My Dog Does Stuff

Tricks, to be exact. Among other things.

I teach my dog tricks because they're fun. People like a dog who does tricks, and they're a nice break from all of the heeling, sitting, downing, finishing, and staying we do; not to mention the backing up, get out of my kitchen, and leave-its that are thrown in there for good measure and well-rounded manners. My dog has a rather large repertoire of tricks up his sleeve, all of which he's learned in a handful of 5-minute training sessions - this fact I am very proud of. Not for myself, but of him.

He can roll over, spin (a rather exuberant nose-to-tail, sometimes with a bit of a bounce), speak (the ferocious pit bull bark, which he never uses on a regular basis), talk (a little "rooo"/growl noise which is oh so cute), and crawl. We don't encourage crawl, though, because he uses that to get out of his down-stays...

It's rather amusing when he gets excited, because he'll go through his whole routine of tricks before actually doing the one thing I asked him to do for his treat. Last week, he learned to jump on command. This was pretty cool!

Today, we learned "touch." Why am I super excited about this? Because I have been trying to teach him this for forever, and we just haven't been able to get it. It just never clicked. Today, it did. And someone else taught it to him, and I'm not one bit jealous. I'm just glad that he got it!

We walked up into downtown Ferndale today for Fido Does Ferndale, where the streets were lined with dogs with their people, dog-themed pavilions and vendors, and rescue groups with adoptable dogs. It was fun and great for a walk, and we met lots of fun people. One of the pavilions was some of his friends from the place where I take him for boarding and daycare. He loves everyone there, and was so excitied to see them! His tail and tongue were uncontrollable!

Howie used to have a bad habit of jumping up on everyone - it's a habit many dogs have, and we've been working on breaking it. Howie was bad, though. He thought he was boxer, and even earned the nickname of Mike Tyson (not for his ear-biting abilities) at daycare, because he'd take you out his paws. No joke. I was telling one of the kennel workers that I had taught him to jump on command and was amazed at how this has cut down on his jumping - but he still does it.

"Have you tried to teach 'touch?'" she asked.
"No. Well, yes. I've tried, but we just can't seem to get it."

She grabbed lots of smelly treats and began working with him, right there in the middle of the sidewalk. And within 5 minutes, he got it. He as doing it. My heart overflowed with pride for my smart pit bull.

We came home, and I fixed myself a sandwich, I pulled out some cheese and tried it myself. He got it! He did it with me! Even bouncing up to touch my hand.

He's a pretty smart cookie, my pit bull.