How to Train Your Frenchie.... I mean DRAGON

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Since that recent burst of winter was still lingering, we luckily had lots of indoor plans to keep us busy here.

Have you heard of the new Dreamworks movie "How to Train Your Dragon"?

Paul and I saw it in 3D on Friday night - we both give it five stars! GREAT movie - better than Finding Nemo or Monsters, Inc. Good story, great animation, fun characters, fantastic sense of humor, lots of action, nice message... LOVED IT!

What made it even better was that the one of the main characters, Toothless (a Night Fury dragon), seems to have been modeled off Brutus. He looks like Brutus, sounds like Brutus, moves like Brutus, acts like Brutus. Other than the fact that he is ten times bigger than his human instead of ten times smaller, has wings and a long tail, Toothless IS Brutus!!

The expressions on Toothless' face and how he reacts - I'm tellin' ya, if Brutus could fly, this IS him!! For those of you with high-speed connections, here's a little clip from the actual movie, see for yourself:

I mean... It's not just me, right? There is definitely a strong resemblance, you can't deny it!

And speaking of training.....

It just so happens that I really was training my "dragon" over the weekend!

Brutus and I attended a 2-day seminar called "Are We Having Fun Yet?". It was an obedience workshop presented by well-known dog trainers Betsy Scapiccio & Linda Brennan. Lots of great information, and it all focussed on using all sorts of "games" in training to keep it fun for your dog. It went so well, Brutus is getting his very own dumbbell now (an object used for retrieving in the more advanced exercises).

Anyways, here are a few photos of Brutus in action at our weekly obedience class. Not that there is much "action" going on, as we were practicing the sit/stay exercises that are part of the "Novice" competition sequence. See my little Night Fury, the last dog over here on the right end?

Here's another shot, this time the down/stay. As you can see, Brutus is the only "little" dog in the class.

The dogs are required to remain stationary for up to five minutes. In the "Open" level, the handlers are required leave the room & are actually out of sight for the duration of the exercise. But for the time being, I'm just happy that Brutus has come far enough to control himself to this extent when I'm across the room, even with the instructors intentionally creating distractions (like throwing/bouncing balls around the dogs) to challenge him!

Tune in tomorrow for some Flat Brutus updates! It was a busy weekend for the little flatties, so lots to tell!!