being boastfully proud but I'm starting to catch on the fact that he says a lot of stuff just to tease me into thinking before I speak. What angel-in-training dog wouldn't be proud of his little earth-bound brother who did TWO figure eight heeling exercises in front of the WHOLE class and out shined all the other puppies when it was their turns on the runaway? The trainer/instructor even said to Mom, "Fine job, excellent!" And she didn't say that to anyone else. She just gave the other humans pointers for improvement as they did their walks.For this week's homework---there are two pages worth---Mom has to practice having Levi do 'sits' and 'downs' many times in different places, working on him being patience and having good manners. And every 3rd or 4th time Levi does it he's to get rewarded with a "Life Reward" instead of a treat. That part will be easy for Mom. She already praises and pets him to an embarrassing level. Heeling while keeping your dog's attention is another goal on the homework list, forgetting about distance for now. That's a bummer for Mom. She wants to go around the block already. But training lessons aren't suppose to be more than ten minutes long so Mom is going along with the program and not doing the neighborhood tour just yet.
Mom is scary, spooky sometimes. You know what else has she's been doing? Trying to teach Levi to pee and poop on command. A couple of weeks ago the obedience instructor said that when you are teaching something new you wait for your dog to do the action and then you name it. Every since then Mom's been saying, "pee" and "poop" every time Levi does one or the other. The neighbors probably think she is crazy. I sure do. First humans want to tell canines where to pee and poop and now they want to tell them when to do it? What's the world coming to? That's the scary part. The spooky part is that Mom thinks Levi understands the pee-on-command thing as of two days ago when she pushed him gently off the steps and tried giving the 'pee' command for the first time. He squatted and did it, but it could have just been a coincidence.
Me, I had the Prince Charlie advice on peeing and pooping down pat. One time when he was being interviewed someone asked him what was the most important thing he'd learned about being in the royal family and he answered, "Never pass up an opportunity to use a restroom." The Prince Charlie theory on pit stops came up often when Mom and Dad used to travel. It's one of those things that tickled their funny bones and became a family joke with immense benefits to them and to me, a dog who got to mark trees all across America. ©
Top Photo: Johnny Weissmuller, 1930s Tarzan for MGM
Bottom Photo: The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles
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11 comments:
I didn't know Prince Charles was so smart! And I can see your little brother is, too, Levi! He's going to be right at the head of his class.
I'll be interested to see if he gets the pee and poop on command thing down.
I gave you an award, Cooper; come see my blog!
I've been peeing and pooing on command for years! Mitch pees on command but he still decides where and when he wants to poo! Mom is working on it! You'll get it Levi! Don't give up!
Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch
Hi, Cooper...
Levi iw doing great in his class...He will graduate with honors, I am sure...
My Mom is about to enroll me in school, too...She thinks I need a little Anti-Spoiling...
Abby xxxooo
OMD, Mumma's say bedtime wee wee's, bedtime poo poo's, Dad's in a morning hurry commanding 'do a poo'....I mean, how can you do it when they've just got everydogs attention in the neighbourhood and they are just waiting to see what an exhibisionist you are?
Love and Angels wings to you Cooper.
George (potty when ready)
Levi is one smart boy! I normally decides when I want to pee and poo though.
Mummy has the same problem with our neighbours. Its dark outside and all you can hear is , potty, go potty, but then she is nuts.
Simba x
Levi's mom here.
I only decided to try the peeing and pooping on command as a lark because I read that it was possible to teach. I didn't know how to approach that until I got to this class. Then I thought about how nice it would be when we're ready to go away in the afternoon and we're still waiting for Levi to get his jobs done before we can go. He finds too many bugs, flies and pieces of plant life to play with outside to do it in a hurry. LOL
we're proud of Levi. he's a great student and we knew he would be. it sounds like your mom is a good teacher too.
we hope that even though Levi is being trained to pee and poop on command, he still remembers to pee on every bush, twig, tree, post, blade of grass, sidewalk crack and anything else that strikes him. that's one of our favorite things to do!
woofs!
Cooper, I love it when you give us little snippets from your former life Down Here. I can see how that advice from Prince Charles would be a good thing to memorise - I was a primary (elementary) school teacher for thirty-five years and that was a MOST important rule for us teachers. Also when travelling on a coach tour. We women sure take longer that men to make a pit-stop on a tour.
Cooper, I forgot to ask... Do you think you or your mum could explain what a figure eight looks like? I'm interested. Penny and I do lots of training but I must confess we're not super good at actual obedience.
Penny's mom.... Picture a large number eight painted on floor. And picture an object or person placed in the center of each loop. When the dog/human team starts they start by having the dog sit in the middle where the loops meet and then they walk/heel the lines of the number, sitting the dog again each time they get to the center. That gives you practice with inside and outside turns, I guess and where we go for obedience, it gives practice walking by the distractions of the other dogs who are lined around the outside of the figure eight.
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