Level Three. Lana and me.
Level Three – Lana and me.
By Michelle Lloyd.
Lana was a part of the family. Lana was loved, looked after and listened to because as far as dogs went, she knew that she was the head of her household. A stray, Lana had not been found by the family, it was more true to say that Lana had found them.
New One and Lana had a friends, can do, love relationship. If Lana wanted to go out for a walk then New One would oblige and if New One wanted a bit of hug, love, lick time then Lana felt she was the right dog for the job.
It was a well known relationship at home and at school, New One’s friends R V and Little Herbert all were well aware that if Lana was about then the attention had to be firmly on her. As a way of life it had not been too bad an experience. Lana had been forgiven the clumsiness, the breakage of the tables and the chewed carpet were things of the past, the odd accident had become less and less of a problem and the neighbours had all promised that they had gotten over the stolen shoes and the abducted garden furniture.
Lana was not a laid back dog, she was more of a love’m and show’m, live for the moment pet. Many knew about Lana and if they hadn’t seen her then they had heard about her. The adopted dog who had taken on the household, the family and nearly all of the street. Lana loved people, she was friendly and fun but of late she did not take to being told what to do too well and that was a bit of a problem.
It was a bit of a difficult habit Mum thought when Lana refused to give back the clean, washed shirt from the washing pile, it was a bit of a problem said Dad when Lana happily got into the family car but then proceeded to take over the driver’s seat and refused to give it up or get out of the car. New One would not accept his dog’s bad behaviour, not a bit of it, but when Lana took a liking to the Xbox controller and firmly indicated she would not share that seemed to be a move too far for him. Lana of late had got a bit of a reputation for her difficult demands and refusal to listen. New One had to admit that her behaviour was a bit of a problem for him too.
There was nothing for it. The family decided it was time for Lana to go to Dog Training Class. New One had been worried about it. He was not sure what Dog Training Class would be like…he had ideas about poor, terrified Terriers backed into the corner, little Lurcher puppies left to be punished for little mistakes and then there would be Lana, what would happen to her? At the last minute New One had an attack of the nerves and said that he thought they should turn back and go home, they could train Lana themselves, Lana loved the idea and gave New One a lick of approval but in response to that New One’s parents looked at them with an absolute No of a look, Lana was going to training and that was that.
Dog Training Class was ahead and New One thought that he knew how Lana felt. It was like her first day of school and New One led her in with a heavy heart. Inside it was nothing like what New One had thought. People were talking, dogs were doing a doggy sort of meet and greet, and everyone looked…happy.
New One far from having to drag Lana in found himself being dragged over to an assembly of dogs that Lana had to associate herself with and she looked like she knew who she was going to say hello to first. A few minutes in and Lana had made friends with a cheeky Chow Chow, a dog that seemed to have a bit of a love for licking shoes. Already this had been shown in his rather embarrassing show of feeling for Dad’s shiny work shoes and New One’s on trend trainer. This was a bad habit that Lana had clearly overlooked, she loved him, flaws and all.
The class went well. Lana seemed to learn a lot from the gentleman who showed them all how to get a dog to listen to a command. Lana took to the commands well and took to the reward part as if she had known about if all along. It was actually fun for New One to participate in the activities and his parents took turns to take Lana up and show what she had learnt. Boris the Chow Chow and Lana seemed to love the class and each other. New One had found it a bit difficult to accept, it had been Lana and him for so long that it was slightly odd to see her go off with someone else, even if it was another dog.
New One’s Dad asked him what was wrong, everything had seemed to go well for Lana and she had learnt a lot. Dad was particularly keen on the getting your dog into and out of the car without embarrassment part of the class but he could see that New One was not happy about something. As Lana seemed to be showing Boris how to chase a smaller dog and Mum was apologising to the small dog’s owner, New One explained to his Dad how he felt. It had been Lana and Me moments that had meant they had such a happy relationship and while he would like Lana to be well behaved he was worried that if she took to time with other people or dogs she wouldn’t love him as much. Dad listened to him and was about to tell him something when Lana stopped her mad chase with the little dog, Boris and Mum, she let out her New One noise, the one that New One knew was her saying his name and looked round the class. Within minutes she spotted him and was over to be with him, it was with a slight smile that Dad watched Lana snuggle into New One, within a few minutes Boris was over and he snuggled into both Lana and New One, then came the little dog they had all been chasing. Dad could not say anything for a moment longer, he smiled at New One and told him that he didn’t think losing Lana would be a problem, even if she started to have other loves in her life nothing would compare to how she felt about New One, more of a problem was the fact that now he had Boris and the little dog in love with Lana and all three of them had seemed to become lovingly linked to him.