Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks

When our old Blackie was a wee little pup, he was whiny and stubborn, very hard to teach.  But I kept working and working and taught him about ten different voice commands.  He would respond to certain whistles and even a few hand signals.  When we got the new dogs, I tried to start teaching them a few things right away like:

sit, shake, out, go to bed, come, sic, down, stay



Wishbone, the white and brown dog, learned sit and shake quickly.  She loves to get up on the couch and understands down and up even when she acts like she doesn't.

 Here the cat was already in Uncle Byron's lap when Wishbone came along and wanted UP, too.  

The cat doesn't look so happy, does she?

All the time we have been in Brazil, I never wanted to get a cat.  I wasn't sure how to deal with a cat here.  Our doors and windows are open all the time, so would a cat go anywhere and everywhere?  How would I keep a cat in?

 Here she is on top of the tri-bunk bed of the boys.  Sometimes she naps in the craziest places!  She likes to sleep on top of the sailboat that's on the side of the house.  

Sometimes she lays on top of a table on the porch.

The cat almost always comes even from far off when I whistle!

One day recently I whistled for the dogs and told them to sit and shake for a little treat.  The cat came in, too, and sat between them waiting for hers!

 Looks like they were sticking their tongues out on cue!

 Spunky will SIT and is learning to SHAKE, but her favorite thing to do is to TAKE stuff.  When Uncle Byron leaves the garage door up, sometimes Spunky sneaks in and takes things out.  We've yet to catch her in the act.  This past week she took zip ties of different sizes that were bundled together and a work glove.   When your father and I were small, we had a dog named Bandit who turned true to his name!  He would "steal" things from the neighbor.

The best thing about Spunky and Wishbone is that they seem to be good friends.  Rarely do you see them not together.  In the morning when I let them in the house (they sleep out back at night), they come running in together and spend several minutes rolling on the floor in a wild ball.

Wishbone was a street dog that showed up on our street one day looking skinny and sad.  It took her a while to decide that this was her new home and she needed to stay.  She would run off randomly and I would have to wonder if she would come back.

One day when Spunky had been very bad and chewed something up, Uncle Byron gave her a few good swats.  Poor Wishbone must have thought she was next.  She made a bee-line out through a wide space in the fence and took off.  We went right after her calling her nicely.  It took some serious convincing to get her to come back.

Now we are more careful to not swat Spunky before making sure that Wishbone is not in a place to run off or feel threatened.

Their #1 favorite activity is to bark at people, dogs, cat, horses o motorcycles that go by the front fence.  Boy, can they run!  Sometimes they will blaze through the house to run out the back door after some cat that's walking on the top of the wall.

I don't think either one will ever be the ferocious attack dog for which Blackie was famous, but hopefully they will help keep our house a little secure with their running about and barking like loonies!

Take care, boys!  Teach that dog of yours some new tricks!