a very sensitive spot which responds quite well to any type of contact.

The part I dislike the most are my paws. She goes in between my toes; you know that Labs have webbed feet and I don''t like the fingers probing the webbing. I do like the compression of the pads, though. Afterward, though, my paws feel a lot better.

Oh the life of a Queen.