I've created a monster...

I've never been one for teaching dogs a lot of tricks, other than roll over.  (sit/down/heel, etc. I don't consider to be 'tricks' and I'm more into those commands).

Anyway,  a friend of mine was telling me about a trick where you put a treat in one of your hands... close your hand and put the closed hands in front of your dog while you have the dog in a sit position.   You say "which one?" and the dog learns to paw at the fist that has the treat in it...

Well, Bailey figured this out in like 15 minutes!  (I swear these dogs catch on QUICK !!)... now he's constantly pawing at me (and not just my hands)... trying to get me to give him treats.

I won't be reinforcing this trick, needless to say....  You might want to think twice before you teach it too!

Oh, that's funny!  They are so smart.  They remind me of Arabian horses, some of them are so smart....easier to train in some ways and in some ways harder.

Fred has a little repituare of tricks and whenever he sees the clicker come out he goes through all of them so fast to see if any get him a treat then when they don't he finally looks at me like "okay what the command?" It's so funny, clicker out and right away he sits, waves, down, rolls over back up jumps then sits and looks at me. Alice just thinks he is funny she gets in her bow form like "OHHHHH we are going to play something arent' we!!"

yeah-Pavlov WAS onto something, was'nt he...

Hi all-finally got some pics of Zoe. She's growing like a little weed. I'll try to get a good pic that shows the heart above her tail-it's very endearing.

These little guys are smart, and they watch everything keenly. You have to be very careful to be good mommy examples, methinks.

We are currently waiting for our Muttluks to arrive, not a little impatiently, since it is around -15degrees currently in Northern MN, & Zoe's tender paws are not taking kindly to it.  This is putting a big bump in our potty training campaign. She's doing pretty well with newspaper & a gate to the carpet, but we do have our accidents.

We are enjoying her immensely, & our cat discipline is in full swing because I can see she would develop an aggression toward our cats if allowed. Best to nip it in the bud.

The other discipline issue is whining & pawing to get up on laps, where it is oh so cozy & oh so enjoyable most of the time for us, too.  But of course the darling puppy turns into a mature dog & your houseguests will not always be as tolerant of your sweetie pie. The same goes for jumping on your legs. Spring WILL eventually come, along with mud.

Zoe loves her treats, too!  The only trick she knows now is "sit" for her treats-we're concentrating on the basics as above, along with "gentle" for playing & biting. She's about four months old now.

If I don't get back in here before then-enjoy the holidays, all-