Old dogs, new tricks

[Harry Bloomfield]

She has proper tennis balls (1) and squeaky toys to play with, but she has just learned their names. Ask her to fetch her ball and she can now look at one of her 'squeakies' ignore it and go fetch her ball. Ask her to fetch 'squeaky' and that's what she fetches. When she catches, she stands there with it in her mouth and will not bring it back to you until you say 'good catch' - even then, she will likely through it at you.

When she was very young, I somehow taught her 'ready? 1, 2, 3 go' and we would set of at a run. Now she stops at the top, or bottom of a flight of stairs and will not move up, or down without the '1, 2, 3'. She has learned 'wait' and 'stop', you can stop her dead as she tears up or down stairs, or when trying to cross busy roads. 'Over' gets her to cross a road.

If I put something down for her which is too hot for her to eat, she has learned 'wait, hot' to give it time to cool.

(1) I buy her ex-match tennis balls, because they are cheaper and they last. The usual sold for dogs tennis balls she demolishes in five minutes.

 

[Mottie]

Our Susie has her own toy box. All her toys have their own name. Tom Daley (a little tiger that 'dives' off of the sofa), Shrimpy, Boo bear, Fluffy bear, Baby bear, Honk, Foxy bingo, Farting Wilbur, blue ball, blue ball with bell etc etc. I can tell her to fetch a particular toy and she will rummage in the box to get the exact toy.

 

[JP_]

Albie just had his final puppy training class. He didn't win the recall race on time, but made a great effort - there were some much bigger dogs to compete with!

Albie also has some favourite toys - his favourite is still the bear that we took to the breeder 2 weeks before picking him up. He sometimes plays with it like it was another puppy, although less now.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Our Susie has her own toy box. All her toys have their own name. Tom Daley (a little tiger that 'dives' off of the sofa), Shrimpy, Boo bear, Fluffy bear, Baby bear, Honk, Foxy bingo, Farting Wilbur, blue ball, blue ball with bell etc etc. I can tell her to fetch a particular toy and she will rummage in the box to get the exact toy.

I'm constantly amazed that dogs can be taught (or teach themselves) to interpret speech, when it is not a natural inborn facility of an animal. I can say a word, then almost hear the cogs turning as she attempts to translate it.

 

[Mottie]

I'm constantly amazed that dogs can be taught (or teach themselves) to interpret speech, when it is not a natural inborn facility of an animal. I can say a word, then almost hear the cogs turning as she attempts to translate it.

I taught my Susie to spell! Well, to understand spelled commands anyway. I haven’t done this with her for at least 6 months now but I’ve just done it and she still remembers.

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[opps]

(1) I buy her ex-match tennis balls, because they are cheaper and they last. The usual sold for dogs tennis balls she demolishes in five minutes.

Years ago (approx 15 years ago), a customer in Chiswick had a dog that used to chew tennis balls.

One day, the material on the tennis balls clumped together to form a ball that could not pass through the dog's intestines. The dog went off for surgery, ended up catching the dog equivalent of MRSA and had to be transported to a specialist unit. The customer said that the pet insurance company ended up paying £8000.

From memory, the springer spaniel was about 18 months old, they are particularly stupid until they reach 24 months.

I am simply suggesting that you make sure that your dog is chewing the ball rather than swallowing any of it. Whilst not wanting to be a bore- some people suggest that the coating can be overly abrasive on the tooth enamel and question the safety of the dyes used.

I "lost" the last of my 3 dogs in April last year (all three over a period of 3 years). Please appreciate that I just want you to spend as much time with your dog as possible and respectfully suggest that you google the (potential) risks of dogs chewing tennis balls.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I taught my Susie to spell! Well, to understand spelled commands anyway. I haven’t done this with her for at least 6 months now but I’ve just done it and she still remembers.

Marvellous The border collie I have now, cute as she is, is far too lazy to learn unless it is something she wants to learn. She sits listening to conversation and is very capable of picking words out of a conversation that she knows. She knows the spelling of W- A-L-K well enough.

We had a really clever BC, which was desperate to learn any trick you might want to try to teach her, but she only survived three years - she had a brain tumour. She taught herself to duck her nose in the bath water and blow bubbles from her nose and to reach in to pull the plug out, both eventually on command.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I am simply suggesting that you make sure that your dog is chewing the ball rather than swallowing any of it. Whilst not wanting to be a bore- some people suggest that the coating can be overly abrasive on the tooth enamel and question the safety of the dyes used.

I "lost" the last of my 3 dogs in April last year (all three over a period of 3 years). Please appreciate that I just want you to spend as much time with your dog as possible and respectfully suggest that you google the (potential) risks of dogs chewing tennis balls.

She has always chewed them and they would disintegrate, which was why I moved to the ex-match balls which are much better made. She has managed to burst them, but has never managed to get one to disintegrate, like the tennis balls sold specially for dogs. I am not at all worried about her swallowing anything she has chewed, she always spits it out. She especially likes to chew the tubes from the likes of toilet rolls - I always check all the bits have been spit out and they are. She likes to lick clean those hard plastic dishes, which the ready meals come in. Once clean, she likes to tease you by walking around making them click in her mouth, until you manage to catch her and take it off her.