What is this? This puppy keeps sleeping in my bed! Every time I want to take a moment to relax, I find this little rascal just snoozing in my spot. He has his own bed already but he just seems to be determined to take mine.

"Out! Out!" I barked at my little shadow. He was at it again, sleeping in my bed because his is too lumpy. His bed isn't lumpy, he just wants mine because it's mine.

"You gotta follow me," I beckoned the rascal.

I needed to show the lazy pupper how to patrol the back yard to make sure the birds and squirrels aren't messing with the garden. Since he's gonna be hanging around for a while, I might as well put him to work. And what better time to start than right now.

My little friend was slow to crawl out of my bed, stretching himself out and trying to appeal to my kindness. No charm can work on me, even nice peoples at the park with free treats. I have trained myself for many a day, resisting even the most clever of tricks. So this little display of cuteness will not phase me at all.

"Come on," I barked, "You will see what I do and do what I do."

The sun was shinny and the wind was sniffy outside, just like it normally. It was a perfect day for teaching my little friend to chase all the things out of the yard and keep things safe. I'm pretty sure he's smart enough to learn, but it's the attention span I'm gonna have to worry about. Like right now, he's already chewing on the water hose. This is against the rules of the puppy patrol task.

After ruffing at my student, he was right back to his studies. So I showed him the garden and told him about all the tasty things growing in there. Then I explained how important it is to keep the birds out and chase off any squirrel that might start digging around in there.

"What's a skewerl?" my little shadow yipped.

"It's a mean wild and crazy fuzzy beast with sharp pointy fangs!" I summed up.

"Will it eat me?"

"Naw," I twitched my ears, "But it will steal all your treats."

"No! That's terrible!"

From there, we headed over to the tree where I told my little friend to look up and see what I see. Yes, there were many leaves to cover where the birds were bouncing around and cheeping their songs. This is where they hide to spy out the garden and plot their tricky tactics. It is our duty as the patrol puppers to make sure that no birds loot the garden.

"But how do I shaze them?" my friend wondered, "I cannot do the flies."

"You just have to use the borks and barks that birds don't like," I explained. "Like this."

My barks are very intimidating indeed. The plotting birdies all scattered out of the tree and flew over to Christie's trees where Buck began bellowing his alarm. This was probably some of my best barking yet. I'm glad my little friend could see it.

"Yappy yap! Don't come back!" the young puppy attempted his best barks.

The birds didn't scatter as much this time. And the attention span of my little friend had expired so his tail had become a thing of deep interest. It's a work in progress and I think we did good today. Much was taught and learned. He's still young, but he's got the spirit. When he gets bigger, maybe then his bark will be as big as mine.