Moose (5 page)

Is your dog scared of anything? My dog Django used to be afraid of thunder and of mailboxes, the big blue kind on street corners.

It can be a real challenge to own an extremely fearful dog. Charles was lucky to find some ways that worked as he began to train Moose. But that was only the beginning!

If your dog is afraid of his or her own shadow, you may want to try some of the techniques Charles used with Moose. It might also be a good idea to talk to a professional dog trainer or animal behaviorist.

It can take a lot of time and a lot of patience to help a fearful dog grow into a confident, happy pet — but it’s worth it! In the end, you and your dog will love each other more than ever.

Dear Reader,

I love Great Danes. There’s just something about those gentle giants! A long time ago I knew a beautiful silver and black one named Hoss (one of the dogs who goes to Aunt Amanda’s doggy daycare is named after him).

When I decided to write about a Great Dane puppy, I went to visit one who belongs to a friend. I had to laugh when I pulled up in the driveway and saw Hooligan’s big head looking out through the top window of the door — four and a half feet from the ground! But Hooligan was as sweet and mellow as could be. I also got to visit Hooligan’s breeder, where I played with a bunch of incredibly adorable ten-week-old puppies. Doing that kind of research is just about my favorite part of my job as a writer!

Yours from the Puppy Place,

Ellen Miles

P.S. To read about another adorable puppy who needs to find a great home, try NOODLE.

1) Make sure you know which card is on top of the deck. Let’s say here that it is the ten of clubs.

2) Shuffle the cards in front of your audience —
carefully keeping the ten of clubs, your card, on top!
(This takes some practice. Some patter is a good idea here, to take your audience’s minds off what you’re doing.)

3) Deal out a number of cards into a smaller pile
—
you can use your own lucky number or ask an audience member for theirs. Just make sure it’s not a very high or very low number. Say, as you’re counting, “I want you to count out some cards, just like this: one, two, three, four . . .”

4) Put the little stack you counted out back on top of the deck, and hand it to your audience
member. Tell her to count out the
same
number of cards, the same way.

5) Guess what? Your card, the ten of clubs, is now the one on top of
her
little stack.

6) Say, “Take a look at the top card on the stack you just dealt out and memorize it. Then put it back, anywhere in the deck.”

7) Now you can take all the cards and shuffle them for real, or have your audience member shuffle. It doesn’t matter! You know exactly which card she looked at.

8) Take the whole deck of cards and start laying them out face up, in a line across the table. When you see the card (the ten of clubs in our example) come up, pretend not to notice it and lay down about three or four more cards. Then say, “Here comes the magic! The next card I turn over will be yours.” Your audience member will think you messed up the trick, since you already laid down her card.

9) Reach into the line of cards and turn that card (the ten of clubs in our example) facedown. Ha! You turned over the card she memorized! You got her.

Don’t miss any of these
other stories by Ellen Miles!

Baxter
Bear
Bella
Buddy
Chewy and Chica
Cody
Flash
Goldie
Honey
Jack
Lucky
Maggie and Max
Moose
Muttley
Noodle
Patches
Princess
Pugsley
Rascal
Scout
Shadow
Snowball
Sweetie
Ziggy

Ellen Miles loves dogs, which is why she has a great time writing the Puppy Place books. And guess what? She loves cats, too! (In fact, her very first pet was a beautiful tortoiseshell cat named Jenny.) That’s why she came up with a brand-new series called Kitty Corner. Ellen lives in Vermont and loves to be outdoors every day, walking, biking, skiing, or swimming, depending on the season. She also loves to read, cook, explore her beautiful state, play with dogs, and hang out with friends and family.

Visit Ellen at www.ellenmiles.net.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Copyright © 2011 by Ellen Miles.
Cover art by Tim O’Brien
Cover design by Steve Scott

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. Lexile is a registered trademark of MetaMetrics, Inc.

First printing, March 2011

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eISBN: 978-0-545-32461-8