For a very long time I've been hoping to teach Hermione to "bow". The problem was that I couldn't figure out how to coax it out of her and she didn't do it enough on her own to catch her at it. It finally dawned on me that I can get her revved up enough to assume the play position which is very much like a bow. So, long story short, I got her really excited and then treated her every time she assumed the correct position. Now, I can't get her to stop bowing at me because she knows it means treats are coming. I've created a groveling monster! Here's a short video.
Last summer I bought Hermione a spring-action/blow-up kids pool. Well, she just stared at me like I was crazy. She wanted to know where the new pet elephant we were obviously planning on adopting would sleep. She used the pool only as a water bowl and when she was put in, she immediately jumped out.
Well, the pool has reappeared, and this year she's decided it's a lot of fun playing in an elephants water bowl. Initially she was not anxious to enter, but I pointed at it and told her "in". She walked around it a couple of times and dipped a paw in to test the water before choosing and entrance point and slowly stepping in. Once in, she started drinking. Big surprise. So I threw in a tennis ball. It took her a while to get the tennis ball out since her usual strategy when there is something in her water bowl is to drink all the water. :-) Once she got the ball she ran out of the pool. Then she went crazy and had a good time leaping in and out of the pool with her ball and splashing a great deal of water everywhere. She even, happily enough, learned that she could blow bubbles while hunting waterlogged tennis balls! I'm so excited for her. I was beginning to worry that my water dog was afraid of the water. I can't wait to get her to a river or something. It would be fun seeing her in water she actually has to swim in.
Hermione's had a couple of adventures lately. For Easter she got to go to a mall and meet someone in a bunny suit. She took it very well. A lot of the service dogs in training we went with were terrified. She would slowly lean away when ever it tried to pet her, but otherwise she held her stay command very well. Here's a picture.
We also took a puppy class trip to a fire-house just so they could experience the fire men and equipment. Hermione found the truck with just it's engine on terrifying. I don't blame her, I'd try and run from all the loud noise too. She seemed to be one of the few dogs though that didn't mind the fireman in the suit. In fact, except for the truck, she seemed rather bored. There were a couple of times however when one particular young male lab turned and licked her on the mouth. Both times that happened she would turn to me and basically trot in place excitedly with her eyes all big and round as though to say "Hey! I just got kissed by a boy!". It was really quite cute.
Anyway, I'll write again once we've had some more summer adventures.
Bye!
