Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The dishwasher lesson...


Mia would love to come lick all the dishes we put in the dishwasher.  We can understand how tempting this is, and our old dog drove us nuts trying to get at those dishes.  We decided to train Mia to wait for the dishwasher to be closed, and then she gets a treat.  We have her SIT and then add the command to WAIT.  It is working pretty well, and she loves the reward at the end of loading all the dishes.
Mia also paid a visit to the Satin Dolls tap dance practice, where Bonnie dances.  All the dancers think Mia is doing a fine job.  Mia demonstrated a few of the things she does, like close the door to the costume closet and pull off a glove.  Someday she will be able to help her owner get undressed.  We also have her give us the glove back, or pick it up if she drops it.  

There was frost on the ground this week and she didn't seem to mind it at all.  We are thinking about all those trips outside with her this winter.  Brrrr.


Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mia loves her bowl and she loves George...


Little Mia is learning she can tell us she is hungry by flinging her bowl around.  Here is a picture of George trying to ignore her while reading the paper.  It is pretty hard to ignore.  She also likes to hide her bowls, and at first they were hard to find.  Now we know her favorite spots.

The lovely fall weather is perfect for walks and field trips.  Both George and Bonnie took Mia out in the community this week.  Mia went to two pet stores and practiced outside the stores in the Glen Lake area strip mall, and also practiced walking on the green light and waiting on the red at a busy intersection.

On Thursday Mia went to the vet for surgery so that she will not have puppies.  She came home on Friday and took a nap.  She seemed back to her usual self by Saturday except for a tiny incision on her belly closed with 5 staples.  We wish we could bounce back as quickly as she has.


  

Friday, October 3, 2008

Mia's teacher Sue comes to visit...

Mia's teacher came to visit and check on how she is doing with the Dow family.  It seems like things are going ok and we got a lot of tips on training her.  It is important to wait for Mia to do the right thing before she gets her treat.  It is also important we only say the command once and wait for her to do what we ask.

Mia had a hard time with all the good smells that Sue brought with her.  By the time we were done Mia was a very good puppy!