Gershwin is a beautiful lab/poodle mix with a dark chocolate, curly coat and deep auburn highlights. Blond highlights dust his muzzle, chin and at the edges of his eyes. His expressive green almond shaped irises are encircled by a gold band around each pupil and the green, gold and black lie against a canvas of pure white eye.

He is 11 months old, has beautiful glistening, whiter than white teeth, the pinkest of pink lips, tongue, cheeks and gums and is currently weighing in at 80 lbs. He is gaining approximately 2.5 lbs per week. He eats 6 cups of dry dog food each day and anything else that crosses those paths that either he is drawn to or to which he is escorted by one of his two moms: E-mom and Alpha mom. E-mom is extra. Exercise walks, social walks, busy errand walks all teach Gershwin that there are rules. Some walking rules are learned and integrated right away like the command, “leash!” and then other commands like ”Gershwin Come here!” take a lot longer for him to understand.

Recently, Sam & Valley had the privilege of educating Gershwin in the fine art of “Walking on leash with Sam & Valley 101”.

That was the class where Professor Valley wrapped her two front legs around Gershwin’s neck, placing the long side of her mouth flush to his and with the length of her muzzle reaching to his ear she pulled back her lips, teeth bared and emitted a series of throaty, staccato type, growls while her mouth made a chomping motion that looked like a pair of rapidly cutting scissors. I watched her teeth clacking against the side of his mouth as Gershwin’s eyes went from large and then to small as if he were focusing and listening. After that, the three dogs walked abreast, three across, Valley- Sam- Gershwin, just like that, without issue. Gershwin proved to be a good listener.

Susan Lake - Proprietor of Animulets™