Nice to know I've learned something in the 6 years since Stitch was a puppy.

Syn came in from the yard this morning joyously tossing something, chasing it, tossing it again. She was having a WONderful time. A niggle of concern began somewhere in my throat, so I put on my glasses. Yep. Fur. With long stringy unfurry bits.

The back half of a mouse.

Here's the part where I know I learned something. I quietly got up, got a fistful of kibble and a Kleenex. I called Syn over and, as she was coming, I dropped the kibble on the floor behind me. She spit out the mouse and was gobbling frantically as I went to pick up the remains. She finished her kibble before I was finished my job, but I QUIETLY and CALMLY and REASONABLY said "no" (our Zen cue), and she immediately went back to see if she had maybe missed a kibble.

Mission accomplished.

And... oh look, she found the front half. Isn't that PRESHUS!

So I cleaned that up too, and then watched as she went back to her toybox/dogbed and searched it with all the moves of someone who had just misplaced her cellphone. Dang, I just had it in my HAND! Where could I have left it?

Guess who won't be licking my face anytime in the near future.

We had some visitors last night. I'm not sure if she was going to do her submissive leaking thing or not - she approached the front hall in an upright manner, not slinking, not looking like she was going to roll over, and not in any way working on a more aggressive grumble (which seems to come before a leak when confronted with strangers - I'm big, y'know, I'm tough, you better be careful... eek, don't hurt me, please, I'm just little). Nevertheless, just as she approached them, I "dropped" a couple of kibbles on the floor behind her. By the time she'd cleaned them up, the strangers were just people, and people are fun.

Eye contact is coming along nicely since I've been concentrating on getting rid of the dance moves. She extrapolated from the leg-chute I was using the other day into thinking that I'd like her sitting as close as possible to me when she gives me contact - well, yeah, that's wonderful!

The figure-8-through-my-legs trick is almost ready to be presented (new puppy class tomorrow night. On the off chance that she doesn't freak out at the new puppies, figure 8 is one of the things I can ask her to do to convince her she's got a handle on the situation). She just needs a hand target to get started now, but she can finish it on her own.

I almost bought her a beach ball the other day. She has a huge tennis ball that she pushes around, but needs something bigger to practise for treiball. In case we ever get a chance to play treiball.

She immediately recognises the side-to-side version of the Come Game, drops her butt and starts ripping back and forth. Usually I call her with an "emergency" call (SYNSYN!) Once in a while I call her with a "real" cue (Syn, Come) and she comes, sits, and gives me eye contact. This game is a headslapper. Why didn't I ever think of this before?

For Relax, she's not going over on her side voluntarily yet, but last night I was able to lure her onto her side on the couch and get her head down as well. Once she'd been rewarded for that position 8 times, she was able to hold the position for 2 seconds while I moved the treat away from her nose and back to it.

That's it for luring. I'm going to try shaping it next.