Party Tricks

For a baby dog, you wouldn't think Jam had the diplomatic skills of an ambassador in him, but he does. Last night he attended a dinner party, that, while not held in his honor, was the equivalent of his coming out party.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
We had been practicing his sits for a week and he was getting quite good at them. The Come command still required a GREAT deal of enthusiasm on our part to get him moving. But the big deal was that we had figured out the potty training. Locationally, if he was off of the tie down and was in the family room, he would go to the back door. However, if he was in the kitchen, he would go to the small stairs. Any move to the small stairs triggered us moving him outside which became a successful pee break. Yea!

But the Sit command was key. He was going to have to sit to be greeted by the guests.


Here Jam waits for the first guests to arrive.

THE PLAN
Our plan before the guests arrived was to have everyone arrive and be greeted by Willow upstairs. Jam would remain downstairs with Fred.

PARTY NIGHT
Carrie and Greg were the first to arrive were eager to grab him and love on him. But they were very good and ignored him liked we asked until he calmed down and was able to sit to be greeted.

In fact, everyone was super about ignoring his amazingly cute face and sweet little puppy body and hoping that he would calm down quick (it didn't take too long). They were also good about stopping any petting if he started to bite, which is important as we don't want him to get in the habit of mouthing and biting people who pet him.

So all in all, the meet and greet was a big success! Yea team! Let the puppy hugging begin.



Carrie turned out to be the puppy whisperer as she put Jam to sleep by her massage-like petting technique!



It was a fairly amazing technique and Jam was uper-cute. Here Linda goes in for quick pat, but then can't resist a puppy hug.

The evening was almost over before Ken got a chance to hug Jam.

Ken had been very good and was just petting him when Jam was in a sit or when he was wandering by off leash.

It was way past Jam's bedtime and he was very sleepy. Time for all sleepy puppies to go to bed.

The Importance of the Stay Command

Last Monday I had an appointment with a lady parts doctor. Monday being one of my bring Berkeley to school days meant that she was coming to the doctor's office with me. Not a problem. She has been much more mature since her puppy camp with John and Angel and seems to be barking less and not being so autocratic.

Good for us!

This was a new doctor, so I had to go to their concierge services to be checked in first. Berkeley went into a down under without a problem and went right to sleep for the whole interview. Good girl.

Then we went up the elevator and into the waiting room where we waited patiently to be called. The nurse looked at us a bit funny, but decided that she would choose to ignore the dog at my side completely and made no mention of her AT ALL. I thought this a bit strange, but, hey, whatever gets you through the day. Berkeley decided to snub her as well and when we hit the examining room she did a down under the chair and a stay and went to sleep.

When the doctor arrived, he was delighted to see Berkeley and asked all sorts of questions about her. She poked her head out and thumped her tail a few times (she is quite the tail wagger), but ultimately decided that our discussion was boring (read: didn't involve her) and went back to sleep.

At this point the doctor stands and gets one of those full coverage (ha ha!) paper sheets and says I need to take off my skirt and he will come back to do the examination. Berkeley is still in a down stay under the chair and is still asleep, so I disrobe and jog over to the medical table with the sheet around me sarong style. The examining table is about 10 feet away from where Berkeley is sleeping under the chair. Berkeley is directly in front of me and to my back is the door where the doctor will come through. Now that I am half naked and on the table I am starting to realize that I have made a huge error in judgment but am unsure if I have time to correct it or even how I can correct it. Will she STAY? Do I have time to jump off? Should I jump off? Is she deep asleep? Should I test it?

Before I can try anything, the doctor walks in and Berkeley comes ALIVE!

"People! People have entered my realm!" She emerges from under her chair. I half stand on the examining table and get a blast of cold air on my bare behind. I sit down quickly.

"BERKELEY! STAY!" She barely registers that I am there. After all, I am half naked and nearly shouting, she is Her Royal Highness. Why would she deign to see a naked crazy person yelling commands when there are professionals in the room?

She walks towards the doctor. "Stay!"

"It's alright. She's pretty." I gnash my teeth. Did I ask if she was pretty? NO! I have no panties on! I can't get off this table! I can't do anything.

"Berkeley, come here." That she recognizes. She finally looks at me and walks over. I bend over, carefully mind you, and grab for her leash. However, the examining table is REALLY TALL. This is a bad idea. I see this. The lady parts doctor sees it and so does the unseeing nurse who still is trying to act like there isn't a dog in the room.

"Just let her run free," my doctor says.

Ah, what the hell. This will be an interesting examination.

Note: There will be no photos for this post.

A Sad Sit Down

Bingo is spending another quiet day with me. No classrooms, no kids, no teachers. Just me and my computer. We spent the lunch period outside, working on a few commands but mostly just sniffing around and having fun, at least at first. I had some sad news for Bingo, and I wanted him to be in the best possible mood before I talked with him.

We got the letter several days ago. Cheryl didn't have the heart to tell him, so it was up to me (as usual). And I'd been rehearsing all morning, but I just couldn't think of a good way to sugarcoat it. "Sorry, buddy," I blurted out to him as we walked back into the house, "it's time for you to get fixed."

He seemed to take it pretty well at first. After all, only a few dogs get into the breeder program. But now he won't even look me in the face. Here he is, poor guy, doing a Sit - Down like he just lost his best friend.


Update: We had dog treats at 1:30 and he licked my face. Things are looking up.