Thankful Thursday: Advances in Training

I'm very thankful today because we seem to be advancing well in Mom's training.  She's finally starting to come around, I think.  

As proof, I give you the following photo.

Do you see what I've done here?  It's really amazing.

Mom and our neighbor and me all like to sit outside near the playground and swimming pool.  If we sit there for a while, I might get thirsty.  So, they brought a bowl of water for me.  And I might get bored, so they brought me a toy.  And just in case I wanna chew on something, I've got a bully stick.  And if I get hungry, my neighbor also has a stash of mini Milkbones in her pocket!

The best part, however, is that very fluffy rug I'm sitting on.  Oh, yes.  No hard, crunchy ground for my little spoiled tushy!

We've had a bad drought here this summer, and the area in front of that bench is really just a pile of dirt.  My furs turned gray the last time we sat there because of the dirt and dust.  So, Mom and our neighbor brought a super comfy rug for me to sit on so I won't get so dirty again.

I'm really doing well in training Mom.  And our awesome neighbor, too...

Nocturnal Shih Tzu

Mom says "Nocturnal Shih Tzu" sounds like a good punk rock band name.  It also, in her opinion, describes me perfectly.

I have a tendency to wake Mom up at night.  I do it for fun reasons, too.  For example, I bark if I want Mom to turn on the light so I can go down my doggie stairs from the bed.  When it's time to go back up the stairs, I bark again. I have to be able to properly see my stairs!

Sometimes I wake Mom up by rolling on toys on the floor.

Or if I'm hungry, I wake her up, of course.

Or if I just wanna play for a while and I'm bored of playing by myself.

And then there's the obvious -- potty break.

Mom just doesn't understand.  She gets all bent outta whack about it, too.  Says she needs her beauty sleep.  But what else does she expect me to do??  Go down my stairs with only the light of the little night light?!  Or be content playing by myself?  Or...horror...NOT go potty?!

And then she gets all grouchy with me in the morning, too, when I snooze while she's getting ready to leave for work.

Not my fault.  It's her job to work for the kibble money.  It's my job to snooze and protect the living room.

And I might add that I'm very good at my job.

Mom just needs to figure out a way to nap at her job, too...

Hunger Strike!

Mom decided -- foolishly, I might add -- that my canned doggie food was too expensive and not good for my teeth.  She also seemed to think I didn't appreciate it anymore since I left some in my bowl occasionally.  So you know what she did???

She gave me PLAIN OLD KIBBLE.  Now, I got plain kibbles before, but at least she put canned food on top to sweeten the deal a little.

But not anymore...

Blech.  Seriously.  Just plain old kibble...

I gave her a look.

And I pleaded, of course...

Turned on my "pathetic" charm.

Mom added something wet to my kibbles and then she cooked it in the microwave.  But I decided to remain firm.  I would NOT touch that nasty kibble.  I want my canned food back.  Not touching the icky dry stuff...

I'm turning up my nose that that stuff and I'm going on a hunger strike!!!

Nooooo icky dry kibbles!!!

MOM MUST LEARN!!!!!!

OK, so maybe when Mom left the kitchen I got desperate. And she caught me in the act.

Oops.

How embarrassing.

Hunger strike begins again tomorrow.

Puppy Snack Mix

Way back when I first got adopted 2.5 years ago, I trained Mom to give me treats at bed time.  Mom used to give me some of my kibble pieces as my snack.  But then as her training advanced, I convinced her to break out the good cookies instead of those healthy kibbles.

Well, she foolishly decided the other day to try to switch me back to the kibbles.

She began trying to sneak it past me by making a puppy snack mix out of dry kibbles and yummy cookies.

I was excited at first, expecting my nightly cookies.  "Gimme those cookies, Mom!"

I investigated the mix.

Started to nibble...

Nibbled some more...

Licked the sheet to make sure I got all the good stuff...

Yawned while licking my lips...

And I do believe I showed Mom exactly what I thought of her new tactic.

Then I glared at her.  "That is NOT going to work. I am NOT eating the kibbles."

I made sure I didn't leave any cookie crumbs...

And then I glared at Mom once again for giving me kibbles.

Seriously.  Give me good cookies.  That's how I've trained you...

Advances in Training

Not long ago we ran out of my ducky cookies.  We should NEVER run out of my ducky cookies!!!  That's a rule around here.

I think, however, that my training of Mom is coming along nicely because THIS arrived in the mail:

See what Mom did?  She bought FOUR bags of ducky cookies (and two bully sticks).  I think she learned her lesson.  (It's just a shame I had to give her the stink eye so much before she figured it out.)

Oh, yes...the training is coming along nicely...

There's No Way Mom's Leaving...

Mom thought she needed to go do something, and she was going to just leave me here all alone at home.  I disagreed with her plan.  

Like the tactic I used?

I'm a Princess who needs adequate attention.  When Mom thinks she's gonna leave and I think she shouldn't...I just plop down in front of the door!

Ain't nobody getting past ME.  Mom's going to learn one of these days...

Living Room Furniture

Mom took this picture of me earlier today because she thought I was funny, rolling and rolling away.

Here's a close-up -- a belly shot for ya. (Yes, my legs are always delicately crossed when I roll.)


Ignore that black wire. That's just our cable cord.

I napped for a bit after I rolled.


So after Mom looked at these pictures on our computer she came to a strange realization. When you see something every day, you sort of ignore it. But sometimes when you look at a picture, it can hit you over the head.

I'll show you that first picture again to see if you can figure out what struck Mom as being a little odd...

If you counted correctly, you'll note that I now have FIVE dog beds lined up in a row. And a princess tent. And another dark brown bed that you can't see -- it's on the other side of the red one.

Yep. That's right. There are SIX doggie beds and one doggie princess tent in that part of the living room.

And that "part" of the living room is actually about half of the room because our living room isn't very big.

I've conquered the living room. Oh, yes. I have Mom trained well...and I think it's obvious just who is in charge here...

Stink Eye

Here's my new tactic to get Mom to give me more toys...

I just give her a look like this:

Then I tell her that if she gives me a new toy, then nobody gets hurt.

I'm sure it'll work...

The Mom and the Kibbles

You know that story of "The Princess and the Pea?" Well, I've written my own version. I call it, "The Mom and the Kibbles." Here it is...

The Mom and the Kibbles

There once was an adorable, always-right Shih Tzu named Buttons. Buttons lived with her Mom, and even though she had only been with her forever family for a year and a half, Buttons had her Mom pretty well-trained. (She discovered early on that Mom had a weak spot for sad puppy eyes, and that really helped speed up the training.)

Each night at bedtime, Buttons got cookies. These were special kibble cookies because Buttons ate prescription doggie food for her bad allergies and tummy troubles.

Even though the cookies were kibble pieces, they were still VERY yummy as far as Buttons was concerned.

One night, Mom didn't sleep well. All night long she kept dreaming that she was sleeping on rocks or that things were poking her in the legs. She flip-flopped through the night, trying to get comfortable.

As Mom got out of bed the next morning, she thought about her funny dreams. She pulled back the bed sheet to investigate and discovered...KIBBLES!

Buttons hadn't eaten all of her kibble cookies at bedtime, and since Buttons liked to scoot to the middle of the bed during the night, the kibbles had followed right along. Those rocks that Mom dreamed about were actually the kibble pieces poking her!

Mom was not happy. Not happy at all. In fact, she banned all kibble cookies from the bed from that day on.

The moral of the story: Always finish your bedtime snack.

Now I gotta go practice my sad puppy eyes to see if I can get my kibbles back in the bed each night...

Lady Bug

Mom reached another important step in her training today. I think she's finally learned that she can't bring home shopping bags unless there's a doggie toy in 'em. Ahhh...success!!!

She brought home some groceries today. While she was putting stuff in the freezer, I started rooting through the rest of the bags. Sure enough...I found a squeaky lady bug!

Here I am playing with my new toy...


Oh. Guess you can't see it very well, huh? He he he.

The bed attacked me a few minutes later, though, and the toy escaped. So here's what the lady bug looks like.


That pic also gives you a good look at the work I've been doing tearing the foam off the bottom of my bed. Yes, I'm ornery.

Anyway, back to the lady bug... It's a requirement that all new toys need to be rolled on. So, of course I had to do that for a while.


And here's a great pic of me telling Mom to back off from my new squeaky toy!


Mom's made some definite progress in her training, don't you think?

The Drama Queen Tactic

Tonight I practiced another tactic as part of the ongoing training of my new Mom. This was a move that my sister Lexi taught me before she passed away. She used to do it all of the time and it worked like a charm for her.

And tonight it worked like a charm for ME, too. Wonderful tactic for my arsenal!

Here's what I did...

I had to go you-know-what outside. So, I made Mom walk out into the middle of a really snowy area until I found the perfect spot. While Mom was picking up the you-know-what (and if you don't know what, I'm talking POOP!), I wandered off a bit to explore.

But who really wants to walk back through that snow and get your paws all cold and frozen? So when the poop was bagged, I employed the "Drama Queen" tactic. I acted like my front leg was broken. Refused to budge...held up my paw...and looked at Mom with big, pathetic eyes. She reached down and rubbed my paw to warm it up. Then I immediately acted like a back leg was broken instead. More rubbing of the paw. Then the other back leg was broken. Finally, I wore her down and she just picked me up and carried me out of the snow.

Mission accomplished.

Tonight's score... Mom: 0, Buttons: 1.