“Sit,” she said. Honey immediately assumed the position, and Cora reached into her back pocket to grab a treat. “I hope you don’t mind, I brought my own treats,” Cora said slightly apologetically.
“No, that’s great! It’s another glimpse into the way you work,” Vaughn answered. “Now ignore us and keep going. Feel free to talk to the audience through the camera, but don’t talk to us.”
She nodded. Honey stood next to her, waiting for another treat. Cora felt something shift within her and she snapped into dog trainer mode. She forgot about the strange eyes on her, the mic pack protruding from her back pocket, and the unforgiving gaze of the camera. She began talking as if giving casual instructions to one of her clients, and pictured Fran smiling and encouraging her.
“The A-frame looks like a daunting obstacle because of the height, but if you break the process down into pieces, it makes it much easier for the dog,” Cora bluffed. If she had a choice, she would first teach the dog to walk on the A-frame when it was flat on the ground first, instead of attempting to do it when it was five feet high, but she didn’t have that option, so she pressed on.
“I’m going to use a small tasty treat to lure Honey through the initial steps of the process.” Cora stressed the “initial steps” aspect because she knew there was no way Honey was going to go up and over the obstacle right out of the gate. She hoped Mia and Vaughn were dog-savvy enough to realize it.
“I’m going to place the treat right in front of Honey’s nose and use her natural inclination to follow it to move her body to the base of the A-frame.” She demonstrated the luring motion, and Honey followed along as if she already knew the script.
“When she’s right at the bottom, I’m going to mark her position by saying ‘good!’ and then give her the treat.” Cora handed over the treat, and Honey danced in place.
“Now I’m going to lure her up the ramp just a tiny bit, so that she has to put her front paws on it in order to reach the treat.” Honey stepped up the A-frame to where Cora was holding the treat. She said “good” to mark the dog’s progress and gave her the treat again.
“This is a very smart dog,” Cora said as she smiled at her student. “The next step is to try and get those back feet off the ground and onto the ramp, which can be a little scary for a first-timer.” Cora brought the treat so that it hovered about halfway up the A-frame, and Honey gamely raced toward it to try to reach the treat. Cora misjudged the dog’s speed and drive and was shocked when Honey jumped up to grab the treat and fell off the edge of the A-frame with a dramatic crash. She landed ungracefully next to it.
“Oh, Honey! Oh no, are you okay?” Cora dropped to her knees and petted Honey for a moment and then looked at the camera. She was surprised that Mia and Vaughn remained silent. Honey shook off the fall and looked at Cora expectantly. “That was a bit of a scare for both of us, but Honey’s a trouper and she’s ready to keep going! Let’s give it one more try and end on a high note!” Cora’s voice trembled when she said the wordtry. She led Honey to the same point on the A-frame and rewarded her when she managed to climb up without incident.
“I think that’s a great place to end today’s lesson. Honey, good job!” Cora looked at Mia and Vaughn again and shrugged her shoulders questioningly.
“Awesome, we loved it! You rolled with Honey’s little accident and made it work. Good stuff,” Vaughn answered.
Mia scribbled in her notebook and then looked at Vaughn. “I think we got everything we need, and that means we’re done for the day! Cora, you’re our final audition.”
“How many did you have?” She petted Honey, who stood close to her in the hopes of getting another piece of freeze-dried chicken.
She counted on her fingers as she quietly rattled off names. “You’re number five.”
“Wow, there’s a lot of interest in this show.”
“There’s definitely interest on the casting side, now we just have to make sure that World of Animals likes what we have to offer.”
“Do you mind if I ask how the process works?”
“Not at all. So the first step is finding our top three candidates for host, and we hope to be done with that in the next two weeks or so. Then we show their auditions to our contact at WOA, Dalton Feretti. He’s the VP of development, and we basically need his blessing for everything if we want this show to make it to air.”
Cora nodded absentmindedly, rehashing her performance in her mind as Mia talked. The name jarred her back to consciousness.
“What, um, what was that VP’s name again?”
“Dalton Feretti. He isthe manat WOA when it comes to new programming. We’re lucky to have him on our side. Don’t tell anyone, but he and Vaughn were college buddies way back when,” Mia explained.
Vaughn victory-punched the air as he broke down the camera.
Cora thought about her lack of poker face and hoped that neither of them had noticed her expression. Dalton Feretti, Dalton Feretti. She committed the name to memory so that she could confirm her fears when she left the building.
“Thanks, Cora,” Vaughn called to her. “You were awesome! Give Fritz a pet from us.”
“Yes, thank you again for coming. We really loved what you did. You have a unique way with dogs, I can tell,” Mia said as she walked Cora to the door.
Cora took note of her word choice.Is “unique” good?she wondered.Where was my “really perfect”?
“I’ve got all your contact info, so we’ll let you know if we need anything else from you. Thanks again,” Mia said.
“I really enjoyed it. Thank you for the opportunity. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!” She smiled in a hopefully genuine way.
Cora dashed to her car and pulled out her phone to see a missed call from her mom, probably to ask how the audition went. She typed “Dalton and Simone Feretti” into the search bar and pushed enter, her heart pounding as the results loaded. Immediately switching to the images section, she scrolled through the photographs until she found a tiny blurry thumbnail of a man and woman standing side by side. It was fromWashingtonian Magazine’s “Best of Washington” party, and the caption next to the image read, “World of Animals exec Dalton Feretti with wife...” and cut off. Cora hit “visit page” and held her breath as she scrolled down to find the photo. She didn’t even read the caption before enlarging the photo on her screen.
