Mud-Puddle Poodle by Tui T. Sutherland

Author:Tui T. Sutherland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

AHA!” I cried. “You like the dog! You do! You loooooove her!”

“I do not!” he said, jumping to his feet. His face was turning red. “I just wanted to see what other tricks she could learn.”

Buttons was sitting politely on the couch next to him. She looked over her shoulder at me with this serious Excuse me, I’m very busy learning here face.

“Is it working?” I asked.

Carlos rubbed his head. “Yeah, I guess,” he mumbled.

“Like what?” I said. “Show me.”

Carlos was acting all “whatever” but I could tell he was actually kind of excited. “Buttons, shake,” he said, holding out his hand.

And Buttons put her paw in his hand!

“Oh my gosh!” I yelped. “She did it!”

“Good shake,” Carlos said, giving Buttons a treat. She stood up and gobbled it out of his hand. “We’re working on ‘stay,’ ” he said to me. “Buttons, sit.” He did the same hand motion as before and she sat down again on the couch cushion. “Buttons, stay.” He put his hand out flat toward her. Then he took a step back. And another step. Buttons sat still, staring at him. I was practically holding my breath. He took another step back. Buttons was quivering with excitement.

“Good stay! Come here!” Carlos said. Buttons flew off the couch and ran over to him. She jumped and leaped around his feet as he dropped treats in her mouth.

“So she is pretty smart, huh?” I said.

“I guess she’s pretty smart,” Carlos admitted. “I only have to show her about six or seven times before she gets it.”

“Show me how to teach her tricks,” I demanded. “I want her to know everything.”

“We should take her to a class when she’s a little older,” Carlos said. “When I thought we were going to get a Border collie, I found these tricks and obedience and agility classes not too far away. Maybe Buttons wouldn’t be too bad at them.”

“She’d be amazing!” I said. “I bet you she’d be top of her class.”

“That’d be kind of cool,” Carlos said. He smiled at Buttons. Yeah, he totally did.

I was proud of my little dog. But it made me a little grumpy, too. Buttons was acting like exactly the dog Carlos had asked for. So why couldn’t she be more like the dog I’d dreamed of?

Just then Mom called us into the kitchen to get our plates for dinner. Buttons came romping along with us, rrrrrrfting excitedly. I was about to tell Mom about her brilliant tricks, but then Buttons accidentally careened into her food dish, knocked all the kibble into her water bowl, spilled all the water on the floor, and somehow managed to get wet kibble crumbs all through her fluffy fur.

So it didn’t seem like the best time to tell everyone how smart she was.

Carlos told Danny a little bit about it at dinner, though. Danny went “ha” and said, “Any dog can learn to sit. Merlin can catch a tennis ball in his mouth in midair.”

“Ooooo, all hail the great and wondrous Merlin,” I said.

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