Stupid Pet Owners

Last night, our dog trainer came over to visit with us and Goldie, the huge Golden Retriever.

The dog trainer, Cheryl, is a second year medical student, and she works with families for free and for fun. She is our angel.

Cheryl met with us and we explained that this is our first dog, and I especially have no clue how dogs work. And she asked us what commands Goldie knows and we told her and she asked us to work on one simple command with Goldie this week, that would take us all week, working diligently with her three times a day: Stay.

So, Dereck and I took turns practicing with her and then we were sitting on the couch talking to Cheryl and she said, "Well, since neither of you is alpha, you should be able to use a team approach to training her."

I was surprised to hear that there is no alpha, because I know enough from my werewolf books that dogs need an alpha, the lead dog whom all the rest of the members of the pack follow. So I said: "Oh? Is that unusual not to have an alpha?"

And Cheryl looked at me rather sheeplishly and said: "Your dog is alpha."