The Power of Cheese over Dogs

My dogs simply go nuts over sliced cheese. They eat the $30 a bag good stuff from Pet Smart, don't beg from the dinner table and yes, have a healthy appetite for milk bones as their reward for using the potty outside. Plus they have a nice dog house and we let them lie on the sofa with us. But give them a piece of cheese as a reward and you can teach a dog anything.


Diggly (l) and Ally (r)

Ally - our really smart and very sweet 8 year lab/retriever knows how to sit, lay down, roll over, bark, go get the paper, get the shoes, fetch ice from the ice maker by pawing at the dispenser and "back door" (when she's at the front door, we just yell "back door") and she comes running.

Mrs. WonderDawg taught her all of these commands via sign language too!

Ally will also hold the back door open when we're bringing in the groceries, shake (left shake and right shake), get the toy, go see (look out the window), listen (to be on alert when somebody's coming in from the driveway), go night night (time to sleep with us in the bedroom), and kitchen (means get out of the living room). She also understands "do you want wah wah" (time for us to refill the water bowl) and ride? which means hop in the car. She loves to go riding, but the car trips are limited to those where I would never leave them alone in a car. That irks me when I see dogs in parked cars.

As for Diglett or Diggy, (our grand dog) she's learning. She knows more commands than she's willing to respond to. She's just too hyper to focus at times. My daughter taught Diggy to ring a bell when she wants to go out. Her reward is a milk bone, but she's playing us. No dog has to go out six times in a row, so with her, it's a up and down game. But to her credit, she likes to take baths - in fact, she'll bust out of the back door and head down to the creek for a quick dunk coming back dripping wet.

Diggy is naturally curious as well. One time, I picked her up and showed her the stuff on our shelves thinking that a dog needs to experience a whole new world four feet and above. Now she wants jump in my lap and sniff around the desk. leaving dog hair on the keyboard.

Where was I going with this? Right - one can teach any dog with cheese. Those really expensive doggie pills wrapped in cheese makes things better. Thanks Kroger for the 3 packs of 16 individually wrapped cheese slices for $5.00.

We taught Ally how to talk also. Our previous dog Abby ( a homeless and extremely grateful terrier) could say "Hi!" to anybody who came to the door. Ally has this deep aggressive voice that emits a "woo woo ah wooooooo wah wah wah" phrase when we offer up some cheese. One time we got Megan to record an anouncement on the answering machine with Ally chiming in. "Thank you for calling the ... woo woo ah wooooooo wah wah wah ... residence. No one is home now, so please call back!" Unfortunately, my mother-in-law, the dog lover that she is, hated it. We got tired too of all the hangups.

Oh look - Ally is talking!