Spike and I played find it again today. First with just a toy - of course he did it well, but it was too easy... so... I thought why not teach him to find my keys? I hid them in an easy spot then sent him on his job. He searched and finally found them, I was watching and could see that he had trouble picking them up. Dooh - I didn't do a practice just picking them up a few times first. So backtrack a bit and practice the pickup. Then I hid them again. This time he showed up with keys in his mouth looking pretty proud of himself. A few more tries inside... then... outside. That's a pretty big jump in difficulty, but he had no trouble with the transition. We did a simple find, and then I hid them behind the truck. After just a bit of sniffing around (maybe a minute), he found them and brought them to me. What a good boy :-) We did another try later in the afternoon when the other dogs were out and we were just puttering around the yard. Success again. We'll work on more difficult finds over the next while. Then I need to pair the find with a name, like the socks, otherwise, when I lose my keys how will he know what I'm asking him to find - what is IT?
Yesterday I didn't practice the calendar pickup first, which again was an oversight. On further thought I remembered that when he used to come to work with me I'd have him carry reports to Jo Ellen, just to give him something to do. He's got a good memory (perhaps better than mine!).
The snow has melted enough (after a few days of +8C) for us to get down to what is left of the weeping willow. Oh so sad - it has cracked in half and looks like what remains of the tree will die as well. Carm, with a bit of my help, will have a big job this spring bucking it up into firewood. It is lying on the electrobraid fence, but I know the fence will just bounce back after we remove the tree.
Lazy Ways perfectly describes my day today (and all the days since I got home) : this song from 10cc (one of my favorite bands) was playing this afternoon and described my day perfectly- I couldn't find a youtube version that would play on my tablet, so here are the lyrics instead:
Hazy Days
With Lazy Ways
You get less done but more
Out of your days
How can you work yet avoid
Getting out of your lazy ways
You'll never get up if you don't get up
You'll always stay down if you sit around
You'll never get up if you don't get up
You'll always stay down if you sit around
Hazy Days
Lazy Ways
We got less done but more
Out of our days
How can we ever recapture the feeling
Of lazy ways
You'll never get up if you don't get up
You'll always stay down if you sit around
Where nobody cares and nobody tries
'Cos a daydreams resting on the back of your eyes
On the back of your eyes
Taking five
Bring love to me
With your body
Let me hold you
Endless, endlessly
You'll never get up if you don't get up
You'll always stay down if you sit around
Where nobody cares and nobody tries
'Cos a daydreams resting on the back of your eyes
On the back of your eyes
Hazy days
Lazy ways
You get less done but more
Out of your days
Crazy days
Lazy ways
