My Dog Gets a Job by Elizabeth Fensham

Author:Elizabeth Fensham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UQP
Published: 2017-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

Courtney Lee was dressed all in white: jeans and matching top. She also wore high-heeled shoes. Despite digging her heels into the grass like tent pegs, she was being hauled along by her dog. Courtney looked like she was about my sister’s age, but she was dainty and only about my height. You could tell by her screwed-up face that she was not enjoying ‘walking’ her dog. I know all about dogs who are the bosses of their masters – or mistresses. Ugly used to be one of them.

I walked up to Courtney, my hand stretched out ready to shake. Her dog got to me first. He jumped up at me again and again.

‘Get down, you silly dog. Stop that. Please don’t. I’m fed up. Get down. I can’t bear this. Stop it now. Don’t lick the boy’s face, you naughty dog. Simon, stop it! You’re a darn nuisance. I’ve had enough. I can’t stand this. If you’d behave, I’d take you for more walks,’ shouted Courtney.

Courtney Lee was breaking lots of rules about dog training. For one, you shouldn’t shout at a dog. That’s the same as human barking. Secondly, how could Simon understand that long string of sentences? Dogs can only understand single words and short sentences. Although Courtney was hauling Simon back, he sprang at me again. I stepped close and said, ‘Down!’ As I did this I held my hand up to Simon’s face. He fell back, his head tilted to one side and one ear cocked straight up as if to say, ‘What the heck happened then?’

I slipped Simon a dog treat and patted his head, ‘Good boy, Simon!’

‘You’ve obviously learnt how to handle dogs with this expert helping you,’ said Courtney. ‘Is that old man over there the trainer?’

‘No. Ugly and I am,’ I said, putting out my hand again. ‘Eric Bright. At your service.’ I’ve been waiting to use those words from The Hobbit ever since Mum read the story to me last term. Bilbo Baggins says ‘At your service’ to Gandalf and the dwarves when they visit Bag-end, his Hobbit hole. ‘At your service’ sounds business-like.

‘How quaint,’ said Courtney. ‘All right, if you want to be at my service, then please just tell me where the real Eric is. And who on earth is Ugly?’

‘No joking. I’m Eric,’ I said, smiling my biggest, most confident smile. ‘And that huge dog over there is my dog, Ugly. This is our training school.’

Courtney stared at me, her face was like one big question mark. ‘That creature looks like a horse. Is it dangerous?’

‘He’s definitely a dog. And he’s as kind as you can get,’ I said.

Before Courtney could back out, I added, ‘Come over and meet another satisfied customer.’

I started walking back to Grandad, Baz, Ugly and Sheila, hoping like anything that Courtney would follow. She did. Simon was so pleased to meet other doggy friends that he bounced and jumped and yapped and sprang and bounced some more – all over Sheila and Ugly who also got very yappy and bouncy.

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