Fail!

I haven't been doing very well with writing so far have I? (I think that's how I start every single one of my hand-written journal entries - "It's been a long time since I last wrote....") I will try to do better. Although, I don't really have anyone to whom I should apologize yet, since I haven't exactly publicized this blog. I suppose I apologize to myself for being a slacker.

The yoga goal hasn't been going so well since my last post; I really want to kick it up a notch. Or ten, since my yoga practice as been basically nonexistent. BUT, I have been working with my dogs!



Cute, right? Yeah - it can be misleading! Some of you may know that Sookie (the white one on the left) has some pretty serious issues. I'm not really going to get into that now. The tips the trainer gave me are helping to a certain extent, but it's too soon to tell.

Gatsby (the black one) is also a total butthead; but he's a harmless butthead.

Anyway, I've been working with them on two obedience type "tricks" that I thought I could write about. Let me just remind you all that I am NOT a dog trainer, and I have no clue if what I am doing is really the right way to train a dog. That said, it seems to be working anyway.

The first one is "heel right" and "heel left." This is a fun one, because it's easy to practice every day while we are out on walks. Gatsby really loves it. He will do ANYTHING if there is food involved. (If there's no food involved, he figures that out pretty quickly and completely ignores me). But he seems to get particularly excited about this one, like it's a fun game. Sookie is crazy while out on walks, so sometimes she'll do it and sometimes she tells me to F off.

It's a simple trick. I tap my left or right hip and say "heel left!" (or heel right) and then use a treat to guide Gatsby's nose to turn around and sit facing forward at my side. Then we'll walk forward and then stop and sit. So far, it's going very well!

The other one I'm doing in the house is "Take a Bow." This one is a really cute trick, but a little bit hard to get the dogs to do. I'll try to post a video once we are successful. Again, Gatsby seems to REALLY enjoy learning it because it involves so many delicious pieces of cut-up chicken and he seems startlingly proud of himself when I praise him for doing it right. I read a little bit about how to do it online. Essentially, you take a treat and place it down between the dog's front paws and then move it toward the back paws to get them to bend, and perhaps keep an arm under the belly so they don't lie down all the way. Then take them back to standing and give lots of praise! (and click/treat).

One bit that I will add: I realized very quickly that I needed to start by teaching my dogs the command "stand up." We have them very well trained that if they want a treat, they have to be polite and sit at attention. So every time I showed them a treat, they automatically sat down, making it hard to work on the bow. So we started with just "stand up!" and click/treat for rising to all fours. That command also made it easier (especially for Gatsby) to keep him from lying down all the way. So he stretches back in the bow (click/treat) and then "stand up!" (click/treat). That way he knows the exact place to stop bending, and then to come back to all fours.

Ta-da!

So this isn't the most thrilling entry if you're not into dogs, but don't worry! The next post will be about photography! I went out and shot a few pictures yesterday around my 'hood. Once I'm done editing, I'll post a few here!

Until then, auf wiedersehen!