A Clip to Make Our Humans Smile

Is your human in a grumpy mood today?  Or are you "in the doghouse" for something you did recently?
Show your human this clip...between the catchy song extolling our virtures, to the gorgeous whimsical artwork which accompanies it, your human will be smiling in no time, all will be forgiven, and you will find yourself showered with kisses and treats!

And if you're a dead ringer for any of the doggies in the paintings, many of them are for sale as posters, cards, etc. by the artist Nancy Schutt:  http://www.nancyschutt.com/.  She even does custom work.  I'm waiting for a Toller to show up in one of her paintings.

Enjoy!

Training Your Human: Mastering the Furniture

It's raining cats and you-know-whats today...my human is kinda glad, 'cuz there were 5 things on the family's calendar but one got cancelled and three got rained out.  It's been a ruff week around here, that's why I've been MIA.  Little Boy was sick Mon. and Tue., Boy Twin was sick Wed. and Fri. and Girl Twin was sick Thur. and Fri.  My human dad had to go out of town and my human had a gazillion things to do, so by yesterday she was run down, got a sinus attack and still had to be a timer for a swim meet.  Whew!  No wonder I got no attention whatsoever this week.

So today, they are all taking it rather easy, snuggling under blankets, drinking tea, baking, reading, catching up on DVR'd shows, knitting, and one of my favorite activities:  napping!

Which brings me to today's installment of Training Your Human.  Remember how my human used to banish me from the kitchen table bench?  And the couch in the TV room was a big no-no?  Well...ahem...I am proud to announce that I have successfully trained her to let sleeping dogs lie where they want!  How did I manage this feat, you ask?  I noticed that when she gets all busy & frazzled with the kiddies, she's less likely to push me off the bench or couch, especially if I lie there very quietly without moving.  Maybe she doesn't see me.  I also got Girl Twin to work on her, too:  "But Mom, she's so cozy lying here with me!"  I guess my human realized it's no biggy to let me catch 40 winks where I want, since I don't destroy the furniture and haven't shed much (yet!  Will she be in for a big surprise in the Spring, hee-hee!).

So this is what I'll be doing today as the rain pitter-patters against the windows:

It seems that most of my blogging buddies have already trained their humans to allow them up on the furniture; kudos!  If you haven't, take my advice and sneak up there in increments, preferably when there's a lot of commotion going on.  Before they know it, your humans will forget that they ever banished you in the first place, and you're home free!

Training Your Human: Playing Fetch

By now, my faithful followers know two things about me: I am a retrieving fool and I love-love-love my tennis balls. If it were up to me, I'd play fetch for hours at a time. For some reason, my Family is not as enthusiastic about fetch. They'll throw the ball maybe ten times and think that's the end of it. So I've had to resort to training them to get them to continue playing...humans can be so lazy! In case your human needs some guidance too, here are my tried-and-true tips:

1. When they're vegging on the sofa in front of the idiot-tube, plop down nearby, head-on-paws, and give a couple nice, loud sighs to get their attention:

2. If they ignore you, mosey on over, place your head on the sofa and give them your most pitiful, oh-woe-is-me expression. Extra points for adding a good whine or two.

3. If they still ignore you (amazing how slow humans can be, huh?), make a big show out of finding your ball. The more ruckus you make in the process, the better.

4. They still haven't gotten the hint? Time to bring out the big guns: deposit said ball repeatedly on one of their body parts. Extremely effective if ball is covered in saliva.

That should do it! It works on my Family every time.

Oh, and don't forget, if they throw the ball where you can't reach it (my human has the worst aim ever), employ the pitiful look-whine combo to ensure they'll go get it. Remember how well this worked when my ball rolled under the stove?

Good luck training your human! Remember, they have very short attention spans (poor things), so keep your training sessions short but frequent. They'll get it eventually.