Odie learns to lie down

Odie had a bath today. Deservedly so, he was starting to stink. Not like it's a punishment but Odie's no Newfoundland, so he's rather adverse to water. But he got his wash anyway. Got rid of the smell but somehow he ended up shedding a lot of hair in the process. I think it's the warm water. Had to give him a good brush and there was dog hair everywhere. I think some of it got stuck in my left nostril.

My blog seems preoccupied with Odie of late. I know, it seems that's all I seem to do for the last few days, is spend more time with him. I've been teaching him to lie down . I was expecting him to do it in one week but he's learnt it in two days, two thirty minute sessions. I'm impressed as all this while I thought he was a dumb dog but seemingly, he's just willful. Even now, he won't lie down immediately. He'll wait and see if you would back down with your request before he complies. The key to training a dog tricks is to never let him get away with disobeying you. You have to mean it or he won't listen to you. As you can see from the video below, Odie will try and have his way first.

Training Odie has been fun. It's been satisfying to see him actually understand what you're saying to him. Then there's the part where I have to figure out how to make him understand what I want him to do, creating pathways of associations. Actions that generate rewards, and counter actions that generate the abscence of reward or a negative reactions. Having seen a few episodes of Super Nanny, I'm starting to draw parallels between child discipline and dog discipline. The methods for training either are actually very similar. All very Pavlovian.

Anyways, I'm off to play some Halo3, which I must say, is somewhat overrated!

Good night.