It's so great when I've been trying to teach Pooka a trick for a few days and then suddenly, she's doing it without me asking (usually cuz I'm asking her to Roll Over and she hates that), and actually responding to the words without the hand motion.

Most recently its been "Do-Si-Do" which means spin around. My first experience with training dogs was on the Nintendo DS, playing Nintendogs, with my TriColor corgi pup named Pumkin, my shiba inu named Gypsy, and my Shelty named Revellie. They were champions! I used Do-Si-Do for the game, and my husband heard me saying it out loud SOOO much, even he picked up on it. In the game, I used "Paw" instead of "Shake", but in real life, eventually realized its silly, because most people will ask her to "Shake" with them. This game taught me you have to use the same consistency and rhythm to your words.

So its taken her quite a while to learn Do-Si-Do, a trick I thought she would pick up quickly; I had just put it off. We spin her a lot while we play tug-of-war and also, sometimes when I did the finger twirl which indicates "Roll Over" she would freaking spin around, weeks before I even tried to teach this to her! So strange that she could figure out how those two were related.

So today, she's getting it. Do-Si-Do is on its way, and is used often by Pooka. We are in the middle of "Pew Pew!" (play dead), and she's actually had a pretty big break through on that. If she's already laying down, with a little coaxing, she'll lay her head down on her own, and stand still while being hand fed treats and praise.

I'm very pleased with Pooka's training overall and I can't believe I've had dogs my WHOLE life and never realized I could do this with them and that I would love it so much. Since beginning this, it has inspired my family and they have taught our 5 year old mini dachshund (Capri) how to Sit, Lie Down, and Shake, when she had never had any training before.

On the list:
Off (no jumping up!),
Go To Bed,
Go to Kelly,
Go to Zachary
(these last three will require zachary's cooperation, and he's not as obsessive as me, though he appreciates what I do. At the dog park, Pooka always responded to her name and came when we called, and Zachary complimented her, saying it was all due to me =))

OH! and I was VERY surprised, but I just started teaching her Heel yesterday, and after 3 sessions, she's picked it up rather well. Probably cuz I used cheeeeeese.