Boy, howdy.

My name is Sue Eh and I'm a lumper. Chartered member of Lumpers Anonymous.

A couple of weeks ago I worked a bit on getting Syn to retrieve a dog bucket with her dinner in it. I got her to retrieve the bucket a couple of times, then I did a couple of Hand Zens, and then I put the kibble in the bucket. I thought she was slightly afraid of the bucket.

Well, today I noticed that when I ask her to get her bucket, she confidently and cheerfully backs away from it and sits oh-so-politely at my side. She's doing Bucket Zen. No way no how she's going near that bucket unless I put my hand on it and specifically hold it out to her. Did I tell her not to touch the bucket? I THOUGHT I was telling her not to touch the kibble IN the bucket, but of course, not speaking English all that well, that's not what she heard.

So we spent half her breakfast shaping her to look at the bucket, go toward the bucket, touch the bucket. When she finally managed to pick it up, we had a huge party and ran to the pantry to put the rest of breakfast in the bucket.

Welcome to the Flat Forehead School Of Dog Training.

By the way, she started something cute yesterday. When I suggest it might be breakfast time, she starts leading my to the pantry, talking a mile a minute and looking back over her shoulder to be sure I'm coming along.