2. Hoopers

Today was hoopers training.

For those who don’t know hoopers, there are hoops, tunnels and barrels, and I run around them while my human stands some distance away and tells me where to go.

She calls this working together.

I do quite a lot of the working.

Today we were practising from a distance. I was supposed to sit at the beginning of the course while my human walked away, took up her position and then called me.

I already knew where we were going.

There was a hoop directly in front of me. I had seen the rest of the course. Everything seemed perfectly clear.

My human said, “Stay.”

She walked away.

I went through the hoop.

Apparently we weren’t ready.

Back to the beginning.

She sat me down again and said, “Stay.” This time I waited until she had walked a little further before I got up.

Still not ready.

We went back again.

I was beginning to wonder how much preparation one hoop required.

On the next attempt I stayed a little longer. This was also insufficient, so we returned to the beginning once more.

Eventually I decided that the only way we were ever going to get to the actual hoopers was to let her finish whatever she was doing.

I sat.

She walked away.

I stayed.

She kept walking.

I stayed.

She reached her position, turned around and looked at me.

There.

Perfect.

Then she called me.

I looked away.

There was nothing there, but I looked at it anyway.

“Elwood!”

I remained very interested in the nothing.

“Elwood!”

Still nothing.

It was actually quite peaceful.

Had I been able to whistle, I would have.

After several minutes of stay, Elwood, stay, I was now sitting exactly where she had left me. I felt changing the arrangement so soon showed a certain lack of commitment.

She called again.

I looked a little further in the other direction.

Eventually I decided we had demonstrated the stay quite thoroughly and got up.

And then we were off.

This was much better.

Hoops, barrels, tunnels, running. My human somewhere in the distance waving her arms and giving directions. Finally, everyone was doing something sensible.

I flew around the course and loved every second of it. There were also a great many treats, which I felt were entirely justified after the amount of patience I had shown.

— Elwood