Finn is very people oriented

[conuly]

And also highly motivated by food.

His two desires are to make his people happy, and also to get us to give him food.

Consequently, it was really easy to teach him to sit. Indeed, if he thinks treats might be forthcoming he will automatically sit, and sit so intently that he positively vibrates. You could run a generator off of his sitting. It is fantastic and adorable (If all that's on offer is snuggles he will sit, then sneakily edge closer when he thinks you're not looking. He understands "stay", but he doesn't believe in it.)

Moonpie is still a bit shaky on the sit concept. She believes that half of life is showing up, and so when she hears the word - she shows up! There are treats all around for good doggies, right? Right? Right? It can take a few tries before she thinks to put her butt on the floor. We've only been working on this for months, after all. Maybe this time we don't really mean it. I think the issue is repetition - she picks up new things fast, but she forgets if we don't reinforce them constantly. I can be a little haphazard about, well, everything. (By which I do mean everything. I only remember to feed them because I put their bowl where I literally will trip over it.) This is the problem. I need to find a way to schedule training in, and keep to it.

And since we're talking about cute dogs, you might want to take a gander at this image posted by baranduin.

**************

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Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

There was a court case in Britain over a boy being banned from his school for having natural hair less than a decade ago.

[conuly]

One assumes, though, that potential cultural minefields in Britain are slightly different and the law is too.

Edit: Misread, thought you said long instead of natural. Nah, fuck that, racism is gonna be racist.

[fairestcat]

Bogart's pretty great at sit, can do the transition from sit to down easily, and is pretty good at wait/stay. But it all falls apart the minute someone comes up the stairs into the house.

We've gotten to the point where we can usually get him to sit, but we can't get him to stay sitting. He's very, "I sat! I sat! Now, can I jump all over the exciting new person?!?"

Also, the understandable immediate reaction from most people to being jumped on by a dog is to say "down!", but he's no good at "down" without getting "sit" first.

Dogs, they are an eternal work in progress.

[conuly]

Funnily, though, the dogs instinctively understand "GO! *point* GO!" without having been explicitly taught. Very useful.

(And I'd rather have Finn not-so-subtly trying to make a new friend than Moonpie very-not-subtly trying to bite the intruder's ankles.)

[silailo]

When I took the forensic anthropology class at my school, I remember my instructor saying our classroom skeleton--and all the other bones in the room--came from India. The end of the video raises an interesting question, but what they didn't address was how the deceased individual wound up in the bone trade. I thought I heard that sometimes the corpses went unclaimed/unidentified and were then given over to the bone trade. Really sad. Our classroom skeleton was possibly a juvenile.

[conuly]

That is sad to think about :(

[greghousesgf]

I think the bitching about guys having long hair supposedly looking like girls was ridiculous. especially since by the late sixties, a lot of those guys had beards!

[conuly]

SER I OUS LY

[wpadmirer]

He understands "stay", but he doesn't believe in it.

This cracks me up.

And that photo is wonderful!

[conuly]

Even if we can convince him to "stay", he wants to push the limits. "Okay, I'm staying, I'm staying... but maaaaaybe I can scoot half an inch closer? Great, still staying - ooooh, her back is turned jog jog SIT! Look how good I stay!"

It's like playing Red Light, Green Light, a game he thoroughly doesn't understand because he's colorblind.

[pauamma]

Over the next 15 years, the Eiffel Tower will undergo a $369-million (€300-million) renovation, including installation of a bullet-proof glass wall around the monument.

*faceclaw* (emphasis mine)

[conuly]

Well, everything has to be bulletproof nowadays or they don't want to pony up the cash.