September 7th 2005 9:59 am
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Dutch has exciting news! He has finally, after 8 months of working on it, learned to shake paw! This is an amazing feat. When we first started in December, he would pee all over himself and me when I would pick up his paw. Because he was abused by his previous owners, anytime you do anything to him that he doesn't understand he gets scared and pees. Gradually the peeing stopped and he would let me pick up his paw while saying "shake". It went on like this for months and months... Then, just last week, it finally clicked for him. At first I thought it was just a coincidence that he lifted his paw at the command, but I am happy to announce that a week later, he happily puts his paw in my hand every time I say "shake"... Even if I don't have a treat in the other hand! He is SOOOO proud of himself. When I praise him he does a little dance and wiggles his butt around in pride. Now we are working on "Speak" which is not for a normal bark, but for his adorable hound-dog howl. This seems to be moving much more quickly and easily than shake did. What a wonderful dog! We are SO proud of him!