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wanted, so he waited patiently for further instructions. “Angus, Sit!” she said again, and he waited some more. “Angus, Sit!” she said, and raised her arm, pulling on the choke chain collar.
    Oh . Angus remembered now. Is this what you want?
    â€œGood dog,” Missus said, crouching down and petting him.
    I know .
    She asked Angus to sit twice more, and the first time he remembered perfectly, even if he didn’t the second time. Then Missus put the choke chain collar on Sadie. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t pull hard.”
    Sadie tried not to worry.
    â€œShe’s trembling,” Missus said.
    â€œJust try,” Mister said.
    â€œSadie, Sit!” said Missus, and then she said it again, “Sadie, Sit!”
    Sadie stood and shook and watched. She didn’t think Missus would do anything terrible, but she wasn’t sure.
    â€œSadie, Sit!” This time, Missus raised her arm. Sadie backed away and Missus lowered her arm. “It won’t work. Isn’t there any other way?” she asked. “I’m going to look at that chapter again. Sadie can’t be the only dog ever to be spooked by a choke chain collar.”
    â€œIf you want, go ahead and see,” Mister said. “Right now, there’s fertilizing to be done, isn’t there, Angus?”
    So while Angus and Mister left to do their work, Missus and Sadie went inside to do theirs, and everything was back to normal. Everything was fine.
    After lunch, however, everything became not fine again, and it was worse because Sadie knew ahead of time how bad it was going to be. After lunch, after Angus had his training and was a good and clever dog again (once he remembered how to Sit!), Mister put the choke chain collar on Sadie. As soon as he clipped the leash to it, Sadie started to pull back to get away, until finally she lay flat on the ground, her head on her front paws. Her whole body shook. “For heaven’s sake,” Mister said, in a heavy loud voice. “Sadie—” But he didn’t say Sit! He didn’t say anything at all because he was busy not being angry. The book said never get angry, because having an angry trainer doesn’t help a dog to learn. After a minute, Mister leaned down to loosen the collar around Sadie’s neck and pat her on the head.

    Sadie didn’t move. She knew that as soon as she moved, the collar would choke her again.
    â€œI don’t know,” Mister said, but he didn’t say what he didn’t know.
    Sadie just stayed there flat on the ground, with her legs gathered up under her and her nose between her front paws. She kept her eyes closed. If her eyes stayed closed, she couldn’t see Mister or the leash, and if she couldn’t see them, it was the same as if they weren’t there. Except for the choke chain collar, of course; she could still feel the weight of the choke chain collar, and it was the choke chain collar that made all the trouble.
    Then Mister took the collar off and said, in not so heavy a voice, “That’ll do! We’ll try later. It won’t be so bad once you get used to it, Sadie.”
    Later . Sadie agreed about that. She was happy now, with her own collar on and Mister stroking her head. She licked his hand. Later . She wasn’t sure when later meant, but it wasn’t now.
    What is wrong with you? Angus asked her.
    Nothing anymore. Why? Is something wrong with you? But Sadie knew there was never anything wrong with Angus. When is later, do you know?
    Later turned out to be before they went inside for supper. Once again, Angus had forgotten how to Sit!, but he remembered when Mister reminded him, and he forgot and remembered again when Missus took her turn to train him. When Angus was finished, Mister said, “In a couple of days I’m going to try him on a longer lead. I bet it won’t be long before there’s no need for a choke chain collar at