Except when we go to obedience classes and she wants to EAT the trainers, the other dogs, and their owners. And as we approach, the other owners rush their young-uns away lest Ruby corrupt them with her wild-germs. Whole crowds of doggy gatherings disperse when we approach with our little pariah. . .
But she's such a good dog! Except when she refuses to walk when we've gotten about 6 blocks out, planting her feet in front of her, deciding it would be more fun to watch the cars go by for awhile. And the only thing that we'll convince her otherwise is to pull out an old sock from my pocket, with a squeaker ball in it, and let her carry it home in her mouth. . . .
And she's just learned this cool trick where we have her "touch" a lid with her nose, and then we give her a treat. It should come in handy if we ever want her to learn to answer our smart phones, or start the ignition on our car. . . .
Today she was a really good dog when we took her to the local farmers' market, and good to LOOK at people, but not touch them. And she SO wanted to take home so children, but we wouldn't let her. She just had to settle for playing tricks with us, in the middle of market, so that we could learn the occasional stray child to us who was brave enough to play "Sit" and "Down" and "Leave it" and "Take it" with her.
She even nicely spit out the cigarette butt she snatched (A man walking by sai!d "Now THAT's a smokin' dog!"
And she even resisted jumping into a fountain, which she desperately wanted to do (mainly because she couldn't fit through the bars all around it. Thanks,City Planners!)
If you look closely at this photo you'll see that it's also a self-portrait of sorts.
5 comments:
What a cute pup! Isn't dog training fun? :-)
It sounds like you have come a long way with training - but it is so hard to swim against the tide of nature with a dog the strength of a pack mule and the spirit of a lover. So hard. (don't even start me on the number of times our former dog took to the pond with me in tow) They want so bad to please, but that inner voice says, "go ahead and kiss 'em". Ruby is beautiful and I'm glad you are doing so well with her training. And good job on the self-portrait of sorts.
Well, she was a good dog at least while you were taking her picture . . . :-) So cute!
She is making progress, but she is still a puppy--a big puppy, but squirrely and easily distracted nonetheless. You've made a good start, though, and kudos for keeping with it! We have a lab in our neighborhood who never walks anywhere without some type of toy, ball, stick, etc in his mouth. And I spied you in the window, snapping away.
Oh the joys of having a puppy! But, who can resist such a cute face!
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