i've been here before

Yesterday, we had puppy class.

I have been working really hard with little Lucy, doing our homework and practicing, practicing, practicing. We have 'sit' and 'down' nailed.

Or so I thought.

We didn't walk her before class, as we had been busy with Father's Day activities in the morning and we hadn't wanted to make her too tired. As a result, she was excited and wild from the moment we entered the class.

Despite this, I was pretty confident when the trainer asked if Lucy would be the 'demo dog.' However, although the trainer had a juicy piece of hot dog in her hand, Lucy would not sit or lie down, after several minutes of encouragement.

The trainer passed her back to me and moved on to another dog. I casually signalled to Lucy to sit. She sat. I signalled for her to lie down. She lay down.

Sigh.

Lucy is a very smart dog and in her quieter moments is very obedient. But when she is wild (usually in the evenings, unfortunately for the kids) she is defiant, intransigent and a little bit out of control.

And when she is sweet, she is very sweet indeed.

Reminds me of someone else I know and love.

When D., my youngest son, was a toddler, I wanted to knit a hat for a friend's baby. I tried to measure D.'s head. He refused to cooperate. I kept trying for weeks. I would ask nicely, try sneaking up on him when he was distracted or firmly tell him to sit still. I begged and pleaded. All to no avail.

A few months later, when the hat was finished (I guessed at the size) and mailed off to the recipient, I pulled out my tape measure to check my progress on another project. D. approached me and sweetly asked, "Mama, do you want to measure my head?"

To this day, he wants me to measure his head whenever I am using a tape measure.