However, before I explain, I should begin by apologizing for the delay in posts. There's really no excuse for this in the blog world and I realize I may have lost the three readers I
Primo's latest achievement is to learn paw and other. For the sake of extreme clarity, this means that, when I say paw, he places his right paw in my hand. On the same note, when I say other, he puts his left paw in my hand. I know - impressive stuff. I should qualify this by saying that we're still in the learning phase, so occassionally he lays down when I say paw (because I had to have him lay down to teach paw in the first place) and sometimes all paws are up for grabs if I have an especially delicious treat. (Like these.)
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| Primo playing it cool while he shows off his skills. |
The upside to these tricks is that he looks super smart (or at least of average intelligence). I've been battling some, ahem, family assumptions that Primo isn't too bright and it's now my mission to prove everyone wrong. These tricks are the first step. The downside is that this might be yet another reason why he won't qualify as a therapy dog. (Look for a future post on the disasterous Canine Good Citizen fiasco of 2012.) I guess pawing is discouraged for therapy dogs because they run the risk of injuring people if they get overly enthusiastic. So, until we have this whole paw and other business under control, Preems may have to wait on his new career in therapy.
I should add that I'm suuuuuper annoyed with myself because I didn't think to teach Primo right and left as the commands for what is now paw and other from the beginning. That really would have been the icing on the Primo-is-smart cake. I'll have to come up with a few other gems (I'm thinking something like barking twice when I say one plus one) to reinforce his new status as an intellectual.
