Learning about my "Place"

I had a wonderful lesson with my teacher yesterday! She said Momma and I are doing really, really well! One of my new things to do is "place". We had tried to do it before, but we weren't very good at it.

Teacher said the trick was to have "place" be a slightly elevated spot with hard sides, to help me understand the boundaries and not get confused. We used an elevated pet cot -- you know, those mesh beds that are sometimes used outside to keep you off the ground. Well, when momma guided up to the bed and said, "Abby place!" I hopped right up! I liked the cot, and with only a few tries, I stayed! Momma and teacher walked around, clicked and treated, walked around more and told me I was good!

Then it was time to get off, so Momma said, "Ok, off!", and I stepped down. Then we started over!

Anyway, Momma got me a cot of my own, and just left it sitting there until today. This afternoon, Momma realized something might be wrong with the air conditioning, and our repairman was available and said he would come. Momma thought this would be a great chance to start practicing "place", so she got me into position about 20 minutes before he arrived. When he came, I just layed there! I didn't even bark when he came in the house. Momma even left the room several times.

I only messed up one time -- we didn't know he was in the attic and when he made a big noise I jumped up -- but Momma told me to go back and I did! And then the repairman went in and out a bunch, and I stayed put!

Momma thinks it is because I knew she had everything under control -- I didn't need to protect our home because by telling me to go to my place, she was letting me know that everything was okay!


I just wanted to share what I learned and that I did it without question. I wasn't afraid, Momma didn't need to correct me, I was calm and rested, and I got LOTS of clicks and treats!!!!

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