Don\u2019t forget there\u2019s still time to enter yesterday\u2019s competition to win tickets to Crufts.<\/p>\n
Aristotle has seen a video of one of his brothers doing a trick. To begin with he was impressed, then he pouted a lot and said he wanted to be able to do tricks. I told him to just get on with it, but it turns out that doing tricks when you are a puppy is only any fun a) when you have an audience and b) when you get a treat for doing it. It\u2019s a bit like when a small child tells you a joke they\u2019ve made up. You laugh politely the first time they tell it, even though it isn\u2019t funny and then have to sit through them telling it to you incessantly for the next week and a half. The fact that as yet Ari doesn\u2019t know any real tricks hasn\u2019t dampened his enthusiasm for the process. I said he should go away and learn how to do one properly and then show us. He sulked and said he didn\u2019t know what to learn or how to learn it. I suggested the same one as Arnie but Ari wanted to be different. And so we have one very annoying little puppy. I took him across to the calendar and asked him what day it is. He said the 5th<\/sup> of February. I took a deep breath and said \u2018day not date!\u2019 At last he understood that it was Sunday. When I asked him what that meant he was lost. \u2018It\u2019s the day of rest,\u2019 I said. Still being an annoying little puppy he asked \u2018Why?\u2019 Now we are into a whole different discussion about God creating the world and taking a day off. I suspect that by the end of it I may just wish I\u2019d taught him a trick.<\/p>\n My Mistress is busy planting some of this year\u2019s crop of seeds. She has combined January planting with February, which means that once again we have little trays on every available window ledge trying to germinate. Ari is alarmingly fascinated and I think it is important that they should stay out of his reach, otherwise there are going to be tears. I can see it now. He\u2019s been eating the plants in the garden so I really don\u2019t fancy their chances.<\/p>\n Alfie Dog with a little help from Rosemary J Kind alfie@alfiedog.me.uk<\/a><\/p>\n Alfie\u2019s Diary \u2013 the Book is available at Amazon UK –https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/dp\/B00583ZGSA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"