PET TRICK CHALLENGE WEEK 1 TRAINING SESSIONS #1 & #2

For our second training session I started out by having Kodi lie on his blanket and handing him the corner of it. He already knows the commands take it and hold it so this step was quite easy as well. I told him in my cheerfully, encouraging voice ‘Kodi, take it!’ while handing him the corner of the blanket. Once he took it in his mouth I told him to hold it. After just a few seconds I praised him and rewarded him for his great job with some treats and hugs. He was so proud of himself that you could see the bright twinkle in his brown eyes. There is nothing Kodi loves more than pleasing me. And I can’t thank him enough for how incredibly special that makes me feel.

I was feeling so happy that Kodi picked up on the trick so quickly that I decided to take things a step further. After asking him to grab and hold the blanket I asked him to rollover. I expected him to spit the blanket out of his mouth before he rolled over but to my surprise he held the blanket in his mouth and rolled over, perfectly executing the trick! My sister and I were in complete shock! Meanwhile Kodi stood up, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth and his pearly whites gleaming for the whole world to see. He began trotting around us with the blanket still draped across his back, as we cheered and praised him for his wonderful accomplishment. With the blanket like that he kind of looked like a doggy superman. We ended the training session on that wonderful, spectacular note.

For his third training session I videoed it. I continued on having him grab the blanket and hold it. He did a marvelous job and only got distracted once when our neighbors dogs began barking. Kodi ran to the edge of the fence to see what all the fuss was about. Once he was certain they weren’t in our yard and were still safely in theirs he trotted over to me and nudged my hand with his nose asking if we could continue to train. We once again did another repetition of him holding the blanket. He did fantastic so I thought I would try and attempt to see if we could have a repeat performance of his second training session. I once again asked him to rollover while holding his blanket in his mouth and… he dropped it before he rolled over. All I could do was laugh and smile at his grinning face. He was so certain he did what I had asked. And in a way he did. I know I was pushing him to soon and pressing my luck by asking him to perform it flawlessly once again before he truly even knew what I was asking of him.

I think that’s what I love most about dogs. They remind you to have patience and enjoy every little moment, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant. Every little moment is something to be celebrated and Sir Kodiak reminds me of that every day. We are taking things slow with this trick now and I have promised him that I won’t push him to do the next step of the trick before he’s ready. After all, these are two difficult tricks I have chosen for him to learn in just four short weeks. If he doesn’t quite learn them before then that’s more than fine. It’s about the journey, NOT the end result. We’re just going to enjoy every little moment along the way.

Check out a vid of our third training session: