Atticus's classes at Petsmart were thrilling for the three of us. There was always something new to look forward to in every class. While Atti won every one's hearts including Marvin(our trainer) for being the most affectionate and 'I want to be petted, I will sit patiently until you do' puppy, he was not doing very well with 'loose leash walking'. I will elucidate that phrase - loose leash walking entails the dog to walk by your side without pulling you- hence you keep a 'loose leash'. Atti could never do this. He was just too excited with the big bad world and every tiny thing on this earth. Be it a leaf or even the wind, he would pull trying to eat the wind , or get a flying leaf, or try to get the attention of somebody who was about hundred feet away by jumping and pulling like he was on fire. Atti was about forty five pounds then and was quite strong, he would take off all of a sudden and you would go flying with him. This had to stop because it could hurt us and also Atti was walking us instead of us walking him. Marvin told us since labs were strong pullers ,it would take a while for him to get over it. So we would stop every time Atti pulled, reward him if he came to us and sat and we would begin walking again. Well, you guessed right, it took us about twenty minutes to walk a hundred yards. We had to be patient and Atti was getting better, still no way close to how the other puppies did their loose leash walking. Atti was the king of puppies in "Come at call". I would stand one end of the aisle and say "Atti come", he would come racing down, with such happy loving eyes and like he was going to give me a gigantic hug. He would sit and get a treat and then run back to Srik when he did his "come at call". What Atti also realized very quickly, (this is hilarious), whenever we did "Come at call" in the class, Atti knew the drill, so he just didn't wait, he would go racing up and down to me and Srik until we said "Atti.. Stop !" There is something else that I remember very vividly. Marvin taught all the puppies to do the "paw shake". For about two classes Atti would do the paw shake only when he hinted it by touching his paw. I was a little disappointed he wasnt doing it on his own while the other puppies were. Then, couple of days later, out of the blue ,Atti just did the paw shake on his own, I wish I had a picture of my facial expression, you wouldn't believe, I least expected it and there he was and since then he is so good at it, he was the most adorable face while doing that. Sometimes when he wants a nice meaty treat, he would come up to you, do a complete drill of his sit, stay down, and paw shake just to show you that he is being a good boy and he deserves a treat. I think it just taught me never to expect, you are always in for pleasant surprise when you don't !. On the day of his test, Atti passed, he even did his loose leash walking quite alright, I would have given him a B-. He graduated from his Beginner Class on Nov 8th 2008. All the puppies had their hats on and we had a group photo taken!. There was something else that had me preoccupied- I would be away from Atti for about three weeks and I could not digest it. Srik and I were visiting India for our wedding. My friend at work, Dirk had agreed to keep him while we were away which relieved me because he knew all about dogs and I knew Atti was in safe hands. However I knew I would miss him terribly and I was just not ready to experience that feeling. I can recall how much I bothered Dirk, Srik and I took Atti over one weekend to his place to get Atti accustomed to his house. I wrote a mega long document about every little detail that Atti needed and I did for Atti. I also wrote down when he needed a belly rub and the different baby names I called him. One of my favorites is "Atticus babycus,sweeticus,naughticus") I am surprised how Dirk didnt murder me for doing so.
Nov 22nd 08 was the toughest day. We took Atti and all his stuff over to Dirk's. We left without making a fuss and I called Dirk several times to make sure he was doing ok. Dirk promised me Atti would have a wonderful time. He said it would be Atti's vacation and he would be cheerful and not miss us at all. I left for India thinking about Atti every single minute. I was just waiting to get back and smother him with a million kisses.
Dirk has told me he would write the next post since he would be the best person to recount Atti's antics while I was away! So we will start playing the waiting game !
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