Monday Mischief-Growing Up!

Weasley here.   Mom can't believe that just a few months ago I looked like this, a tiny baby.....

Now I am a big mature, young man pug!

Of course mom still thinks I'm a baby.  She is wrong though because I have gotten too big for puppy play group, now I'm ready for Basic Training: Obedience 101!   I go to training at Its Your Dog in Sussex County, its almost an hour and a half from our house, but they offer a puppy play group and Basic 101 class combo that mom wanted.....and Sunday was the first day of 101.

To get confident I followed my Pal Sid's advice on Confidence Shirts.  Mine are from Cafe Press, they use American Apparel t-shirts and they can put saying on your shirt.  They have a million pre-made shirts with sayings from movies and books that mom goes nuts for.   So to get my confidence up I put one of my new shirts on Sunday morning:

See, confident!

In case anyone's interested this is what my shirt says:

It is a reference to a silly character Freddie Threepwood from some stories written by one of mom's favorite author's PG Wodehouse the shirt is pretty cool, but I was dissapointed to learn that there are no actual Donaldson's Dog Joy Biscuits.

Mom made a special obedience class morning breakfast, Lemon Blueberry Pancakes (of course she really made the pancakes for herself and Dad) but I got a taste which sort of made up for the Donaldson's Dog Joy Dissapointment.

Lemon Cream Cheese Blueberry Pancakes from  Food 52 

Serves 6

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 pinch salt

2 eggs, seperated

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

6 ounces cream cheese cut in small pieces

1 table spoon melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons lemon juice

zest of one large lemon 

1 1/2 cups blueberries

1. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugar baking powder, baking soda, salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, buttermilk. Add cream cheese and mix until cream cheese has separated into uniformly small lumps, about the size of large cottage cheese curds. Stir in melted butter, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest.
   
2. Add dry ingredients to wet, then stir to combine. Whisk two egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold gently into batter.
   
3. Heat a griddle or cast iron pan over medium high heat, until a drop of water sizzles. Lower heat to medium; butter or oil pan. Drop batter into pan by 1/3 cupfuls. Once the batter has spread, drop in the berries. You might want to drizzle some batter to cover them. These need to be cooked a bit longer than you might expect; they won't bubble as quickly or as much as plain pancakes. Turn down the heat if necessary, to keep them from over browning, and let them puff up to their full extent after you turn them, which will take 2-3 minutes. Serve maple syrup.
   
   (Keep pancakes warm by placing a plate over a pot of simmering water and place the pancakes on the plate as you cook batches, this keeps them warm but prevents them from drying out as they would in the oven).
   
   
   
   
   After pancakes we got in the car to drive to class.  Unfortunately I had to take off my confidence shirt as mom thought shirts in class might not be the best idea, maybe she didn't want the other dogs to be distracted by my awesomeness.  I was excited when we got to class and already to get going.
   
   
   

   

   Basic 101 Here I come!

   
   

 I was the youngest dog in class by about 6 months and I was the only one for whom it was the first class.  So I studiously watched the other older dogs perform the exercises first:

I can do that, no problem!

The class was mostly on leash walking and I  totally nailed it.  After all the point of walking is obviously to get to all the exciting things as quickly as possible.   Mom seems to think I didn't do quite perfect and was saying some things about the need for more practice at home, and sighing a bit as she tripped over my lead.   The trainer lady fitted me for a front fitting harness.  I think this was because I am so super cool that the lady just wanted to get me a new cooler grown up dog harness instead of my old baby one, but mom says it is to stop me pulling.

Any way class was a blast and I managed to eat about 7 good size freeze dried tripe treats.  I can't wait until next Sunday!