New Tricks for Rascal Read online

  For Robin ~ H.W.

  For Eddie and Andrew ~ K.P.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  About the Author

  Copyright

  “Ellie! ELLIE!”

  Ellie jumped, losing her place in the book she was reading. Max was yelling and he sounded furious.

  She heard Max’s bedroom door bang and then the sound of him thundering across the landing. “I haven’t even been in his room,” she muttered to Rascal, who was lying on the bed next to her while she read her book for school. Rascal’s ears were pricked up, and he was staring at her bedroom door. Ellie looked worriedly down at the puppy. “I haven’t been in his room, but… Oh, Rascal, I hope you haven’t gone in there and——”

  Her bedroom door burst open, and her brother marched in, his face bright red with anger. He was waving something black and white, and squished-looking at her. “Look!”

  “What is it?” Ellie’s voice wobbled. Max was ten, two years older than she was, and he was usually very easy-going. But when he was angry, he could be really scary.

  “You see! You can’t even tell what it is! Because that stupid dog’s eaten it! It’s my football, Ellie! My signed Walchester United one that I queued for three hours to get!” Max chucked the football on the floor. “Or it was. It’s just rubbish now.”

  “I’m really sorry…” Ellie felt her eyes filling with tears. “Did you leave your bedroom door open?”

  “Don’t try and make it my fault!” Max yelled. “It’s your dog that chewed it up! I’m going to tell Mum, and you know what, Ellie? I’m going to say we should send Rascal back to the dog breeder. He’s the worst-behaved puppy in the world!”

  Max stormed out, and Ellie stared after him, horrified.

  Rascal whimpered, frightened by the shouting, and Ellie hugged him tight. “He didn’t mean it,” she whispered. “And Mum and Dad would never send you back.”

  But as she heard Max downstairs, telling Mum about why Rascal should go back to the breeder’s, and Mum answer that she would think about it, Ellie didn’t feel quite so sure.

  The next morning, Ellie sat at the bottom of the stairs, pulling on her school shoes. She wriggled her toes sadly. These shoes weren’t nearly as comfy as the trainers she’d been wearing all through the Easter holidays. The time off seemed to have gone so quickly, with all the excitement of getting their new puppy.

  Rascal sniffed at her feet curiously, and nibbled the end of the velcro strap with his sharp little white teeth.

  Ellie gently pushed him off. “No, Rascal! Mum’ll go mad if you eat my school shoes. You ate half of her sock yesterday, remember? And she still hasn’t forgiven you for chewing her trainers.”

  Rascal looked up at Ellie, his eyes sparkling with mischief. There was just something about shoes!

  “Are you ready, Ellie?” Mum asked, coming downstairs with Ellie’s PE bag. Max and Ellie usually walked together. Their big sister Lila went in the other direction to go to her secondary school.

  “Can you come too, so we can bring Rascal?” Ellie asked Mum hopefully, as she got to her feet. “I bet he’d love a walk. He’s going to miss us.”

  “I’m not going to miss him,” Max growled, as he stomped down the stairs. He was still really cross with Rascal.

  Rascal had heard the word “walk” and was dancing around underneath the hook where his lead hung, barking excitedly.

  “Oh, please…” Ellie begged. “Look at him, Mum!”

  “Not now. Look at the time! You’re going to be late if you don’t hurry. But I’ll bring him to meet you after school, OK?”

  Ellie’s best friend Christy was waiting for her at the school gate. “Oh, I was hoping you’d have Rascal!” she said, when she saw Ellie and Max running down the road.

  “Mum said no, because we were late,” Ellie panted. “But she’s bringing him this afternoon so I can show him off to everyone!”

  She told Christy all about Rascal and Max’s football as they were putting their bags away in the classroom. “He still isn’t talking to me, he didn’t say one word all the way to school. And last night when Max said we ought to send Rascal back, Mum said she would think about it! Then Dad went out in the garden later and found this huge hole in the lawn…”

  “Settle down, please, girls!” Mrs Harley, Ellie’s teacher, looked over at her and Christy. “Less chatting, Ellie. Your literacy words are up on the board.”

  “Sorry,” Ellie muttered, turning red. She didn’t usually get told off at school. But she cheered up later on when Mrs Harley asked anyone who’d done something exciting over the holidays to share it with the class. Ellie stuck up her hand. Sometimes she was shy about speaking up in front of people, but she wanted everyone to know about Rascal.

  “Yes, Ellie?” said Mrs Harley.

  “We got a puppy last week. His name’s Rascal.”

  “That’s exciting.” Mrs Harley smiled at her. “What sort of dog is he?”

  “A Jack Russell. He’s thirteen weeks old. My mum’s bringing him when she comes to pick me up, you could come and see him.”

  Mrs Harley nodded. “I’d love to.”

  At break time lots of people from Ellie’s class asked her about Rascal. She just couldn’t wait to show him off. But she was a bit worried, too.

  Christy nudged her as they sat back at their desk after break. “Are you OK?”

  Ellie leaned closer to whisper. She didn’t want to get told off by Mrs Harley again. “I’m just worried about Rascal. I hope he’s not being naughty at home. Last time I left him he howled the whole time.”

  “Your mum’s there, isn’t she?”

  Ellie nodded. “But he misses me!” She couldn’t help feeling a little glow of pride at that.

  Mum looked a bit frazzled when she came to meet Ellie and Max. She was standing by the gate holding Rascal’s lead very tightly. She tried to get him to shush, as Rascal started barking at a pushchair.

  “Hi, Mum! Has Rascal been OK?” Ellie asked, crouching down to make a fuss of him. Rascal bounced up and down, trying to lick her face.

  Mum sighed. “He howled all day. I’ve hardly got any work done. And look at his lead! He pulled it down off the hook and chewed it to pieces!”

  “Oh no!” Ellie took the lovely red lead from her mum. It was now chewed all down one end!

  Just then, Christy rushed over. “Hello, Rascal!” she said, crouching down and tickling him. The puppy frisked around her, his whole body wagging with his tail. Other girls from Ellie’s class crowded round to take turns stroking him, too.

  Ellie saw Mrs Harley coming over. “He’s lovely, Ellie.” She bent down to stroke the lively puppy, and he jumped up at her, yapping happily.

  It was only when he turned round to be stroked by one of the other girls that Ellie noticed the trail of little muddy paw prints down Mrs Harley’s beautiful pale pink skirt…

  Ellie flushed pink. “Oh, I’m sorry, Mrs Harley, I didn’t see he was muddy!”

  Mrs Harley smiled. “Don’t worry, it’ll wash off. My dog’s always doing that.”

  Ellie nodded, but she still felt embarrassed, and Mum hurried them through the school gates, before Rascal caused any more trouble.

  On the walk home, Rascal sniffed every fence and lamp post, and soon he and Ellie were way behind Mum and Max.

  “Come on!” Mum called. “I suppose at least he’s walking now,” she sighed, when Ellie caught up. “I h
ad to carry him most of the way to school before!”

  That evening, Ellie was struggling with her science homework at the kitchen table, when she had a sudden thought. She’d let Rascal out for a wee earlier and he’d been in the garden for an awfully long time. She jumped up and ran to the window. She could just see a small, white shape, scrabbling away – in the middle of Dad’s veg patch.

  At that moment, she heard the front door open. Dad was home!

  “What are you up to, Ellie?” Dad asked, as he walked into the kitchen and spotted her struggling to pull down the blind on the window. “Let me help with that,” he said, coming over.

  “It’s OK, I’m fine,” Ellie blurted out. But it was too late…

  “Have you seen what he’s doing?” Dad yelled, as he spotted Rascal through the window. He flung open the back door, and hared off down the path.

  Ellie watched anxiously as Dad grabbed Rascal and stomped back indoors with the puppy tucked under his arm.

  “He’s dug up every single one of my courgette seedlings! I only planted them out yesterday!” Dad snapped.

  “Sorry,” Ellie whispered. “He just likes digging. He doesn’t understand…”

  Dad put Rascal down, and the puppy cowered under Ellie’s chair.

  “I know, Ellie. But he can’t be allowed to dig everything up.”

  “He hasn’t had as many walks today as usual, because I was at school,” Ellie explained. “He was working off all his energy.”

  “We’ll talk about this later,” Dad said, and stormed off to have a shower.

  Ellie looked down at Rascal, who was sitting under her chair. “What are we going to do, Rascal? That’s Mum, Dad and Max, all cross with you.”

  Just then, Max came into the kitchen. He crouched down next to Rascal, and held out his hand solemnly. “Shake a paw, Rascal. All is forgiven.”

  “What are you doing?” Ellie asked, as Rascal licked Max’s hand instead.

  “He dug up all Dad’s courgettes, Ellie! I hate courgettes! Do you think you could get him to work on the beetroot next?”

  At least Max wasn’t cross with Ellie and Rascal any more. But Dad had had a serious talk with Ellie that night, and Ellie was starting to feel quite worried. What if Mum and Dad did decide that Rascal was too naughty? Would they really send him back, like Max had said? She knew that Rascal had already had another home before they got him, with an elderly couple who’d found him too much of a handful.

  “You’re only a little bit naughty,” Ellie told Rascal, as she brushed him out in the garden after school the next day. She’d noticed a lot of white hairs around, and she didn’t want Mum and Dad to have anything else to be grumpy with Rascal about.

  But as she let Rascal back into the kitchen and put the grooming brush away, Ellie heard a howl of horror from upstairs.

  Mum looked up from the vegetables she was chopping. “Was that Lila?”

  Ellie stared down at Rascal. “Please tell me that’s not because of you!” she whispered.

  About ten seconds later, Lila burst into the kitchen. Her eyes were glittering with fury, and she pointed at Rascal, who backed behind Ellie.

  “He ate my new pink lipstick!”

  Ellie’s eyes widened. “Oh, no—”

  “And then,” Lila went on, “he was sick all over my carpet!”

  Ellie felt a terrible urge to giggle. It was awful but funny at the same time.

  “I’ll clean it up,” she volunteered, hoping that might make Lila feel better. “And I’ll buy you a new lipstick!” She gave a sigh. She had wanted to use her pocket money to buy Rascal a squeaky bone toy to distract him from digging.

  “Clean it up together,” Mum said. “And please be quick, girls. Your grandad’s coming over for dinner, remember.”

  Lila grabbed the carpet cleaner and headed upstairs, muttering about horrible, smelly dogs. Ellie set off after Lila, closing the kitchen door firmly as Rascal tried to follow. Rascal gave a hurt little whimper, but Ellie didn’t give in. He definitely wouldn’t be welcome in Lila’s room!

  Mum passed Grandad a slice of cake, and gave him a serious look. “Have you any ideas how we can get Rascal to behave, Dad? He’s being a bit of a nightmare.”

  Grandad bit into his cake and looked over at Rascal, who was sitting next to Ellie’s chair and hopefully eyeing her portion. “Jack Russells can be tricky. They’re really determined, which is what makes them such little characters, but it means it’s hard to train them. I think you might need some help. Have you thought about puppy-training classes?”

  Ellie smiled at Grandad. Puppy-training classes sounded like a brilliant idea!

  But Mum looked thoughtful. “Isn’t he a bit young? I’d planned to take him to some in the summer holidays.”

  Grandad shook his head. “No, not at all. The younger the better. Lots of classes have puppy time, when they just let the pups play together. That’s really important for getting him used to other dogs, too…”

  “Rascal always barks at other dogs in the park,” Ellie put in. “Even if they’re twice as big as he is!”

  “I’ll have a look online later and see if there are any local classes.” Dad looked pleased. “But I think we all have to make a real effort to help Rascal to behave, too. Making sure we don’t leave things lying around for him to chew, stuff like that.”

  “And remembering to keep your doors shut!” Mum added.

  Max made a grumpy noise through a mouthful of cake.

  “And he needs more exercise and lots of fun play,” Dad went on. “Puppy-training isn’t going to stop him getting bored and digging holes, is it?”

  Lila shrugged. “He’s Ellie’s dog, shouldn’t she be doing all of that?”

  Ellie beamed. She wouldn’t mind that at all!

  With Ellie’s help, Dad found a website for dog-training classes at the nearby village hall. He phoned the instructor later that evening and signed Rascal up to start at once. Luckily, there was a space in her beginners’ class, which began on Friday, so they could start that very week.

  Ellie was so excited. “Please can I come with you, Dad?” she begged, as soon as he got off the phone.

  Dad laughed. “You’ve got to come! You’re the only one who can get him to behave. If it was just me, he’d probably decide to lie down and sulk!”

  Ellie giggled, but it was true. And it was a little bit worrying. What if Rascal didn’t behave for her either? She frowned. That couldn’t be allowed to happen. Mum and Dad already thought Rascal was a problem dog. He had to be a star at puppy-training, and prove that he was good enough to stay.

  Ellie lay in bed that night, with Rascal curled up on her feet. (Mum had given up trying to get him to sleep in the kitchen.) She was in that dreamy state of half-asleep, and pictures of Rascal trotting perfectly to heel flitted through her mind. Rascal sitting when she told him to – instead of looking at her with a Why? face, like he did now. Rascal fetching Dad’s slippers… Ellie giggled. Maybe not. The slippers would definitely have holes in them when Rascal had finished with them…

  “Rascal, we’re going somewhere really exciting today.” Ellie was sitting on the living-room floor with Rascal after school on Friday, watching TV. “And you have to be very, very good, OK?”

  Lila leaned over from the sofa. “Ellie, why are you talking to the dog?”

  Max sniggered. “She thinks he understands.”

  “He does!” Ellie protested. She looked down at Rascal, who was staring at her with bright, clever eyes. She was sure he understood her serious tone of voice, anyway.

  Ellie had already packed a bag with Rascal’s favourite chew toy, the chicken-flavoured treats he really liked, a bottle of water, his bowl, and some plastic bags in case he had an “accident”. She kept checking it, worrying that she’d forgotten something.

  They set off as soon as Dad got home. That way they could fit in a quick run around the park first, so that Rascal wasn’t too lively during the class – and had a chance to go to the toilet before
hand. But Ellie’s nervous feeling only got worse as she and Dad got to the village hall, and saw all the other puppies and owners.

  Ellie spotted a girl with a neat bob, wearing a Chase Hill uniform going into the hall. “Oh! That’s a girl from my school,” Ellie whispered. “Amelia. She’s in Year Six.”

  She had never spoken to Amelia, who was in the same class as Max, but she knew Max had said she was stuck-up. Amelia was with her mum, and they had a beautiful King Charles spaniel, with huge, fluffy ears. Ellie wouldn’t have been surprised if Amelia had blow-dried them for him.

  “That’s nice,” Dad said.

  Ellie looked horrified. “No, it isn’t! What if we do it all wrong and she tells everyone at school?”

  “I’m sure it will be fine,” Dad said.

  Unfortunately, he was wrong. As Ellie led Rascal into the hall, he dashed forwards, dragging Ellie along behind him.

  “Come back, Rascal!” Ellie muttered, going red, as everyone turned round to stare. But Rascal had never seen so many puppies in one place before, and he barked himself silly, jumping up and down, and running in circles.

  “Pick him up, Ellie,” Dad hissed.

  Ellie hugged Rascal tightly and tried to calm him down, but he kept yapping and trying to wriggle out of her arms.

  “Don’t worry.” The instructor, Jo, came over to them, smiling. She was much younger than Ellie had imagined she’d be, with a long brown plait. “He’ll soon get used to it. This is Rascal, isn’t it? We’re just going to start with everyone introducing themselves.”

  She gathered them all together, and Ellie looked round curiously at the other dogs. Rascal was definitely the smallest, but they all looked quite young. As well as Amelia and Goldie, there was a chocolate Labrador puppy called Sam, a Dalmatian called Libby, a Westie, Angus, who was almost as small as Rascal, and Josh, a Border collie pup. Jo had brought her own dog too, a beautiful golden Labrador called Emma, who looked like she knew everything there was to know about dog-training.