Decibel the teenager

This morning Decibel showed me just how very smart she really is under all that hair.  We were walking up to the horse barn, and Decibel wanted to play.  I decided this would be a good time to introduce a new command - go ahead, for which I use the German 'voraus'.  I found it easier to teach Harold some German for dog commands than to learn the English ones.  So far so good, only whenever I said that and pointed ahead, Decibel jumped at my arm and lightly mouthed it, which is not ok.

I was just about to scold her for being bad, when the light came on.
Decibel was not being bad at all.  She was being very very smart.

"Aus" is the command for let go, release, drop it.  Whatever is in your mouth, let go of it.  I use it for a tug toy, or when I want the dead thing they are carrying, or when we play with the bite glove.  We practice take-it and "aus" a lot, and Decibel is very, very good at this, because NO BITE (no teeth on skin) is a commandment in my house, and Decibel does not violate that one.  She still thinks that gloves excuse the occasional mouthing, but will cease immediately when I tell her no bite or "aus".

So when I told her "voraus", Decibel saw my arm and thought, let go, but she wasn't mouthing it.  So she jumped up, mouthed it lightly so she could let it go.  How smart is that?

Charge!

I changed the command to 'charge', and tossed a toy, and no more mouthing or trying to get my glove.  Decibel now moves ahead.  Now I just have to train my old brain to use the new command.  I can see it now, we'll be at the farm store, and I say 'charge' to pay and Decibel will try to drag me out the door...



Here we finally had two days of above freezing bright sunshiney weather, so things look great and feel like spring, except for the mud in the kitchen, well, actually, that is a harbinger or spring as well.  I am glad this is a normal year.  Winters used to be like that, with the occasional islands of warmth, so you wouldn't go crazy with all the gloom and doom and cold, but the last three winters were hard, and unrelenting.  This is much better.

Of course Decibel is like the weather too, she changes.  Yesterday was time for classes again, and before we had to stop at the Petco store.  Maggie was along too, and it was Maggie's first time at Petco, for all that, we never did spend much time citifying that girl, she came half grown from a city, knew the leash and such, so it never occurred to us, I guess.  Anyhow, Maggie is very good at dog class, and will obey, so it wasn't a big deal to take her to Petco.  She even sniffed a poodle thing without any aggression, and that was good.  Then she saw the mice and rats under glass, and got very excited, but she didn't eat anyone.

Decibel got noticed too, and except for not walking at heel all that well, she was very good.  She didn't jump and knock people over so I was pleased.

Then we went to class.

Decibel knew nothing.

She wanted to bowl Amelia over, she didn't want to heel, and certainly down was a mystery to her.  We had heeled through the kitchen, automatic sit, down, stand, all perfect, all without a leash, just that day, but in class, NOOO.

What is this down, woman?  What are you talking about?  Oh, hey, there is Daddy!  Hi Daddy, I'm coming to play with you. Hack, ack, that woman is pulling me.  Down?  I don't do Down.  I don't like... cookie?  I like cookie.  She finally downs.  Heel?  What is this heel?  Daddy!  Let's get Daddy!  Long sit?  BOOORRRIIING.  Daddy!

(We trade dogs, and she does the same for Harold, so at least she is an equal opportunity insulter).

Here are some class pictures from that session:

A good start... was deceptive.

Down?  What is this down you speak of?

NICE!  Automatic sit after we did a figure 8 heel around Maggie, the lone dog, and Amelia, the dogless woman.

Long sits?  Booorrrinng.  (Maggie is great!)

A discussion about sit and down.

blah blah blah.

Well, you get the idea.

She did settle in, and she did have to do every single down before we would continue, but she was a hand full.  We get home, and she must have left all her obedience there, because she did every thing flawlessly, even plop down from a stand without the least bit of hesitation.  Thanks, Decibel.


Then I find her in the living room, noodling a rug.  Not quite eating the fringe, but well, she certainly was doing more than think about it.  DECIBEL!  She looks at me with that fake innocence, what mom?  I told her no, about the rug, and she will actually look at it like, how did that get there?  I would never eat the fringe off the rug.  I'm Decibel the good!  Verily!


So I scolded her, took her over to a toy, told her take it, which she did, praised, for that, and showed her the rug again, and she acted like she wouldn't ever touch the thing, but of course that's just a show, she did that last time too.  Worse, all the time I am trying not to crack up, because while she is showing her age, she is never mean or sneaky about it.


Anyhow, we walked a lot, nothing really got chewed, not even her butt, I think the girl will be quite spoiled, but she is so sweet when she is not the teenager that I am not worried.  This same dog comes when I call her, and drops her horse poop treasure at the door, and actually does the leave it, and not steal the eggs out of the basket or eat the cat, just on my say so.  How could I be mad at that?