Book #6: Smarty-Pants Sheltie
Jeopardy is a great dog.
Noah’s family just moved, and Noah is nervous about starting a new school with new people. At least he can distract himself with the family’s Shetland sheepdog, Jeopardy. Noah’s mom suggests a dog agility class, which seems like an OK idea—at first.
There’s just one thing …
Jeopardy is so embarrassing! When Noah takes her to class, she barks, runs away, and doesn’t listen to him at all. Noah wants to make friends, not get laughed at chasing around this crazy dog! How will he ever fit in with this shouty Sheltie?
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Read an Excerpt:
At last it was my turn. I was pretty nervous, because Jeopardy was quietly freaking out. She couldn’t take her eyes off the hurdle. I heard her go “ooorf! rroorrf!” in this tiny whimper kind of way while she watched the other dogs. Her white front paws went up and down, up and down on the rubber floor beside me, like she was practicing dance steps in her head or getting ready to start a race. By the time Alicia called us, Jeopardy was up on her back paws and straining at the end of her leash. As I stepped forward, she went: “ARF! ARF!” like she was shouting: “FINALLY! FINALLY!”
I stopped in front of the hurdle. Jeopardy’s whole furry body was quivering with excitement. I leaned down to unclip her leash.
“OK, Jeopardy—” I started, but before I could say “over!”—actually, before I even finished her name—Jeopardy was gone. She leaped over that first hurdle and kept going. Zip! she went over the second hurdle. Swish! she flew over the third hurdle. “ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF!” she barked as she jumped, and then she kept barking at the top of her lungs as she bolted around the room.
“ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF!” She galloped in a huge circle around all of us, barking frantically.
“Jeopardy!” I yelled. “Get over here!”
“ARF ARF ARF ARF ARF!” she answered, flying like the wind from one wall to another. She looked both blissful and smugly triumphant, like she’d managed to fool me and escape and now she was having the time of her life.
I wanted to sink into the floor. Rosie put her hands on her hips like she’d never seen anything so disorderly in her life. She looked even more disapproving than Alicia.
“Jeopardy, come!” Alicia said firmly.
“ARF ARF ARF!” Jeopardy barked, darting forward and then dashing out of reach again as Alicia reached for her. Eric and Rebekah had their hands over their ears. Heidi and Ella were laughing hysterically.
“Jeopardy!” I shouted. “Stop! Stay!” I ran at her, but she ducked away from me, too. I threw myself forward to grab her collar and missed. My chin hit the bouncy floor with a painful thwack.
“Oh my gosh!” Heidi cried, clapping her hands to her mouth. “Noah, are you OK?”
“Yeah,” I said, although my jaw hurt like crazy. Jeopardy stopped and stared at me from a few feet away.
“Aw, see, she feels bad,” Heidi said, clasping her hands together.
I wasn’t so sure about that. Her face was more like, Why did you stop playing? What’s wrong with you? Why are you so lame?
“Come here!” I said.
“ARF!” Jeopardy answered and ran off with her tail wagging.
“Here,” Parker said, handing Merlin’s leash to Danny. “Let’s corner her.” He chased Jeopardy around the shiny blue tunnel. She raced toward the wall and we both ran at her from either side. Even so, she nearly slipped through our hands again, but I threw my arms over her back and tackled her to the floor.
Immediately she relaxed. As I lay on top of her, gasping for air, she craned her head back and licked my ear. “Ruff,” she said calmly, like: So that was fun. Now what?
“Thanks,” I said to Parker. He took the leash out of my hand and snapped it onto Jeopardy’s collar.
“No problem,” he said. He shook his brown hair out of his eyes and patted Jeopardy’s head. “That’s totally happened to me with Merlin.”
I glanced over at the perfect golden retriever as I got to my feet. Merlin was sitting next to Danny with his head tilted curiously, as if he was wondering whether it would be safe to join our game or if Jeopardy was too insane.
“Really?” I said. It was hard to imagine having to chase Merlin down.
Parker rolled his eyes. “You have no idea,” he said.
I dragged Jeopardy back to our spot. Alicia was waiting with her eyebrows raised.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be,” she said. “I think it’s a good sign that she’s excited about the equipment. She’s a very smart little dog. But we might have to leave her leash on for a while, at least at first, so we don’t have to chase her every time.”
“Aww,” Danny said. “But it’s so funny to watch!” He imitated Jeopardy’s face as she ran away from us.
Everyone laughed. Ella leaned over to whisper something to Heidi. I was sure they were talking about what a terrible dog owner I was. It didn’t help me at all that Jeopardy was a “very smart little dog”; as far as I could tell, that just made me look even dumber next to her. I’d much prefer an ordinary-smart dog like Merlin or Yeti.
My face felt like it was burning up. Nobody else had to leave their dog’s leash on. Nobody else had a crazy dog like mine. Nobody else’s dog took up all the class time by acting like a lunatic.
Why was my dog always the worst behaved?
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Is your dog a bounding ball of energy?
Coming soon!
