Read New Tricks for Rascal Online
Authors: Holly Webb
New Tricks for Rascal (3 page)
“That’s her, over there.” Ellie pointed across the playground.
Christy stared at the group of gossiping Year Six girls. “Oh,
her
! I know who you mean now. Poor you!” Christy giggled. “I can just imagine Rascal sniffing her dog’s bottom…”
“It was awful,” Ellie muttered. “The whole class. I’ve been thinking about it all weekend. Jo said it didn’t matter about the sandwiches,
but I was so embarrassed, and Dad nearly made us go home before the end.”
“Your dad’s got a couple of days to get over it before the next one, hasn’t he?”
“The next class is tomorrow. Tuesdays and Fridays. I’ve just got to try and avoid Amelia till then,” Ellie added, hiding behind Christy, as Amelia glanced their way.
“Rascal will get it in the end,” Christy promised. “I know he will.”
Ellie frowned. “He’s still being a monster while I’m at school, too. I’m really worried Mum and Dad are going to say he’s too much for us. That’s why it’s so important that he’s good at the training. And at the end of the lesson, Jo told us there’s going to be a show at the last class.”
“They did that at Bouncer’s classes. He came second,” Christy said proudly.
“Well, right now, Rascal would be about millionth, and there’s only six dogs in the class,” Ellie said gloomily.
“You need to teach him something really clever,” Christy suggested. “A special trick that no one else knows. That would show everyone.”
Ellie nodded thoughtfully. Now all she had to do was come up with the perfect trick.
On Tuesday, Ellie and Dad arrived at the hall at the same time as a boy about Ellie’s age, who was leading the biggest dog Ellie had ever seen. His mum was
hurrying along behind them.
“Sorry!” the boy gasped to Ellie, as the enormous black-and-white creature squished him and Ellie together in the doorway. “Can’t stop him!”
“Wow,” Dad muttered. “That’s a dog and a half.”
The dog stopped just inside the door, and the boy apologized to Ellie again.
“He’s so big! What sort of dog is he?” Ellie asked.
“He’s a Great Dane,” the boy said proudly. “He’s called Hugo – because he’s huge! And I’m Jack. We’ve just adopted him from the dog shelter.”
“I’m Ellie, and this is Rascal. Is this the first time you’ve been to puppy-training?”
Jack nodded. “Yup. We were supposed to come on Friday, but we had to go to the vet’s instead.” He went red. “Hugo ate one of my socks.”
Ellie giggled. “Rascal does that! And he chews shoes. We’d better not let them gang up.”
Rascal and Hugo were already giving each other interested sniffs. Hugo was so giant that Rascal could fit underneath him with room to spare.
“Is it difficult, the training?” Jack asked nervously. “Hugo isn’t very good at doing what he’s told, and he’s so big he just pulls me after him.” Then he gave Ellie a fierce sort of look. “But I don’t care. He’s a brilliant dog, and I wasn’t going to leave him in that shelter without anyone to love him.”
Ellie nodded firmly. “I think he’s great,” she said encouragingly. “Look how nice he’s being with Rascal.” Then she sighed. “Honestly, you can’t be worse than we are. My dad’s hiding at the back, look, he’s so embarrassed.”
Jack chuckled, but then he looked anxious again as Jo called everyone to begin the class.
It helped a little that Ellie knew what to
expect, but Rascal didn’t seem to have improved, even though she’d practised with him at the weekend. At least Amelia shared her disgusted looks between Ellie
and
Jack this time. Hugo was so big that if he went the wrong way, everyone knew about it.
“Let’s do the ‘sit’ command now,” Jo called near the end. “Hold the treat over the puppy’s nose, and move it back so your pup naturally sits down. Say ‘sit’ clearly and firmly as he sits, and reward with the treat.”
Ellie frowned. Jo made it sound so simple. Rascal wagged his tail delightedly as she got out the treats. She held one carefully over his nose, and started to move it back.
For a second it looked like it was about
to work, and then Rascal fell over backwards. He bounced up again with a confused little “Wuff!” and Ellie heard Amelia tittering. Goldie was sitting perfectly, of course.
Jack held his treat over Hugo’s nose, but he had to reach up to do it because Hugo was so tall. Hugo wagged his tail enthusiastically and simply ate the treat out of Jack’s hand. Amelia giggled again.
“Lots of practice is the key thing,” Jo told them encouragingly. “Just five minutes, two or three times a day. They’ll get there. Now, has anyone got any behaviour problems they want to talk about before the end of the session?”
Ellie looked down at Rascal. He’d done so many naughty things recently, she wasn’t sure where to start. But then Ellie remembered how Rascal was still howling whenever she left him, and how Mum was hardly getting any work done. She looked around nervously, wishing somebody else would go first, but everyone was silent.
“Um, Jo?” She waved a hand. “Rascal barks and whines a lot while I’m at school. It drives my mum mad!”
Jo looked thoughtful. “Have you tried giving him one of your sweaters in his basket?” she asked. “Jack Russells can be very devoted to one owner, and if he thinks he’s looking after something for you, he might be happier to be left.”
Ellie smiled. “Thanks, Jo.”
“Right. See you all on Friday,” Jo called, and everyone started to gather their things.
Amelia walked past Jack and Ellie, smirking. “Bet you’re glad you’ve found another dog that’s as useless as yours,” she sneered, as she made for the door.
Ellie gasped, and Jack stared after Amelia with his mouth open. “What’s with her?” he said at last.
Ellie shook her head and smiled at him.
“She’s just a mean girl from my school. Rascal and Hugo are going to be brilliant by the end of the course.”
Behind her back, Ellie had her fingers crossed.
“So did Jo’s tip about the jumper work?” Christy asked. It was Saturday, and Ellie and her mum were having a picnic in the park with Christy, her mum, and Christy’s little sister Jade.
Ellie nodded. “Yes! I gave Rascal my old pink hoodie, and Mum says he hardly whines at all now! Jo’s so clever. I said thank you to her at the class on Friday and asked if she had any more tips for Rascal.
She said it was just all about working with the dog and finding their strengths.” Ellie sighed. “But I’m not sure what his strengths are, apart from guarding pink tops! I wish he was getting better at the rest of his training, too.”
Christy nodded. “But Bouncer took ages to crack dog-training,” she pointed out, scratching Bouncer’s ears. “Didn’t you, boy? And he’s a Lab, they’re supposed to be good at it! I’m sure Rascal will get there.”
Ellie stared at Rascal, flat out on his back on the grass, with his paws in the air. “I hope so. I still need to find a special trick to teach him, just to show everyone how clever he is. He
is
clever, you know. He must be, to think up so many ways to be naughty…”
“Girls, would you like an ice cream?” Christy’s mum called.
“Ooh, yes, please!” they answered.
Everyone got up to stroll over to the ice cream van, and Rascal perked up at the sight of food. As the girls took their ice creams, Rascal wagged his tail eagerly.
“I can’t, Rascal,” Ellie whispered. “Mum’s watching!” Ellie’s mum was very strict about not giving him anything that wasn’t his proper food.
“You wouldn’t like it anyway, Rascal,” Christy told him. “It makes your teeth cold.”
But Rascal continued to wag his tail hopefully. He couldn’t reach Ellie’s ice cream, or Christy’s, but there was another one, very close to his nose.
Christy’s three-year-old sister Jade was wandering slowly back to the picnic rug. Her ice cream was dripping temptingly.
As Ellie took another lick of her ice cream, Rascal suddenly pulled the lead from her grip. He then whipped round and snatched the ice cream out of Jade’s hand.
“Heyyyy!” Jade wailed, as Rascal bounded off. “My ice cream! He took my iiiiice cream!” And she started to howl, even louder than Rascal could.
“I’m sorry, Jade! Please don’t cry. We’ll get you another one,” Ellie promised.
Ellie’s mum hurried over, looking horrified. “Ellie! How could you let him do that?”
Mum gave Ellie the money to get another ice cream, and took Rascal’s lead while Ellie hurried off. Meanwhile, Rascal was busily licking up his stolen ice cream, slurping it out of the cone with big swipes of his pink tongue. He shivered deliciously as he finished it. Then he picked up the cone delicately in his teeth, and offered it back to Jade.
Jade shook her head.
“Urrgh, no, Rascal!” Ellie said, as she returned with the new ice cream and took his lead back from Mum.
Jade started to laugh. “He doesn’t like cones!
I
don’t like the cones too!” She giggled.
Ellie couldn’t help laughing with her. At least Jade wasn’t upset any more. But Mum still seemed furious.
