that is one smart doggie!! Not sure SD could figure out half those things
^I've created and carry the burden and fun of training this dog every.single.day. And she expects it. I don't know how you guys manage but for example if I do something at ten thirty in the morning - thereafter K expects the same thing to happen at the same time every morning. She's got a formidable memory. So I feel like I have to be really careful that I don't do or let her do anything I don't want repeated because she will remember for sure.
Yesterday I was digging holes to plant more trees in my back yard. She thinks any gardening activities are for her sole benefit. Let me explain...so whilst I'm trying to dig this little hole she sniffed it, play growled at it, licked my ears and face because I was certainly well within range and I think she wanted to console me (which makes me wonder what digging holes means in her language?). She sat down and watched for a while but thought better of that a minute later and began furiously digging at the hole spraying soil into the air behind her and wagging her tail wildly. For all of that frenzied happy work she dug down about two inches but made the hole a foot wider.
Spent with her contribution for digging she needed to relax doing zoomies around me in a circle getting alarmingly close. Tiring of this she then crawled towards me inches at a time in stalking mode which she's convinced make her invisible and tried to take my hand tools off and away with her for a damn good chewing..... and looked highly offended when told to bring them right back to me this instant! Skulked off to show her attitude but re-appeared moments later with a snail and presented that to me with obvious pride by dropping it in the hole. I flicked it out of the hole with my shovel and somehow that triggered her eating it, crunching it all loudly and with gusto... ugh...
Finally in desperation when I told her she wasn't helpful she sat in the hole and tilted her head back at me looking pleased that she had shut down all prospects of putting a tree in it!
That was just one hole....
Lately I've been training K to 'play dead' but I've not named it yet. I say '
lay down' and lays flat out of the floor, legs straight with her head extended and touching the floor too. She's got it all down beautifully except she thumps her tail up and down on the floor - it won't stop. Ha!
K's tail is her emotional thermometer. Wagging means fun, happiness and excitement. Twirling which is just very fast wagging means hysteria and out of control; no wagging is serious; dropped tail means huh?; between rear legs means uncertain, I'm sorry; sad or I know I've been naughty. Chasing tail (still) means I'm a puppy at heart and damn I'm going to catch that thing one day! Held high and still means red alert I sniff something and must stop to concentrate.
