Maddie has been taking puppy preschool at Petsmart for the last 4 weeks. We have learned to Sit…Down…Stay…Come..Drop It…and LEAVE IT.   The “Leave It” command has been a bit of an issue. She seems to think that everything is hers and that she shouldn’t have to “Leave It” if she doesn’t want to.

Today at Puppy Preschool we practiced our commands and when it got to the “Leave It” command, Maddie and I went first to show everything that we had practiced all week. The floor was strewn with all kinds of toys and treats. Maddie and I walked through the scattered items and I repeated, “Leave It” on every item….she continued to sniff at the items until I gently pulled her to the next item in our field of failure and told her to “Leave It”. The last item that we had to “Leave It” was a Milk Bone. Maddie has never see one of these in her life, but you would think she had discovered Manna. She wanted that Milk Bone more than any of the other items we had passed by. I finally had to put my foot on it and pull her away as I commanded, “Leave It”.

We sat back down and let the other puppies take their chances in the field of pleasure. Maddie sat there staring at the Milk Bone and as Shadow the Black Standard Poodle approached “HER” Milk Bone she lost it. She suddenly became Korihor the Anti-Christ.  She latched on to Shadow letting him know that he should not even be approaching her Milk Bone, let alone thinking about eating it.

This little episode got Maddie and I kicked out of Puppy School tonight. Yes, I have a dog that has been kicked out of Petsmart’s Puppy Preschool. Maddie didn’t seem to mind, but I tucked my tail between my legs and I took the walk of shame as we left our friends at Puppy Preschool.