I was thinking I really should teach Jayda some formal obedience this winter…

Not that I haven’t taught her anything – I’ve taught exercises in bits and pieces, as a diversion more than methodical, goal-oriented training. Hey – Jayda’s an exceptionally OBEDIENT dog, if not an obedience-TRAINED one :).

I have managed to haphazardly teach her some very nice retrieving skills, so I thought maybe I’d introduce her to metal scent articles ….

BLEH! ICK! YUCK! EWWW! PTHOOEY! You want me to put THAT in MY MOUTH???

Fortunately Bryce is all too willing to retrieve anything (as long as he’s well paid for his efforts) so after a little “monkey-see, monkey-do” training (and LOTS of cookies for Bryce) I had Jayda fetching the metal article. Still not with great enthusiasm – despite the cookies she’s not QUITE convinced that this is “fun” yet. It probably doesn’t help that my articles were sized for Sally’s dainty muzzle. They fit Bryce just fine, but they’re just a tad smaller than ideal for Jayda’s, um, “sizeable” schnozz.

Update 11/27/06: I must have been pretty convincing, because now she’s starting to “table surf” for it! Stands up and “steals” it off the table where I leave it and walks around proudly before bringing it to me. Bryce is jealous – he can’t reach that high!