March! 2 3 4. . .

So, do you remember the old thing that parents used to tell their kids--that if they didn't behave, they'd get sent to military school? Weeellll.... after much deliberation, we've sent our youngest to boot camp. Daddy is dropping her off right now.

It wasn't an easy decision to make, on many levels, but I'm convinced it was the right one. She's just reached that teenage-age where she's trying to assert herself, and it's not going over well. She's constantly trying to lord over Sparky, and it's all Pea can do to keep her under control and remain dominant. We won't even talk about the poor kitties.

The incidents recently with other dogs have been a major fact, of course. She tries to eat every strange dog she meets. She even sort-of tried to eat a kid on Halloween, but the vet says these things are very normal right now, and that the Halloween thing was definitely just fear and being overwhelmed by all the activity and strangers around her. She IS still a puppy, after all. But, I guess when they get this age, they're starting to try and make their place in the "pack," and basically become a massive pain in the ass!! At 76lbs of pure muscle, she's not exactly easy to handle, especially for me.

SOooo...boot camp. Stella will be a guest at High Test Kennels for the next 6 weeks. Six weeks!! Yikes. It sounds very scary, and is immensely hard for *us,* but the results are all but guaranteed-- full obedience training, all the standard commands you'd expect, including off-leash training, which is the biggie that I want, because I think that can be the biggest safety training you can ask for--knowing that she'll come back when I call her to keep her out of harms way. We will have to go out there and work with her in her training two or three times during the six weeks, but if we want to just go visit for a little while on other occasions, we can certainly do that.

I was very happy to find out that her sleeping quarters will be indoors, in her own run, with a raised sleeping platform in one corner, heated at night. We were able to take her own bedding and even her sleeping crate, just so she doesn't forget all her crate training, and so she had the familiarity and smells of her own "stuff."

As kind of an added bonus, after her stay, we're welcome to bring her back to play on their property, which is huge and has streams or ponds or something that the dogs can play in--majorly cool-- and just tons of space to run and run and run, safely. Now THAT is what Stella needs!!

In addition to running a boarding school/boot camp, the owners of the kennels are also Lab breeders. If you can follow this--our neighbor Jason's dog Ben's father (dog) who belonged to Jason's father (person) came from their kennel.

We've all gotten so used to her giant galumphing presence around here, it's going to be very strange without her. I have to confess that I'm a bit relieved that she'll be going through her training away during the exact time that I'll be putting up a Christmas tree... I'm sure she'll be a lot more restrained in trying to chew on the tree or wag-off the ornaments after training!! I hope. Depending on how things go, she might or might not be home for Christmas Day.

I am convinced that after the first couple of nights of being very confused, she'll actually have a ball there. She just loves learning things, doing tricks, being incessantly *busy* at all times. I've told Lloyd before that she is just too smart, and too great of a dog to "waste" by not training her right and letting her become a total wild thing. Intensive training will be right up her alley.

Ok, enough typing. I've had just about enough typing and sitting up for a while! Cross your fingers and toes that this goes well, because if it does, I'm going to have the best dog in the world--well, 2nd best. The Peadog still always wins. ;-)