Daycare June 17th

Marlon was here today! To be honest, I have no clue what adorable mix he is but WOW is he cute! This first picture is my favorite pose of his. Ears perked, eyes wide, and tail wagging just begging for a kiss on his sweet face. Marlon has been coming to the Paw since he was teeny tiny and although he is older now, and wiser, he managed to maintain every ounce of sweetness. He always asks for pets, never demands them, and he is sure to give every dog as much time as they need to get used to him before he attempts to play. When I enter the daycare room and I am bombarded with dogs jumping, scratching, licking...there's Marlon, sitting on the couch or laying in his favorite corner below the webcam waiting to be called over. I do and he comes right away, wagging not just his tail but his entire backside (which, as you can imagine, makes his trip over to me hilarious). He then proceeds to sit... sit! Can you believe it? Only after some more coaxing do I get him to jump up so I can give him some proper lovin. Kudos to his parents on the superb training, but I cant help thinking Marlon's naturally classy personality had a lot to do with it.

Right now Marlon is napping ... and NOT eating all the treats I keep offering him (he is supposed to eat in the middle of the day so he isnt playing on an empty stomach... but of course I dont speak dog so I cant tell him this... instead I keep moving him from his crate, to the lobby, to the office saying "treat?! wanna treat Marlon?! Such a good boy Marlon, you wanna treat?!" to see if I can get him excited enough to take one). It took me some time to figure this one out, since no dog had ever refused free treats, but after just going over Marlons unbelievable manners, I think Ive got it. He must be waiting for me to eat first! What a gentleman! Here he is trying to give me one of his tasty snacks and I am rudely ignoring the gesture by feeding them to him! I guess my next task is to figure out how to let him know with the correct series of barks, snorts, and wines (and without offending him, of course) that I despise dog food!