First Dummy!

Penny got to retriever her first dummy yesterday. Her proud grandfather bought her a soft puppy dummy and on Sunday we took her out to see what she could do. She did so good! Our goal was to just get her used to seeing it and retrieving it from a short distance so dad had me take her off the lease and he stood about 10 yards in front of her with the dummy. I picked her front end up so she could watch the dummy and he tossed it out in front of him. She was off like a rocket after it! The retrieve part was easy, now come was a whole different story. She taught the dummy was hers to play with. Dad taught me an awesome trick, each time she retrieved it and would want to chew on it, I ran back a few steps saying her name. It worked like a charm, she hates to be left behind so she would run to me with the dummy! We only did a few reps, each time stepping back further, so that she wouldn't get bored. Now I can gradually increase the distance and continue to work on the come portion of the drill.

Penny has also learned a few other tricks this week, a few intentional and a few not so intentional! Lets just say this pup will do anything for a Natural Balance Training Treat! I highly recommend them, they are soft so you can break off small pieces so over the course of a training session you only use several and your dog doesn't eat to many treats.

She has learned lay down as well as formally learning the word kennel. We are also working on stay while she is laying down instead of sitting up. I read the basics on obedience on the AKC website and you have to sit for 3 minutes across the ring from your handler in the beginning obedience test, lets just say we have a long way to go! We are up to 40 seconds...guess we have some work to do still.

Penny has also mastered the art of jumping on the couch from a full sprint. Just picture Cynthia eating a chicken finger in the chair and all of a sudden Penny supermaned onto the ottoman next to her head and is nose to nose with the chicken finger.....it was priceless! We were laughing so hard we had to recover to even tell her no!