CHAMPION

Today it's all about the dog. Those who don't want to read about cute dog stuff are excused.

Lloyd's dog, Speedy is a natural menace to impertinent birds, piratical kitties, terrorist squirrels and obstreperous bunnies. He will yank my arm painfully if one of these critters happens to cross our path during our daily walk. He also kills flies, which he traps against the patio door—and snakes. Not that I've actually seen him kill one, but he does this victory dance that involves rolling around on the ground. When I go to see what he is doing, there is a dead snake, bitten nearly through in several places.

Speedy's Victory Dance
Yes, he actually has the snake in his mouth!

Speedy and I went to the first of eight training sessions at PetSmart on Friday. I need the course, because I never paid too much attention while my uncle Marion was training his dogs—who all became models of deportment, and most of whom were sold to people who wanted to own an AKC Champion quality dog.

My uncle was so famous for his training that a prominent family in our town asked him to train their dogs. He declined, saying, "I'll train your dogs when you train your children."

Anyroad, whether Speedy will attain AKC Championship behavior is not the point of the classes. I just want him to learn the usual good-dog repetoire—come, sit, down, stay, pick-it-up, bring-it-here, drop-it, walk-to-heel, on-your-bed, off-the-couch. I would also like him to learn that he is allowed a three-bark limit for strangers and wildlife. That will take some time, but I'm getting a squirt bottle to spray his rump with water when he barks. That will not hurt him, but will startle him into breaking the bark cycle. I understand that a Super-Soaker is better for outside, as it will carry further.

The word of the day for August 24, 2008 is "champion" — Pronunciation:  \ˈcham-pē-ən\
Function:  noun
Etymology:  Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin campion-, campio, of West Germanic origin; akin to Old English cempa warrior
Date: 13th century
1: warrior, fighter. 2: a militant advocate or defender [a champion of civil rights]. 3: one that does battle for another's rights or honor [God will raise me up a champion — Sir Walter Scott]. 4: a winner of first prize or first place in competition; also : one who shows marked superiority [a champion at selling].

Our quote for the day is from William Bolitho (1890–1930), British author. “Woodrow Wilson,” Twelve Against the Gods (1930):

     Wilson adventured for the whole of the human race. Not as a servant, but as a champion. So pure was this motive, so unflecked with anything that his worst enemies could find, except the mildest and most excusable, a personal vanity, practically the minimum to be human, that in a sense his adventure is that of humanity itself. In Wilson, the whole of mankind breaks camp, sets out from home and wrestles with the universe and its gods.

;^) Jan

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