Puppy tricks

Deogi’s getting better. It’s an awfully slow process to combat a dog’s unexplained separation anxiety that he’s had since he was born. As long as he’s with you, and no one new walks in, he’s fine. A calm, sweet puppy who loves nothing more then to cuddle with whoever is closest.

He LOVES people. Loves them. So when someone new walks in – it’s chaos. – HI HI HI! LOOKIT ME! HI! LOVE ME! YOU SMELL GOOD! HI! – He’s getting better there, calming down faster, and it’s a rarity now that it ends up in my having to assert dominance and PLACE him DOWN. He has his own version of puppy please – which is to put his front paws on the half wall by the door so you can pet him and say hi without his paws in your chest. He’s learning to move ‘back’ at the command.

Last summer, even as a puppy, he was uncomfortable being outside. He couldn’t see us, and that meant Something Wasn’t Right! So it was outside, do business, inside fast to make sure everyone was ok. This year, he’s hooked to the lead, and will actually run and play and stay outside on his own. Until he gets tangled. then it’s HELP ME SAVE ME OMG I’M STUCK WHERE DID THAT TREE COME FROM?! – it is, of course, the same tree he’s wrapped himself around Every. Time. He’s. Out. (Which means we have to not rescue him right away, as well as be sure he sits and stays before we do. baby steps. always.) But, he’s outside without freaking for 30 minutes to an hour now – so that’s good.

He still completely tears up the house when he’s left alone, though. If he’s left outside, well – he doesn’t break off his lead, and that’s about all I can say since I’m not there to watch, being, you know, gone. We do have to make sure the deadbolt is turned when that happens, because he has discovered how to open the door and let the cats out with his efforts to get inside to see if we’re hiding. Yeah, I know. *L* Cats think this is fine. I do not. When he’s inside alone, it’s a disaster. Garbage overturned and strewn throughout the house, dolls eaten, backpack straps torn apart, paper shredded, loaves of bread eaten, and the occasional (extremely rare, but once recently) shit in my room.

If we take him with us in the car, he does better, but he barks at everything that moves and it takes a certain amount of speed and dexterity mingled with calm command to get out of the car without him getting out too. Heh. Then he barks until he gets tired, he then lays down and rests, and barks only when he sees something moving past in hopes that Mom’s come to the rescue. Even with the pain in the ass getting in and out of the car is – and how he’ll all but jump out of an open window if you are trying to talk to someone while sitting in the car still (50 pound dog in the lap trying to say HI I LOVE YOU YOU SMELL GOOD PET ME to random people is not exactly fun. Holding him back rips the shoulder out of socket. He also climbs over anyone else in the car, and the kid gets trampled and whines. Heh.) BUT he doesn’t chew up the interior of the car. So that’s a plus.

It’s all baby steps. Painfully Slow one step forward two steps back two steps forward back to square one baby steps. But he’s getting better.

And he LOVES to do tricks for treats. He jumps for them, he’ll sit for them, he’ll lay down for them, he’ll run for them (fetching – not so much. *L*). The latest trick we’re working on is for us to be able to put a treat on his forehead, or nose, and have him leave it there until we say it’s ok and that he can have it. He’s ALMOST to the point to where I don’t have to lay my fingers over his nose to remind him to keep his head still. He’ll now leave the treat for as long as I tell him to ‘wait’ and keep my fingers there – for the first time today, he left it there long enough to snap a photo of the trick in progress. We’ll start using only fingertips now, then hopefully soon, on to no fingers at all, just voice command. He will SERIOUSLY do ANYTHING for a snausage. (the glow-y eyes and tongue sticking out is just bonus. ha!)

Some day, 300 or so years in the future, he’ll be a perfectly well behaved trick loving puppy. Chuck just makes it look so easy. Show off.