Learning new skills

Bea

Left hand. 

Beef. 

Been there for 211 seconds. 

Savory, meaty, glorious.

I can smell it. 

Ows is standing right in front of me, all up in my business and he’s yelling my name. Like, Ows, come on. I know where you are. Right in front of me. All up in my business. And I can smell a glory. I can smell it. Gib it to moi. 

Guys. I’m sorry. Meaty. But when there’s glories involved, I get so excited, I become polyglot. Sounds fun at first, but think about it. Glorious. You get so distracted by glory that you start mixing languages all of which were not even invented by your own species. Insanity. Beef. I can smell it. Savory. Guess I’m gonna play along and do what he wants me to do. Left hand. I’m gonna lie down. And roll over. Like the goodest girl. Always makes him happy. And that’s my favorite place to be. 232 seconds. 

So. What’s it gonna be, Ows, hand the glory over. Nice and slow. No. Not slow, быстрo, rapido, SCHNELL! I’m already the slim shady. I can’t get on the ground any further. It’s impossible for me. Don’t worry if you don’t get it, that’s just Ows being Ows. He likes to rap that. I love this absolute weirdo. That’s my favorite place to be.

Now he’s sticking my play right up to my nose. What’s that all about? Beef. Oh! We’ll have some beef soon enough if I don’t get the glory! Guess I could open my mouth, so it might be easier for him to understand what he’s supposed to do. Left hand. 

Oh, come on, now. What? He puts the play in my mouth. That is not what I wanted. He’s saying something else. Over and over. Cuddles would have given me the glory already. I’m sure. Twopaws are so hard to train. I don’t get it. If only they weren’t so darn cute. 255 seconds and counting.

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Ows

Since the weather is brilliant and I want to show off my dog’s skills, I figured some training is in order. Right now, I’m teaching Bea to take and hold an object until I tell her to release it. That turns out to be really tricky. Bea does not enjoy having things near her snout. I think it is because of her cleft and the surgery she already had. When it comes to cleaning the cleft, she gets nervous and shy every time and we have a hard time getting the cleft clean. 

But what’d be life without a few tough challenges, right? 

As of now I have managed to get her to open her mouth and she also lets me place an object inside. But as soon as I move away, she spits it out. Don’t get me wrong, this progress is already a major win. It took weeks and nerves to get her to where we are and I’m happy and proud of the both of us. 

There is however still room for improvement. I actually want her to be able to carry things. It is just like with every other skill or trick, it takes time and baby steps. Today she didn’t open her mouth for the longest time even though she should know exactly what I want from her. I even got her her favorite treats. Savory, meaty beef chunks. Glorious. 

One thing a dog trainer taught me is to breathe. Deep breath and try again. Funny thing is that Bea started to breathe along with me. Almost as though she thinks she’s training me. She finally opened her cute mouth and I put a rope toy in her mouth. But she immediately spat it out again. Tough break. 

Most of the times she learns after a good night’s sleep. She seems to process the new information in her sleep and the next day it works a little bit better. So, we’ll give it another go tomorrow. If only she wasn’t so darn cute.