The Bet

 

Sunny:

It was a beautiful spring morning. My owner John and I were taking a morning drive. I was already looking forward to the walk we would take in the woods like we do every Sunday. I laid my head on John's lap and dozed a bit until we came to a stop. As I got out, I realized that we weren't in the woods, but on a big field with lots of cars. John got out of the car, snapped on my leash, and with a big jerk he pulled me away. Now, that was weird! He usually was very gentle with me. Well, I ran after him and we came to a strange place. It was a big grass field with circle shaped zones on it. There were lots of dogs walking around, but as I tried to greet one of them, John jerked me away like he had done before. Something is surly wrong here, I thought, because a "heel" would have really been enough. I now noticed that John seemed to be very nervous. We went to an empty lot and he drilled me a bit. By now I really knew the commands, so I easily did everything he asked me to do. John seemed to relax a bit as we sat down after the exercises and I felt better too. He must have heard some bad news which got him into a grumpy mood. After a while we got up and John was nervous again. We went into one of the rings and he started drilling me once more. Because John was in such a bad mood, I did everything he told me as well as I could. I didn't want him to get mad at me now. During the long sit, which I could do very well, John said "down" surprisingly soon.
I lay down and I heard him yelling something. He tore me off the floor and dragged me out of the ring. Outside he yelled at me louder than he ever had before. Quickly I went into the submissive belly up position. He got even madder and I didn't know what to do, so I stayed that way until he cooled down. I remember him calling me a bad dog which I can't understand at all. After all, I only did what he told me to do. Looking back, I guess he must have had one of his bad days.

John:
I was driving along with my dog Sunny. She is an Australian Shepherd, a brown merle. She is very smart. I had trained her to a good degree. She almost always did what I told her. I was very proud of her. But on that day I had some doubts. We were going to Sunny's first trial and I didn't know if she would pass. But the worst thing was the bet. I had made a bet that she would pass at the first try. Would she make it? We got to the trial and I drilled her a bit. She did splendidly and I relaxed. I would never have needed to doubt Sunny. But when we went into the ring, I was afraid again. Everything went fine until the long sit came. She was sitting nicely. Then it happened. It was like this: The guy in the next ring told his dog to lie down. Sunny heard the command and lay down in the middle of the long sit. I knew she had failed and I took her out of the ring. Outside I yelled at her more than I had ever yelled before. Poor Sunny rolled on her back. That made me furious. When I got my wits back and thought the whole thing over, I noticed how unfair I had been. Sunny can't have known it wasn't me who said "down". I am sure glad she is so forgiving. And now I know that I much prefer Sunny to be happy, than to have those fifty dollars I lost in the bet.