Read Online The Last Dog on Earth by Daniel Ehrenhaft - Free Book Online

with a treat, like a doggy biscuit or a piece of bacon. That way the dog would
want
to be good. And if you threw in a pleasing noise of some sort—like a bell or a click or a whistle—then that was even better because dogs responded well to “sonic cues.” Alongthose lines, it was best to use simple, one or two-word commands.
    “Sit.”“Down.”“Heel.”“Play dead.”
    There was really nothing more to it than that. Say the command; give a treat; ring a bell; bingo. Pretty soon the dog would do whatever you wanted. You wouldn't even have to use the treats for very long because soon hearing the “sonic cue” after the command would be rewarding enough. According to the books, anyway.
    Logan made sure all the bases were covered. For treats, he'd swiped the bacon bits from Mom's spice cabinet. For the noise part, he'd built a special device: the Logan Moore Sonic Cue Gun, or LMSCG. He'd taken the bicycle bell from Mom's old three-speed and fastened it on top of a water gun, then rigged the trigger with a bit of fishing wire so that when he pulled it, the wire yanked on the bell's ringer. All he had to do was aim the thing at Jack. Point, squeeze,
brrring!
It was pretty loud, too.
    “All right, Jack,” Logan said. “Time to do your business.”
    Jack stopped tugging at her leash. She sniffed the lawn.
    Logan tried to yank her over to the hammock. She seemed to have changed her mind about wanting to go there. And for such a scrawny dog, she was actually pretty strong. Logan had to shove the LMSCG into his pocket and use both hands to pull her.
    “Come on, Jack,” Logan grunted. “Come on. Right over here.”
    She started tearing at the grass with her front paws.
    Uh-oh.
The hammock was close to the kitchen window. Mom and Robert were in there right now. The screen was shut, but the window was open. If Robert saw Jack ripping up the lawn … well, Logan would just try to keep quiet. Anyway, he was supposed to ignore bad behavior. Digging a hole in the backyard certainly fell into that category.
    Logan chewed his lip. He could hear Robert and Mom at the table.
    “… can't believe we let him bring that mutt home,” Robert was muttering. He sounded disgusted. “This is
your
fault. This has disaster written all over it.”
    “But I think it's good for Logan,” Mom said. “He feels that he made his own decision, you know? He's taking responsibility for it. It's not like we're forcing something on him again. I mean, you saw all those books he has on dog training. And besides, he does have a point about the money. You can still get a purebred Lab if you really want one—”
    “This house isn't big enough for two dogs,” Robert snapped. “And you know it. And what if Jack has this disease everybody's talking about? What if she's sick?”
    Mom sighed. “She's not sick, Robert. She was examined thoroughly. Look, just be patient, okay? Let's make the best of this.”
    Logan stared down at Jack.
    Come on, come on
, he urged silently.
Stop digging. Stop it….
    Suddenly Jack lifted her head and lowered her rear end. She peed, staring into space. She wasn't right under the hammock, but she was close enough.
    “Good girl!” Logan exclaimed.
    He reached into his front pocket for a handful of bacon bits. As Jack gobbled them up, Logan pulled the LMSCG from his back pocket. He had to struggle to hold on to the leash at the same time. It was all a little awkward. But he managed to get off a ring before she'd finished the treats. Jack wagged her scraggly tail and raised her eyes, as if to say,
No more bacon bits?
    Logan grinned. “Okay, Jack,” he said. “Next time I'll—”
    “Logan! What are you doing out there?”
    Robert's nose was mashed against the window screen.
    “I …” Logan didn't know what to say.
    “Did you just let the dog pee on my lawn?” Robert demanded.
    (“
My
lawn.” Not “
our
lawn.” Not “
the
lawn.”
Robert's lawn.
) “Well, yeah,” Logan said. “I just figured it would be