Raven’s Bell Ringing Project Progresses
Raven is ringing the door bells.
She concentrates very hard on the job.
And like anyone who works hard, deserves to be paid for her dedication to the task at hand.
Doberkids
Raven’s First Targeting Lesson
Here are some pictures of Raven’s first lesson on her way to learning to ring the door bells. She first has to learn to target. That is to touch her nose on an object. I will use my palm as the target today.
First, I lure her to touch my hand by concealing a treat.
After she catches on, I keep the treats in the treat bucket, instead of my hand. When she touches, I click and grab a treat for her from the bucket. She’s doing a good job.
When I walk away for a moment, and turn around, what do I find? Raven up to her usual antics!
We end the session on a high note. Raven is still looking to do more. When we start next time, she will associate my palm, the clicker and treat bucket with a really good feeling from her first training session.
Raven’s an eager Dober-beaver!
Tying up loose ends
I found Lilian’s bowl this morning. I had needed a bowl to put the old breakfast dog kibble into so I could pour the new bag in. Habit solved the mystery!
Weeks ago, Raven knocked over my papaya tree. The roots were separated from the trunk, but I replanted it anyway, hoping it would revive.
Today my hopes were dashed. When I saw the trunk had tilted, that gave me the clue. The fat lady sang.
Wrapping it up, this evening when I arrived home, I let Raven out and she turned and blocked the door so my Doberdame couldn’t exit. I told Raven to back off, but did she? Noooo. So I threw my empty soda can at her feet. What did she do? Grabbed it, ran with it, squashed it, and when I came back out, spat it at me feet.
Not to be outdone, and still on her “big bowl” high, Lilian grabbed the can and ran with it.
Finally, Ginger got a turn at coveting it, shortly before I put it in the recyclable cart.
Lilian’s Bowl – a rewrite
This morning I needed a dog bowl for something, so I picked the one closest to my hand. It happened to be Lilian’s. Lilian, on a scale of 1-10 of Doberdivaness, is a 10. And bless her soul, she has an only-child mentality, but is living in a Brady Bunch environment.
I try to indulge all my dogs’ personalities. With Lilian, I make her feel special with such things as a unique bowl and being served dinner first. Her bowl has circular indentations on the bottom to help cool her food faster on hot-food days.
I had pretty much already used up my allotment of brain cells faster than usual on this day, so when I looked for it at dinner time, I could not find Lilian’s bowl. Nor could I remember what I needed a bowl for in the first place, so no tracing my steps. I haphazardly looked in the closet, under rolling crates, in Ginger’s stashing spot, and I even thought I may have tossed her bowl in the trash earlier while wondering whose turn it was to participate on our next bath day. No bowl in any of these places.
Though I am stubborn, there came a point when I gave into the fact that the bowl was hiding beyond the range of my GPS … or ESP. The point came when the hungry faces staring at me were dragging drool strands along the tile. So I pulled a bowl from the rafters and set it in Lilian’s food-fixing place.
Actually, the bowl came down earlier when I used it for de-boning the chicken thighs from the slow cooker. This was an added perk to the Doberdiva because she not only got her portion of the stew, but got extra soupy-stuff to lick off the sides. Brownie points for the cook!
Lilian was impressed with her monumental bowl.
Raven, on the other hand, is not speaking to me.
Hahahahaha! If that were only true! Hahahahaha!
Lilian’s Bowl