Fun With Fetch

Today we were stuck with some typically fickle Minnesota March weather.  Yesterday most of the snow had melted out of our yard.  A spring storm blew in last night and dampened our spring fever with a foot of wet snow.

After shoveling what felt like a foot of wet concrete off the sidewalks, I decided that the dogs and I could play indoors for the rest of the day.

We started with an easy trick.  I had Audie pick up Mark’s slipper and fetch it to me (yes, my guy has huge feet).

Cute puppy with slipper.  It’s fun, it’s sweet – but it’s not terribly exciting.  So we kicked it up a notch.  I had to tighten the exhaust on the boiler at the training center.  I put Audie to work holding the crescent wrench while I adjusted the flange.

That’s more like it.  A heavy, steel wrench is a bit of a challenge.  But my boy was ready for more, so we headed back home.  My nose was running after being out in the cold.  Hey – let’s see if I can get him to fetch me a tissue!

First he has to pull it out of the box (this took just a bit of coaching), then sit up nice to hand it to me!

That went so well, we decided to go on to the laundry.  Will my smart dog take wet clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer?

He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to stick his head into the washing machine (proving, yet again that he IS a smart dog), so I helped him by pulling clothes out toward the door.  At that point, he was perfectly willing to take them.

OK, mom – I’ve got this thing, now what do you want me to do with it?

You want it in here?  OK, we got this far.  He’d take it out of the washer, carry it to the dryer – then just stop.  My bad.  I haven’t taught him to pick up an item, take it to a location away from me and drop it yet.  We’ll work on that piece and come back to this later.

In the mean time, maybe we can work on just one more chore:

This is a much better alternative to drinking out of that silly white bowl!

Zip has had more time to work on fetch skills.  Her favorite trick is “Find The Remote”.  Give her the command and first she looks for it:

There is it!  Good girl, now grab it…

And bring it me!

The old dog’s only job is to be gorgeous and charming.  As you can see, he does it with great skill.