14 Comments on “Here!”

  2. Interesting. While Franklin can be a bit of a challenge at times when it comes to matters of obedience, the one thing that he is excellent at is recall, although the key word for us is “come” rather than “here”, with “to me” as a back-up. Debbie also has a very distinctive whistle that she uses (all three of our dogs have responded well to that) which unfortunately I am completely unable to replicate. Of course, his one other strength is retrieve — but no command involved; I just throw the ball and he brings its back. Repeatedly. And repeatedly. And repeatedly. But then again, that is who he is. Interestingly, neither Wookie nor Teddy were all that great at retrieve — both seemed to have an attitude of you threw it, you get it.

    1. LOL. I so relate.

      All of my dogs have had pretty good recall and retrieve except the current girls. Caesar was good but Ramses was a retrieving fool. The north side of my house has a long path from the alley to the front of the house and I would stand there and throw tennis balls and Ramses would run to get them and bring them and right before get got to me I would throw a second and he would drop the current ball at my feet and turn to run to get the next. He also invented his own game of toss the empty nursery pot for when I was at work. He would stick his nose in it and flip it and then chase after it. Diana and Freyja will come, especially if there is food involved but compliance is liquid, depending on environment. Neither can fetch worth spit. Both have been known to chase after a thrown object. Diana will sometimes even pick up a tennis ball but will not return and hand it over. It is her favorite thing to carry around so basically it is “You don’t want it anymore? Fine. Mine now.” I will occasionally catch Freyja playing with one of Diana’s balls briefly but she plays like a cat; pouncing on it and batting it around, picking it up in her mouth, dropping or tossing it. Doesn’t last more than a few minutes but it is a joy to watch her since when I got her she had no clue what a toy was or how to play.

      I also can’t whistle so I have a dog whistle. I was teaching Diana recall with the whistle and I probably should start that up again and add Freyja to it. They are much more compliant when treats are involved and Freyja is wicked smart so I expect she might outdo Diana. She is also much clingier. Even at home in the yard she is my shadow where Diana is out roaming the perimeter, on guard for any stray serial chainsaw murderers who might consider jumping the fence.

  3. Greetings!

    WTAFP: I am laughing at your description of Wookie’s and Teddy’s retrieving skills. :^)

    The best side-eye from a previous CFOM!

    Make today awesome!

  4. Commands! We had standard commands for our day job: ready, let’s go!, gee, haw, on-by, easy, whoa and damnit, I said whoa!

    We are teaching our Protege and her Accomplice commands like: run!, act innocent, distract, deflect and deny.

  5. I love when dogs give you the stink eye. You can almost see the wheels turning in their heads and imagine the comments they would make if they could.

    It is International Guide Dog Day and National Pet Care for All day.

    Also National Pigs in a Blanket day, which I am sure all dogs would love to celebrate.

  7. We use to joke with Wookie that while goldens are often classified as working dogs (although technically I think they are also classified as sporting dogs), that Wookie was definitely a management dog. He would supervise his underlings to do things like fetch.

    1. You mean he delegated the fetching? Now, would they bring such objects to him so he could make the final presentation or did they skip the middleman and bring them directly to you?

      Ramses would bring the ball to me and hold it. I would hold it and tell him “gimme” and he would let go. Most of the time. I think he eventually processed that if he didn’t let go I couldn’t throw it for him to chase again. He’s the only dog that made that connection.

  10. The affection each of you have for your fur children is so apparent! I am fascinated by the amazing talents the different breeds of dogs have. And such varied personalities! Little Jilly, a Rough-coated Russell Terrier, hunts vermin…. Squirrels the most apparent of them. When she sees one, she stops dead, then, one paw at a time, stealthily approaches them, silently crouching, until they notice her and run. Then the chase is on! I hope she never learns how to climb trees! When she is in this mode, she totally disregards my commands. More of the article’s training hints should be employed!
    Big Tiny, I imagine you wouldn’t recognize a command if you heard one! Unless you are the one issuing it!

  11. How did she know? Did Diana sneak in the house and read this blog?

    I got home from watercolor class and of course the dogs greeted me at the gate. But today, Diana had her Jolly Ball in her mouth. It is an equine Jolly Ball, a large purple ball with a handle on it that can be squished but springs right back. 10 inches across so difficult to get your mouth on, hence the handle. She hasn’t played with that thing in a few years but today she greeted me with it hanging from her mouth and proceeded to carry it around like her purse. Not exactly fetching but more of the carrying persuasion. She likes to carry stuff around. It has been tennis balls in her mouth but today it’s her “purse”.

    Don’t even go there, Thieves. It doesn’t open and there is nothing in it.

  12. ML: Purse, did you say? We can’t hear the “don’t” over the “go there.”

    WTAFP: On a completely unrelated note to our comment to ML, can’t we take creative license with the Philadelphia command? For example, let’s say a purse was involved in misdeeds we are accused of in the future, could we employ the “We were at an Eagles game at the time” command?

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