Our Little Scholar

Puppy Class didn't go off quite as planned. For one thing, poor Lil' Robin the Good hates the car- this sad fact probably due to the eight hour drive she initially took to get to us. (Not only does she associate the car with a traumatic event (separation from siblings, a life she knew etc etc), but she gets physically very sick.) So her initial response to confronting a ride in the car was "NOOO!!!!" and after a struggle, I lifted her into the back seat, where she immediately began salivating and turning green. Fortunately, the drive to the Puppy Class was only about seven minutes.
The facility is close, but I drew a rough map and was pretty sure where it was, in a mixed residential and industrial park area, over by the local airport. As we approached the approximate vicinity, I saw a sign with a large paw print and turned into the driveway, telling a very ill Robin, "Looks like we're here!" I'm glad that Lil' Robin can't read as the closer I got to the building it became apparent that the building in question was a pet crematorium. Yikes. Wrong turn!
But just one road away, there it was and there was a stream of happy puppies and owners (actually, the all looked sort of grim! Hmmm...) issuing out from Puppy Pre-school and trotting in to our "Family Manners" class. The class is quite small- only five dogs total, but what a mixed group!
There is a humongous black Lab named Sassy, who was built like a tank and had one of those metal prong pinch collars. Her owner, a slight woman in her seventies, was obviously overwhelmed by the size and strength of her charge. This "puppy" was only a bit older than Robin! The poor woman spent the hour of class trying to restrain her HumVee of a puppy by standing on her leash, with limited success.
Then there was another enormous dog, this one a Bernese Mountain Dog named Riley and at least seven members of her human family. I mean, they took up half the chairs and described various atrocities committed by Riley including eating walls. People do like their large pets!
Next up was the biggest Husky I have ever seen. He possessed prodigious fur in giant fluffy tufted tail and thigh applications, but I suspect that under all that fur, he had really was just plain big. And loud. He howled, squeaked, barked and erupted for nearly half the class, making hearing the instructor Frank very hard. (Almost told Frank that we had had a dog named Frank but thought to wait until I know him better.) Anyway, Fluffy Husky (whose name escapes me) got squirted with a squirt bottle several times to shut him up, also with mixed results. He did manage to wrap his leash around the plastic chair his owner was sitting in and knock her over, causing much havoc and consternation... class was anything but calming!*
The last participant (beside Robin) was a small (thank goodness!) beagle rescue dog named Ulysses who was bouncy, but at least of a size where that wasn't life threatening. He and Robin hit it off and touched noses but poor Robin quickly became overwhelmed and shut down, curling up in a ball at my feet, only occasionally glancing up to look at me with reproachful eyes as if to say, "Why me? What did I do?" I was wondering that myself as saintly Robin and I seemed the only manageable members of class.
 After class, several people commended me on how "good" Robin was, but I assured them she was simply in shock. Can't wait 'til next week!

*A quick footnote here: Robin was the only "exotic" in class. That is, all the other participants were definitely "pure bred", recognizable breeds. Several people asked me, "What is she?" And I could see from the assortment of breeds represented that people closely follow those "most popular lists". One wonders why. For example, the elderly woman who had that giant Black Lab? In size and strength alone- setting aside all that youthful energy- it was a bad match! She certainly would have been better off with a smaller, and probably full grown dog!