Canine Towards Humanity

CHAPTER 17

A large speaker right below the board, imaging each trainer and their dog, started to announce,

"Please welcome Rowan the Labrador Retriever and Annie the dog handler!"

The crowd started to clap, welcoming them.

"Rowan. We've trained for this for a good month now. Please, try your hardest." Annie grinned.

Rowan now felt very distressed, as if he couldn't make any mess ups. He needed to do this, for Annie.

"Alright trainers. For the first step, please command your dog to do the trick 'orbit!'" A man announced to each of the dogs and their owners, all lined up.

"Rowan, orbit." Annie stared into his eyes, but, with a proudness.

Okay. That one's simple!

Rowan pranced around Annie's legs in circles, going forwards then backwards each time he'd hit a destination being displayed in his mind.

The audience cheered, they loved these dogs!

"Well done, trainers and dogs! For our next trick, please command your dogs to do 'roundabout.'"

Annie pulled a tennis ball from out of her jacket's pocket. She then hurled it into the direct front of herself and Rowan. He immediately hunted the ball down, catching it in midair.

The crowd was awestruck. All of the dogs were doing the trick correctly, yet, Rowan caught it in midair, unlike the others! They started to cheer.

Rowan then scampered up to Annie, whom was kneeling down as far as she could, allowing Rowan to hop up onto her back. He scurried up onto her back, streaming in circles until the bell rang, and the dogs all finished what they'd been doing. Rowan was now feeling quite overworked, but it'd only been two tricks so far. He pressured himself to continue what good of a winning streak he'd been on.

The crowd was clapping a lot, amazed in how well Rowan had performed both these tricks.

"For our next trick, owners and handlers, please command your dogs to perform 'leap!'"

This trick was the most challenging for Rowan, and he'd put his ears back when he heard this word.

Annie got into the position of her kneeling down, with her back being the only accessible part of her body now. Rowan got into his pose, one paw slightly in front of the other for both the hind and front legs.

As soon as the bell had rang, that told Rowan to go. He bounced over her back, and Annie threw a ball into the air as soon as Rowan leaped up. He caught the tennis ball midair, again, and he went into a loop. Once he finished circling, he'd hopped up, flinging the ball into the sky. He stayed on his hind legs, causing slight irritation, and he'd caught the ball again, but with his tail in the form of a question mark.

The bell rang, and the whole crowd started cheering excessively. They loved this! Rowan noticed how cheerful all of the audience was feeling, so he'd lied down where he had landed due to the feeling of success. He thought he'd pleased them enough. Plus, his joints were in pain. He just lied there, but happily.

"Rowan, come here boy!" Annie called.

But he didn't come. He continued lying there.