Amazing dog tricks

Since that last post was so boring and my brain is a little more awake now...I've got a better post for you.

When we got Lilly from the shelter, we knew there were some things that we wanted her to know. There were other things we figured out later that we wanted to teach her. But whenever we have our friends come over they're amazed at "how smart" my dog is.

The first thing we taught Lilly was that she is not allowed to go into the Living room/Dining room area at all. That was just an area that we didn't want invaded with Dog hair. So before she came home from the shelter (we had to wait until she was spade) we put up baby gates in the doorways to those two rooms. Soon after she arrived we figured out that she shouldn't go upstairs either...this was just too much house for her to deal with and she would sneak up there and pee. So we had another gate at the bottom of the stairs. The gates stayed up for about a year. They probably could have come down sooner but it wasn't until we had guests come over for dinner that DH suggested that we take them down to see what Lilly would do and sure enough she knew that wasn't her part of the house. Even with my nephew calling her she didn't go upstairs. We now have a fun game with Lilly where we will be in the Living room/Dining room and will run back and forth between their doors for her to chase us...she has to run further because there's some rooms in her way.

Next I had to teach her to not be at the bottom of the stairs when we came down because she would be all in our feet looking for attention and that was a dangerous tripping hazard. So I taught her to back up and sit in the Family room until we came to her. She still argues (makes moaning/growly sounds) when I tell her to do this, but I insist every time I come downstairs and if she's not sitting in the family room I won't pet her when I get to her...I just walk past her. Dogs don't like to be ignored.

Lilly has taken basic dog obedience class and she seemed to know everything. She still learns very fast ...for a treat. The obedience instructor suggested that we should do agility training. I didn't see how I could fit that into our life and now I'm even busier. If I ever find some time, I'll take her to another basic class to work harder on the "drop it" and not pulling on the leash as those are two lessons she didn't quite get.

Oh another good trick is that Lilly stays in her bedroom when we are not here and at night. Her bedroom is really my laundry room. I learned with a previous dog that it's less expensive to keep the dog in a small room or crate when you're gone. So Lilly has always gone into the laundry room since we first brought her home. "Crate" training is so awesome. Dogs by nature like to be in a den and the laundry room fits the bill for her. She has her blankets and the new bed I made her for Christmas in there along with her food & water dish. She'll even go in there to nap when she's in need of a nap. And when we're about to go somewhere we give her food in there so she's happy to see us leave. "Oh you're putting on your shoes and coat...that means I get food! Yippee! Food food food food!"

Speaking of leaving and food... Darly & I are about to leave. So Lilly will be getting fed in just a few minutes.