May 06, 2003
Another trick we're learning: 'Pray'
So far, all I've shaped is putting her paws on the stool.
8:30 p.m.
Normal, quiet, boring day. Dusty and I went out to the dogpark at 8:30 a.m. for the Small Dog Posse. She's playing very normally now with the other small dogs. At first, I was a bit hesitant to allow her to play 'rough,' but she's obviously up to full form. Her course of painkillers ended yesterday and her has only a few days of antibiotics left.
I neglected to write a post about Dusty's hilarious antics as a drug user. I'm not sure if the stuff she was on is narcotic, but I always noticed some marked behavioural changes immediately after I administered the pain meds. Mostly, she was just very loopy.
But some of the other behaviours were just fascinating. One morning, she started very methodically moving *every single toy* out of the toy box. When she finished, she started very methodically moving the toys to the kitchen. Unfortunately, I live in a small city apartment. I wonder if she would have moved the toys to yet another room, given the opportunity?!
She also seemed even more inclined than normal to eat absolutely *everything* on the sidewalk (if that's even possible!).
We took three walks today and two of them were pretty good. On the third one, we had a disagreement about whether 'good dogs' eat garbage out of the gutter. I must have amused the passersby as I lectured my dog: "Dusty, cigarette butts are NOT food!" *sigh*
But, back to the *good* walks: Dusty is more and more walking on a loose leash. She occasionally pulls ahead, but not often - I'd say the leash is loose maybe 85% of the time.
Also, it appears that I've inadvertantly reinforced a very cute behaviour. As we were walking down the sidewalk, I told Dusty that she was being good and offered her a treat. A woman who was passing stopped with an astonished expression: "Well, THAT's a great trick!!"
I must have looked puzzled because she explained, "The way she's prancing - she looks like a horse in dressage!" I'd never noticed it before, but she was right. I thought I was reinforcing Dusty for looking up at me (attention), but in fact, she was 'prancing' at the same time as the attention behaviour, so I reinforced it.
I've started encouraging the prancing now and given it a cue: "Prance!" Maybe I can put my puppy in dressage! *grin*