Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Smart little pup

I swear this puppy is scary smart. 

Davy learned the trick to "the med line" very early on.  My older Papillon, Maggie, has to have medication twice/day.  I give it to her off the end of a butter knife with peanut butter on it.  The other dogs all line up and wait their turn for peanut butter off the knife.  Davy watched this for a few days then just calmly came up, sat down and patiently waited for his turn.  No pushing in, no romping on anyone.  He just calmly waited his turn.  Too smart!

The other lesson Davy learned was not to bark at the cats.  Not because it ticks the cats off so much as it ticks the mom off!  A quirk of mine. I cannot stand barky dogs.  I teach my dogs early on that it is okay to bark, but when mom says enough, I have the situation under control, they are to stop.  One day last week Max the fat cat was laying on a rug in the kitchen.  Enter Davy.  Bark, bark, bark.  I get up, get a chew bone and distract Davy to quieter play.  That lasted maybe a minute and then back to bark, bark, bark.  I got up, did not say a word, went and got Davy, put him is his crate and held the crate door shut with my foot for about 15 seconds.  I let Davy out and went back to my computer.  I barely sat down and bark, bark, bark.  Got up, not a word, put Davy in crate.  Held crate door for about 15 seconds.  Let Davy out.  Went back to computer.  I barely sat down and bark, bark, bark.  I got up...that's all I had to do...Davy ran over to his crate, went in and sat down.  It was WAY hard not to laugh.  The barking at the cat has ceased for the most part.  Davy barks occasionally at the cat, but now a simple no is enough to make him stop.  Smart puppy!

I have been trying to get a picture of my little thinker sitting and thinking, but Davy moves when I try to get in position to get a good shot.  Davy will sit in the middle of the floor or on the top step of the deck and just look straight ahead.  His ears are up, his body is quiet...like he is just sitting there lost in thought.  Maybe that is how he is learning all these things.  I do know that he is one smart little guy and I adore him!

Terri

3 comments:

  1. Smart puppy! and the pix from your last post are cute. Totally different from the b's; first thing I unpacked was the big box o' dog beds! And they love to sleep on a nice fluffy bed in the sun.

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  2. We fostered last year too a very smart pup, he's a 6 month old yorkie, very intelligent and naughty too and little bit chewer. Good thing crate training helps on his behavior training a lot.

    dog beds

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