First, we worked on bowing to the weapon

Since I’m suffering from empty nest syndrome (due to my baby girl recently moving away for college), I’ve now found a new apprentice with which to train and share my vast array of martial voodoo skills. I have started teaching the ancient weapons art of Kobudo to my loyal and energetic mutt, Jay.

The bo is his first training weapon, and he’s a natural! It’s a perfect fit, because he is obsessed with anything wooden. He often collects all the sticks, branches, logs, etc. that he finds laying around, and he piles them on the picnic table, which he then climbs on top of, as if to triumphantly proclaim to the world “I am the Master of All Wood!”.

I filmed a small portion of our latest Kobudo training session, and I am very impressed with his martial spirit. He is always excited for training, and he doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit”. Towards the end of the video he almost takes Joe down, and then he does the unthinkable…dare I say the impossible…the student defeats the teacher. I’m afraid of what’s going to happen when we move on to training with the sai.