Can you guys believe that Thanksgiving is this Thursday? I can’t hardly believe it. I’ll admit last year I felt as though I didn’t have much to be grateful for with Lassie’s passing so fresh on my heart. Looking back … Continue reading
Raise your hand/paw if you saw the April Fool’s Day joke The Honest Kitchen put up on their website the beginning of this month. *raises hand* Raise your hand/paw if you fell for it. Raise your hand/paw if you only … Continue reading
(Read the title in a Daffy Duck voice. Trust me).
Today I am joining two blog hops.
Because I want to and I don’t think there are any rules against that.
Even if there are, rules are meant to be broken. 😉
First up, This ‘N That Thursday hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Ruckus the Eskie. Check out either blog for more info on the hop.
I have a question for you pet owners. Do you guys ever look at your dog or cat or other pet and ask, “Could you get any cuter?”
I’m sure you do, especially when they’re doing something extra sweet or extra cute. You know, right before they do something not so sweet or not so cute. 😉
I ask Petal this question all the time. One morning I got an answer.
One morning I asked myself, ’cause Petal was sick of trying to explain, “Could she get any cuter?” then I stuck her little toy on her head and realized…
She absolutely could.
;P
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Now for Throwback Thursday! This blog hop is hosted by Dolly the Doxie and DOGThusiast. Check out either blog for more info on the hop.
Today we’re going to throwback to that time Lassie used me as a human chair.
February 2006.
Lassie was just little over a year old and I was coming up on my 15th birthday.
This was simply everyday life with that goofy boy. I was his chair and he was my pillow. It’s impossible to know who played their alternative role more often, me as chair or Lassie as pillow? We didn’t keep score.
How about we go forward a few months, to that time Lassie wanted to ride his motorcycle?
“Not without your helmet, young man!”
June 2006
In actuality it was that time we discovered that Build-A-Bear hats and helmets fit collie heads very well!
Or how about that time that our family Great Dane, Tal, really wanted to play but Lassie just really wanted to eat the snow?
This photo is so over-exposed it blends right in with this post.
Yes, Tal was literally dragging Lassie through the snow by his mane. No, Lassie didn’t mind. Too much.
I can’t remember what year this was and I can’t be bothered to look, but it had to have been either late 2005 or early 2006 because Lassie is big and Ella was not a member of the family yet.
When Ella joined the family…
October 2006.
Lassie ignored this little black and white puppy for weeks until one day she curled up against him and he realized she was an okay puppy after all when used as a pillow.
To close I’ll leave you all with a link to one of my favorite Lassie posts:
How to Make a Collie Snow Angel
Thank you to the hosts Dolly the Doxie and DOGThusiast!
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Our friends Dachshund Nola, Cascadian Nomads, and Tenacious Little Terrier came up with the brilliant idea to host a blog hop once a month to talk about Positive Training. You can learn more about the hop at any 3 of the hosts’ blogs.
I’ve been using Positive Training since I was 13 and Lassie was just a 2 month old ball of fluffy, chubby love. I used Positive Training techniques, without even realizing it, with both Lassie and Ella. When I added Petal to the family I started using it even more and decided to learn how to use a clicker as well. Best dollar I ever spent. Petal LOVES the clicker and food and learning. She’s the perfect student, if I do say so myself. Though I will say that she often gets over eager and tries to perform tricks before I ask for them, which doesn’t work because how can she do what I haven’t asked her to do yet? She can’t, so she ends up doing everything that I might ask, which leads to her looking rather silly and feeling confused. I simply ignore this until she calms down and gives me her full attention, then we get to work.
Today I thought I would share a trick I taught Petal when she was a puppy. It was a trick I taught her just for fun. Just to see if I could do it. I knew Petal could do it, easy, but I wasn’t so sure I could figure out how to train it. The trick was “Get the Light” aka turn off the light. To accomplish this she would have to jump up to the light switch and paw it just right to turn the light off. She already knew “touch” so we built on that.
I held my hand against the wall and asked her to “touch” it. I clicked and treated her when she did so. We did this a couple of times before I started removing my hand right before she could touch it, making her touch the wall instead. Click and treat. I was going to slowly have her make her way up the wall, making her touch a little higher and a little higher until we got to the light switch, but she got bored and I got bored, so we jumped ahead.
Literally.
I started encouraging her to jump up onto the wall, clicking and treating every time she jumped up, whether she touched the wall or not. Once she got that down, I only clicked and treated when her paw made contact with the wall, extra praise and treats if she touched the frame around the light switch, which had a treat taped to it. Yes, I taped a dog treat to the light switch to her encourage her to gravitate towards the switch. That probably wasn’t necessary but it was amusing and it did bring her attention to the switch, making her aware of it. Once she mastered touching the wall and sniffing the light switch, I only clicked and treated when her paw touched the frame around the light switch. If she happened to pull the switch down as she touched the frame she got LOADS of praise and treats. Eventually I started clicking and treating only when she turned the light off.
I have a video of the end result. It was recorded a day or two after Petal learned the trick (after a day or two of training).
As the description reminded me, she was only 8 months old!
Also, please ignore my incredibly annoying voice.
It’s been a few months since she learned any new tricks, but her most recently learned tricks are High Five!, Spin, and Bow. We’ve started working on Beg/Sit Pretty just today. High Five! is her favorite trick. She practically taught it to herself a few months ago (in September maybe?) and I can tell it’s her favorite because she’ll consistently do it for free (no treat) and she’ll even do it for my family members, not just me. 😉
Thanks again to the lovely hosts of this blog hop, Dachshund Nola, Cascadian Nomads, and Tenacious Little Terrier! It was fun! Can’t wait for next month!
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