The Nose Knows by Holly L. Lewitas Read Free Book Online Page A

volunteered for the assignment.
    That night Quincy didn’t eat his dinner. Jacob was a little worried, but Quincy acted playful and happy so Jacob didn’t call the vet. Without any dinner in his system, when Jacob took him to Puppy Park, the next morning, Quincy didn’t produce the desired results. Jacob had to go to work so he couldn’t spend all morning in the park waiting on Quincy to take care of business. But after dinner, as we’d hoped Jacob took Quincy back to Puppy Park for a good long romp. Jacob knew that would help work things out.
    Bingo! We all ended up in Puppy Park at the same time.
    The first night went fine. Now we needed to train Jacob to go to Puppy Park every night after dinner. It wouldn’t be fair or healthy for Quincy to continue missing his dinner. Labs love food way too much for that! It took a few clandestine meetings by the big oak tree for me to give Quincy a list of additional training techniques he could use on Jacob.
    He tried them all.
    The first one was what I called Tennis Ball Insanity. Like all true Labs, Quincy could chase a tennis ball forever. He’d learned there was a time and place for ball chasing, and it was not in the house. So on Day Two, he acted like he’d forgotten all he’d ever learned about the right and wrong time for tennis balls. Right after dinner, he pushed open the closet door and retrieved the tennis ball he’d hidden there. Then he slobbered it up pretty good. With his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging, he dropped the wet ball in Jacob’s lap.
    Jacob dropped his newspaper and said, “Hey, what are you doing? Where did you find that? You know we don’t play ball in the house.” Apparently, some of his ex-wife’s rules had yet to be rewritten. Jacob put the ball on the side table. Quincy picked up the ball and again dropped it into Jacob’s lap.
    “Okay, enough already. Quincy, you know the rule. No tennis balls in the house. Now go lie down.”
    This time Jacob put the ball in his shirt pocket and went back to reading his paper. Quincy proceeded to follow my plan. He sat down next to the chair. He thumped his tail against the floor. Thump, thump, thump. Then he administered one gentle lick to the back of Jacob’s hand. He sat back down again. He panted and thumped his tail. He repeated the whole procedure several times. The slight smile forming on Jacob’s face signaled it was time to initiate the next move. Quincy poked his head under the paper, put his nose under the ball, pushed up and popped it out of Jacob’s pocket. Then he administered one quick lick to Jacob’s nose.
    The next few moments were critical. We knew Jacob could get angry. Quincy’s next move had to be executed perfectly. He and I rehearsed it several times. I knew he could nail it if he didn’t jump the gun.
    Jacob slammed down the paper. “Hey, what is your problem?”
    Quincy was prepared. He gave Jacob the look. It required the right blend of head tilt combined with a slight furrow of the brow to express confusion and a drop of his tail to show disappointment. The clock was ticking—Quincy held his breath.
    Jacob laughed. “Okay, buddy I guess you really want to play some ball. Let’s go over to the park for a romp.”
    Home run! Now the big finale! Quincy gave it his best closing act. Bouncing up and down, he added a whole lot of wagging and the biggest, floppy lip grin he could possibly muster. Pure joy doesn’t need a dress rehearsal. Quincy could handle this part all on his own. So once again, they headed to Puppy Park right on schedule.
    The following day we let Jacob have it the old way and allowed him to go to Puppy Park in the morning. We didn’t want to be too obvious. Besides, we knew we could make the old routine work to our advantage. You didn’t think we’d waste a day, did you? Of course not. We let Jacob take Quincy to Puppy Park in the morning just like before. It was just the two of them. Quincy retrieved the tennis ball like he always did,