Juvenile delinquent
When my daughter’s class went to Sea World earlier this week (I know, don’t get me started) I was not asked to chaperone. That was OK with me, for several reasons:
1. I got to chaperone the awesome trip to the wildlife preserve in January.
2. You all know how I feel about Sea World.
One other reason: I found out that many of the parents invited to chaperone were so asked because the teacher was afraid that without direct parental supervision, their children would end up running around in the penguin exhibit. In other words, not being invited was a good thing.
So off I went about my day, pleased that I have raised such a great citizen, and off I went to work. The dogs got to enjoy doggie day care, per usual.
When I went to pick them up, the manager was there. She smiled.
“Uh…” she began, “Does Brody, you know, bite you at home? Like in the arm?”
“No,” I said. “Oh HECK no.” Her expression said, Oh heck yes.
She wanted to know if it was OK if Brody was told no by the supervisors when he did this, as though I would purr affectionately and tell them to deal with his love-bites, he was an angel, and clearly this was all a big misunderstanding. I guess that happens a lot.
“So,” she said, “He doesn’t bite you?” I assured her that no, though he used to try- a lot- he learned quickly that we did not tolerate biting 60 pound dogs. Obviously Brody hasn’t extrapolated that No Biting People thing to include all people.
There was a new dog in day care today, and I guess Brody was looking for attention. I feel like a parenting failure. It’s like the dog equivalent of your kid coloring their face with highlighters.
He jumps on people a lot as well, which is hard for me to work with because he doesn’t do it with me anymore. When he jumps on Grandma, or my co-workers, no one wants to tell him “no” because he’s just so darn loveable and they feel bad doing it- despite me telling them it was fine to do so. He almost took out my mother-in-law over the weekend with his exuberant greeting.
I’m taking this as a strong reminder that I need to back up and work harder on his greeting manners, and call my trainer and maybe go do some refresher classes. We will get there. I am properly chagrined.
In the meantime I told the manager to please correct him, and if he is overly worked up then remove him from the group for a few minutes so he can calm down. Don’t worry, no one suggested shock collars. 
I know a lot of you have extensive training experience, so if you have any particularly helpful tips for the Crazy Happy Jumper Greeter or the Attention Nibbler, lay em on me.
