We start retrieving today. Work half a meal on touching the dumbell in my hand. For the second half, I put the dumbell on the floor and click her for looking at it, moving toward it, and touching it on the ground. She figures that out very quickly. It’s fun. Between that and the response to my UH, I’m starting to feel like we’re communicating.
And tonight, she follows me into the dog room, watches me give Scuba her goodnight cookie, then runs ahead of me to her ex-pen and jumps up onto the dog bed with a flourish, obviously waiting for her own goodnight cookie. She’s finished it and asleep before I get the lights turned off. Tomorrow I’m going to take down the ex-pen and start putting her in a crate for the night. I’ve got various sizes, one slightly larger than the puppy carrier. Amazingly, in only one week she’s gotten big enough that the carrier would be a squeeze.
Stitch: “This is how we lie down. We both lie down. See, we both lie down together! Me and my buddy, lying down together!”
Scuba: “Are there adults anywhere in the world? Will I ever have a meaningful conversation again?”