—
“So then my brother looks at me, and he says, ‘Jack, that wasn’t cream.’”
“Oh no,” Isaac laughed, letting Jackie support him as they walked. Jackie was glad that the story of his suffering was making Isaac laugh, at least. He’d probably get a sympathy blowjob out of it or something. “What did you do?”
“Well, I’d already eaten it, hadn’t I?” Jackie said, as they came on his door. It was open, so Colby should be back. Hopefully he was okay; he’d been so freaked out about going to see Twila. “So all I could really do was commit and pretend it was on purpose, and…” He pushed open the door, stopped.
Colby—no, it was Poppy for sure—was curled up on his bed, naked, asleep, and damp. The mole he’d been worrying about on his back was gone. Jackie sighed.
“Is he allowed on your bed?”
“No,” Jackie said, shaking his head. “He has his own. Poppy,” he said, raising his voice enough that it would wake the pup up, but not enough to seem like he was mad.
Poppy stirred, moving and then standing up on Jackie’s bed. He shook himself, then hopped off the bed when he saw Jackie, bounding over and panting. He sat in front of Jackie, beaming, then seemed to realize he’d been misbehaving. He pulled a long face, making big eyes at Jackie, whinging a little.
Jackie couldn’t help but smile. He was so cute. “You’re not supposed to be on my bed,” he said, patting his damp hair. “Especially not when you’re wet.”
Poppy barked, hopping a little in place. He looked happy now, and Jackie smiled wider. “It’s okay, though, you’re so cute. Just don’t do it again.”
“Hold on,” Isaac said, gently putting a hand on Jackie’s arm. “You can’t let him get away with that.”
Both of them looked at Isaac, who had a serious look on his face. “What?”
“If you let a dog misbehave once, he’ll think he can do it for the rest of his life,” Isaac explained. “The have very selective memories like that. It’s not good for him to be badly trained now—it’ll just get him in more trouble later. Poppy, you are not allowed on Jackie’s bed without permission and you know that.”
Poppy retreated a little, now giving Isaac the big eyes.
Isaac crossed his arms.
Shit, Isaac was right, wasn’t he? He knew everything about dogs and horniness, so probably. “Isaac’s right, Poppy. You go and…sit on your bed right now.”
Poppy whinged at him.
“Now,” Jackie said, holding his head high.
With a whimper, Poppy did as he was told.
“That was good,” Isaac said, going over with Jackie and helping him take the wet bedding off his bed. “Good job not raising your voice.”
“I guess. What should I do? To punish him, I mean. Like a spanking, or…”
Isaac shrugged. “You can’t really punish a dog that way. They don’t understand violence and they don’t know to associate cause and effect, so it just makes them afraid of you. Just making sure he knows you’re mad at him is enough. But not for long, you can let him off his bed in ten minutes or so. Punishing a dog isn’t about severity, it’s about consistency. You have to do it every time until he learns.”
“Right,” Jackie said, glancing at Poppy, who was curled up on his bed, watching them. He looked so sad.
“Now that said,” said Isaac, not looking at Poppy. “Poppy is also Colby, so if Colby likes spankings, go ahead and give him one later on, but just make sure Poppy understands what it’s about or else you’ll just have a sad puppy on your hands.”
Jackie hated having a sad puppy on his hands. But he did want to have a good puppy. And he knew that Poppy was, and he knew Poppy knew that too. And after ten minutes when he invited Poppy to come back over and sit with them, Poppy seemed perfectly happy again.
And all was forgiven.
—
How Best to Use a Sword 