The Cookie Chronicles I Chapter 23-Tricks and treats

Not long after Cookie had settled in, and I’d become infatuated with the idea of dog ownership, Mrs. G presented me with a slim volume entitled “101 Dog Tricks: Step by Step Activities to Engage, Challenge, and Bond with Your Dog” by Kyra Sundance and Chalcy.

“Wow,” I thought, “this is just what we need!” If the title hadn’t already hooked me, the cover photo of a lovely chocolate brown Weimaraner with a newspaper in his mouth and a look that said, “Here’s your paper – anything else I can bring you?” would have sealed the deal.

“Learn training secrets from a renowned trainer and the world’s smartest dog” it said – no small claim, especially since I knew that I already owned the world’s smartest dog. But leaving that aside, I was ready to jump in with teaching Cookie some tricks. Among the tricks promised were “Answer the Phone, Bring the Remote and (of course) Fetch the Paper.”

Being new to all this, I decided to go with something more basic. How about Roll Over? That’s a good, all-purpose starter trick, I thought. But it turned out to be a bit more difficult than it sounds. First off, in order to roll over, you have to be in a Down! Position. So, we actually had to start with that. Now Down! is not the toughest trick in the world, nor the most impressive. It’s mostly a function of your dog learning that particular word without you having to press her backside into the floor.

Cookie picked up on Down! Pretty quickly, especially when there were treats as rewards. But we ran into problems with Roll Over. Once you have said the D-word and your obedient friend is on her stomach waiting for the treat, it becomes challenging to actually roll your dog over while repeating that command. A struggle ensues, with four paws flailing in four directions and possibly some unplanned howling as well.

We postponed that one and moved on to another sure-fire dog standard – Give Me Your Paw! For reasons unknown, Cookie almost instinctively seemed to understand that one, as well as the follow-up “Other Paw”. In fact, she grabbed hold of that concept so quickly that any time we sat her down to run through trick training, that was the first thing that popped up. Didn’t matter what I asked for, here came the paw. She developed a rapid-fire bang bang paw paw approach, all but battering me with proffered paws before the words were out of my mouth.

So, we had to backtrack a bit by inserting a keyword – GENTLE! – into the command. Gentle turns out to be a very useful concept because it applies to such things as how the dog takes a snack. With consistent effort, Cookie learned to be gentle when a bit of food was offered, and over time the shotgun paw flinging slowed down enough to give the appearance, however fleeting, of being a response to an actual request.

Much of her trick training occurs right after Cookie’s daily brush, part of a well-worn routine. Brush dog – do tricks – offer snacks – feed dinner – now it’s playtime! And clearly, after the better part of a decade, progress has been made. For example, it eventually dawned on me that trying to learn Roll Over on a slick wooden floor was a big part of the problem. No traction. So, we moved that one to the living room rug and Cookie got a grip on it.

She also picked up on Jump! and Twirl! And Up! with relative ease. For Jump, I used a short stick, first on the floor, then raised slightly, more each week until a good jump height was found. Cookie is a natural-born twirler, and for some reason, has no trouble standing up on two legs. In fact, she can stand up on her two front legs as well as her two back legs, something we noticed while she was dispensing pee-mail on our neighborhood walks.

At this point, we’ve added Speak, Wait, and Sit Pretty to the repertoire. And my favorite – Trade. One day, while having lunch with Cookie, the thought crossed my mind that instead of just giving her snacks or running through the usual tricks, I’d challenge her with a new concept. So, I said, “Cookie, do you have anything to trade for a snack?” At which point, she ran off, grabbed Mr. B, and dropped him in front of me. Apart from the ease with which she quickly swapped her wingman for a bit of bacon, I was impressed. And Trade is not one of the 101 Step-by-Step Activities to Engage, Challenge, and Bond with Your Dog. That one is a Cookie original.

Because Cookie is, you see, the world’s smartest dog.