Graduate Dog

A couple of months ago, we were having some issues with Peeper and BigGaloot not properly respecting each others' personal space. She was getting in his face, and he was warning her, in ways that would be appropriate for another dog, but not so much for a little girl.

It was freaking us out, so we actually took her with us to the vet's office to pick up doggy meds one day, and had one of their staff members talk to her about how to behave around doggies, and also asked their advice about what to do.

They suggested getting him some training, involving Peeper if possible, to help him to realize that he's not the Alpha around here, and that she has a higher status in the pack than he does.

We ended up going with the PetsMart beginner class, which he's actually taken before, and Peeper ended up not actually attending, but we did show her some of what he'd learned (Every week when he and Shrike came home from class, she'd say "Hi Galoot! What did you learn?!") and let her work on giving him some commands. Things have been much smoother between the two of them, knock wood.

Today was his graduation, so Peeper and I went up to the store at the end of class to cheer him on.

When he put his hat on, Peeper kept saying "Hey, graduate dog!"

(That's grad-u-ATE, with a long A, as in the verb.)