Juniper's Puppy Journal: Perfect Tenses

Amara's Puppy Journal

1March 3. Juniper has lived with us for two weeks now. She is a yellow Labrador puppy, and my family is raising her for a guide-dog school. Before she came home, we had puppy-proofed the whole house. Dad had hidden every shoe, and I had taped the loose cords to the wall. So far, Juniper has chewed only one thing: my brother Theo's homework folder. Theo says he has forgiven her, but he keeps his bedroom door closed now.

2March 20. Today Juniper wore her green puppy-in-training vest for the first time. We took her to the grocery store, and she walked politely beside the cart. She did not even sniff at the bags of dog food on the bottom shelf. By the time we reached the checkout, three shoppers had reached down to pet her without asking. I explained politely that people should ask first, because a puppy in a vest is learning to focus. Mom said she had never heard me speak so clearly to strangers.

3April 9. Juniper has learned five commands so far: sit, down, stay, wait, and come. She has not mastered "leave it" yet. This morning she grabbed a sock from the laundry basket and raced around the kitchen table. Theo laughed so hard that he fell onto the floor. When Juniper finally dropped the sock, she wagged her tail as if nothing had happened. We have practiced "leave it" twice since breakfast.

4May 1. Our trainer, Ms. Okafor, visited today to check on Juniper. She said Juniper will go back to the school for her real training when she is a little more than a year old. By then, Juniper will have spent almost a whole year with our family. She will have ridden city buses, visited the post office, and sat quietly through Theo's piano lessons. I will miss her terribly. Still, I hope that by the time she leaves, she will have become a calm, confident dog who is ready to guide someone.