Old dogs new trick

Over the years Lady and Trixie have taught me a few . . . Ummm, well, let's call them behaviors Trixie won't eat unless she is in one of our laps. Lady likes her chest rubbed. So she sits across your lap facing your right hand. Then she paws your hand up onto her chest. If you have the nerve to stop scratching her chest Lady will paw your hand back into place until SHE says your done.

Then there are the truly helpful things they have figured out. Lady figured out that my left hand is the one I drive my chair with, therefore unavailable for dog spoiling. So now she approaches me on my right side for everything from a ear rubs to good girl cookies.

Lady even taught Trixie to approach on the right side as I hook up their leashes. Alas, Lady always the jealous bug, demands to be between me and Trixie when ever she can. So hooking Trixie up is still very difficult.

For the last several weeks I have been trying to teach Lady to move up out of the way after I attach her leash, because she must always be first of course. This will allow Trixie to easily be leashed.


For weeks I moved her to the desired position, only to have her ignore my command of "STAY!".

Then . . . It happened! After her leash clicked Lady actually moved up in front of my chair. She looked up at me, her eyes saying 'is this what you want?'

Yes! She did it! All by herself! She did it! I'm so happy!