Cute Conversation

Waiting in the checkout line at the store today...

"Oh WOW, a dog!"...this from a very cute little boy of about five.  "Can I pet?"
"Um, no, I'm sorry.  He's working right now,"  I smile to soften the blow.
"Oh -- he BITES."  (With a very serious look.)
"No, he doesn't bite...he's just working right now.  It's just like school, only for dogs."
"And you're his teacher?"  (...his eyes huge in amazement...)
"Yes, that's right!"
"Oh...that is AWESOME!!"...with a big smile.


Oh yes, I do get tired of the questions sometimes...but then there are fun moments too! 

Training Opportunities

Yesterday the kids and I were out shopping at Barnes & Noble, with Alfie along of course.

Enough with the books already!  Let's do something else!

We're all book lovers in our family so our visit was dragging on a bit...after a while I could see that Alfie was just bored out of his little skull.  So I decided to let him find me a seat while the girls finished their shopping. 

This he did with alacrity...only much to my dismay, when we got to the seating area, it had been kind of trashed.  There were empty cartons of chocolate milk and crumpled napkins strewn over the floor.  I'll confess, my first thoughts weren't too charitable...I was a bit put out at kids who'd leave such a mess, or parents who'd let them.  But then it dawned on me -- hey! -- I couldn't ask for a better training opportunity! 

First off, it was a great chance to practice "leave it," because of course such trash is almost irresistible to puppies.  Alfie really did not want to pass up the chance to chew on all that smelly stuff...until I got an (even smellier) dog treat out of my pocket!  That, and some obedience practice, helped get him re-focused.  I'll bet we looked silly to other people, doing our work in the midst of a mini-dump...they had no way of knowing that I didn't drop all that trash on the floor myself! 

Then I decided that after sitting there, I couldn't just leave it like it was.  Another great training opportunity:  I could pick up the trash and ask Alfie to help me find a trash can to throw it away.  So that's what we did, piece by piece.  I picked up a milk carton and asked him to find the trash can.  I knew there was one nearby, but he didn't, so a bit of a hesitant search ensued.  When he finally found it, you should've seen the look on his face...and the wagging of that tail!  He was so proud!  Then we went back for more...that was the really hard part, because now that Alfie knew where the trash can was, he hit the end of the leash almost running with eagerness to get me back there.  Oops!  He's supposed to guide me, not drag me!  So, again, a great opportunity to slow him down and practice "steady."  By the time we got done, we were both happy...and exhausted! 

I think I'll sleep all the way home!

...And Now, the Bright Side

As if to get even with me for sharing about all his shortcomings, Alfie has shown marked improvement in his manners over the last couple of days.  Granted, he still has a mischievous streak about a mile wide, but by limiting his freedoms and giving him more work to focus on, we've seen a noticeable difference.  Yay!!

I thought it'd be fun to share his training progress too.  At 13 weeks, here's what he's learned so far (some of these are kind of obvious, like knowing his name, but when I make a list it always makes me feel better to list as much as possible!!):

• Alfie
• come
• watch me
• fetch (well, okay...I can take no credit for this; as Tim put it, Alfie came with the fetch software already installed; we just linked the behavior to the command!)
• sit (which is really a sit-stay, until released; we're working on that part!)
• go free (release command)
• down (really down-stay, again, a work in progress)
• wait
• off
• leave it
• go busy (the all-important potty command!)
• heel (not too good at this one yet)
• find the seat (his newest achievement, where he indicates a place I can sit down)
• go to bed

Yesterday Charissa and I took Alfie for a training walk to Walmart and he did beautiful-
ly.  We were so pleased!  I didn't think that New Year's might be a busy shopping day, but it was.  Alfie did quite well in the noisy crowds, even when a little group of teenagers insisted on following behind him for a while howling!  Yes, really!!  We just ignored it and went on.  To Alfie it was just part and parcel of the great new experience and he didn't give it a second thought.  He probably thinks it's normal for people to walk around howling now!  But the best part was when we went to check out.  Even in the express lane, we had to line up behind several others, so I put him in a down to wait.  We had been standing there, chatting and waiting for several minutes when a girl in the next line over glanced down and gasped to see Alfie.  She hadn't even noticed him at first, he'd been so unobtrusive!  That was my proud moment for the evening, as you can imagine!

You see, I can be very good when I want to be!

Christmas Shopping

Katharine asked if I could take her to Borders for a little Christmas shopping, so I decided it'd be a great outing for Alfie too. Here we are going through the automatic doors (which are some of the loudest I've heard, by the way!) Since we knew just what we wanted the shopping didn't take long and pretty soon we were in the checkout line.

The picture below shows something I really like about Alfie: his "watch me" is great! People around were noticing him but he stayed pretty focused on what we were doing. Good boy!

Watching...watching...watching...

The guy behind the counter always teases me, "Why do you bring in such cute dogs if I can't pet them?" to which I always reply, "If you could pet them I wouldn't be allowed to bring them in..." It's just like a ritual, this conversation we always have to have. Makes me laugh!

Outside, we walk past an interesting grate. I was trying to go around to the right, Alfie decided to go around to the left. We'll get it together eventually!

Any chance this grate thingy would make a good chew toy?

Then, of course, Alfie notices a little puppy in the shop window who just seems to keep following us...finally he has to check it out and it's only his reflection. He gives me an embarrassed look.

I guess it's not real after all!

Before we leave, I take the opportunity of working Alfie on some stairs. He hasn't seen this many all at once before! We got up (the easy part) but as you can see in the video he wasn't too eager to go down at first. He probably would have liked me to carry him! I had to use my silliest "squeaky-toy-voice" to get him started...but then he finished like a champ.

Other than confusing me by trying to walk on my right side afterward, I thought he did pretty well!

Time to go home! Alfie already knows what the "bus" is and when we get there, eagerly goes to the passenger side to get in.

That was a pretty good day's work, don't ya think?