Leaping golf clubs in a single bound

Jumping for joy

Maddie has springs for legs. She amazes us as she leaps over us to get on and off the couch.

So when Rob got out of a couple of golf clubs the other day, I thought I’d try to teach Maddie to jump over one.

It didn’t take too much work to get her to do it, just a demonstration by Rob and some treats and Maddie was vaulting over the club.

The funny thing is she will only jump over one way. If she jumps left to right, she crawls under to go back the other way. If she jumps right to left, she’ll do the same thing.

Selective memory?

Why do dogs seem to forget ‘roll over’ after they learned it? Maddie twice now has forgotten it after being a roll over expert. She just will not do it any more, even when there’s a treat involved. One of the dogs on our play date Sunday has the same issue. Do they just not like doing it? Or is there something else to it?

Teaching young pups new tricks

It is such a wonderful feeling when hard work pays off.

I try to work with Maddie on tricks every day, to increase her resume and also to keep her mind stimulated and challenged.

She mastered sit and stay during obedience training when she was four months old. Down came a little later — she was confused because we initially used down when telling her to get off of us or furniture; the correct command for that is off.

The next thing we learned was roll over. It was not long before that was part of her skill set, and she was rolling over every time we had a treat for her, whether we asked her to or not.

Soon after, paw was mastered. She will give either paw depending on what hand you hold out.

Suddenly, though, she stopped rolling over, trying to get away with a little twist and jump instead.

So for Christmas, I bought book of 101 dog tricks for Maddie and Rob, thinking they could have lessons at night after dinner when I returned to work. While the two of them do some work together, Maddie and I are the ones who have learned the next two tricks.

We have successfully relearned roll over — with occasional relapses to our twist and jump. And, after days of hard work, we finally got beg (or sit pretty)!

Now that is all she wants to do when she knows you have a treat for her. Rob and I mix things up, though, to keep her thinking and to stay out of a routine.

I am so proud of us!