Trick 6

Dog Blog Post #229: I tried for too much this week.

I had Henry on a course to learn a trick, decided to try Zachary on it (yet again - it's one he's had a hard time with in the past), then foolishly started not one but two other tricks using both dogs, and started one last trick with Henry.

Any guesses how it all turned out? (sigh)

Sooo... with that cheery preamble, the trick of the week is:

Roll Over

A classic, if there ever was one. Beau learned this one in just a few days, and if you Click Here, you can see a video not only the final trick, but the Big Dog learning how to do it! I used luring then, and I used luring this week with both Zachary and Henry, in much the same fashion.

Henry made good progress at first. Such good progress, I decided to give it try again with Zachary, who, somewhat surprisingly, also made great progress. And that's when I went off into tangent-land, not to emerge again until Saturday afternoon, suddenly remembering that I had to have something finished by Monday night.

Uh oh.

I am relieved to say that with concerted effort (and a wee bit of luck) Zachary did manage to learn it well enough to at least make a video to grab clips from, but you can tell by my all-to-obvious hand and my hunched back that I have yet to fade the luring motion into something a bit more... dignified.

We'll continue to work on it this week and hopefully finish off Henry as well. He can do it, but not reliably, and not without a bit of warm-up.

As for the rest of the tricks, one of the "two dog" tricks will hopefully show up next week.

And I'm going to be a very good girl, and not take on any more until all the rest are done.

I hope.

On to The Daily Shoot:

Use a window or a door as a frame for your subject today in a photograph.

First Power Plugs, and now Window and Doors. What's next, Houses???

I shouldn't complain, however. At least this one is easy to do with dogs. In fact, I had several ideas for this one, right off, and for the most part, they all came out. First we have:

"Can We Help You?"

... it certainly met the criteria, was clear, I thought the dogs expressions were cute, and there wasn't anything ugly in the background. A definite possibility.

Next we have:

"I'm Gonna Tell!"

 Yes, that really is Henry going "through" the screen door. Think of it as a cheap doggie door. Since bugs aren't that common where we live, and unless someone is going through it the screen hangs straight down, this is actually a really nifty thing. (The screen isn't ripped, it's just not pushed into the groove in the frame.)

This way, we can enjoy the pleasant weather, and not have to keep getting up to let the dogs in/out!

There were a few shots of them looking out the front window - not bad, but nothing to write in a blog about, and finally we have:

"Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard"

... my favorite of the bunch. The camera was on a tiny tripod (4-6" high) sitting in the cupboard and looking out. I used the 2 second timer to give me a chance to put a cookie on the self to keep Henry (little sit-n-stare) focused then get my arm out of the way.

I never did get a shot of Zachary doing this, as one of his favorite tricks is closing the cupboard door for me. (Talk about mutually incompatible behaviors!)


(Editors Note: and for those considering their own iPod shots, a hint: The earbuds weren't actually in Zachary's or Henry's ears.)